The late Serge Gainsbourg’s status as a brilliant songwriter, a generation-straddler and a man of contestable sexual morality has remained so forceful in France that filmmakers have long viewed the creation of his biopic too daunting of a task – until now.

Vie Héroïque, or Heroic Life, released in theaters across Europe this week to an overwhelmingly positive critical reception, chronicles Gainsbourg’s life from the time he was a young child in Nazi-occupied France until his death. There’s no scheduled U.S. release date yet, but the myriad intricacies of the making of the film itself might be interesting enough to tide us over as we wait. Take a look:

• Who was audacious enough to attempt a Gainsbourg biopic? You probably haven’t heard of director Joann Sfar because he’s primarily a comic book artist and Vie Héroïque is his first crack at the big screen. “I knew it was perhaps a foolhardy thing, to take on the life of Serge Gainsbourg,” Sfar said.
• Sfar isn’t the only one trying out new things -- the film marks Universal’s maiden voyage into French cinema.
• Jane Birkin, the British cultural icon and mother of Charlotte Gainsbourg, is upset by what she feels is the film’s inaccurate portrayal of the late singer’s life. She wants a disclaimer placed on the film describing it as a “folk-tale” rather than a biography.
• Sfar initially hoped to cast Charlotte Gainsbourg -- who's rising the ranks of film and music today -- as her father, but she declined.
• The film’s release has been clouded by the tragic tale of Lucy Gordon, a British actress who played Birkin but killed herself last May, just weeks after filming was completed.

Not satisfied? Head over to Gainsbourg’s Wikipedia, where you can read about the time he told audience members of Michel Drucker’s live show that he wanted to “fuck” Whitney Houston, who also appeared as a guest on the program that same night.