Optimum ***

THAT Serge Gainsbourg revelled in his well-earned ribald reputation there can be no doubt - what's amazing is that he got away with it in the name of art.

This silly, shallow, salacious, corny caper is at once excruciatingly cheesy and unintentionally brilliant.

The petite, boyish Johnny works in a remote diner where she meets moody refuse collector Krassky and his boyfriend Padovan. Lonely, Johnny embarks on a faltering relationship with Krassky that's fraught with physical complications.

Gainsbourg drives the simple plot with brutal frankness and pads it out with surreal red herrings but those of fairly robust sensitivities will find there's much to enjoy.

Nick Churchill