I could never tell if my friend the French actor Eric Elmosnino was amused, annoyed or merely bored when he was ribbed about being born to play Serge Gainsbourg. Although Eric’s scruffy appearance bears a strong likeness to the late singer-songwriter in his early years, it was the prominent bump in his nose that invariably evoked the profile of the eternally hip French legend.

Eric’s Gainsbourgesque nose bump did not escape the attention of the producers of Serge Gainsbourg: Vie Héroïque (see trailer), directed by the influential comic book artist Joann Sfar, and they sure as hell wouldn’t let it escape the attention of the Parisian public. The poster for the biopic (to be released in France on the 20th of January) features a stark image of Eric-as-Serge in profile, the spotlit outline of his nose set off by a dark shadow. That nose, anywhere from 1 to 5-feet high, depending on the poster format, is plastered everywhere: You can’t travel 100 meters in Paris, above- or underground, without bumping into it.

Eric’s acquaintances may no longer poke fun at his Gainsbourgesque nose, but others may find themselves staring at it in the poster, wondering if he had it expertly broken or enlarged for the role by a plastic surgeon. Might this reverse form of rhinoplasty be de rigueur in the new decade? Or will it be more of a fashion bump than a lasting trend?

Turns out Eric was fitted with a prosthetic nose and prosthetic ears for the role (see Paris Match interview with Eric and Le Figaro interview with the director). Even his schnoz was judged inadequate for a convincing portrayal that appears to mythologize Gainsbourg’s outsized features. Whatever the motives of director Sfar, whose comics are often inspired by his Jewish heritage, it is refreshing that a famously big and, yes, Jewish nose – so long a target of ridicule and caricature – is held up in the Métro of Paris as an emblem of cool.