The French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg , who died in 1991 , contained multitudes. He wrote and performed melodic ditties in a variety of subgenres, with lyrics full of provocative wordplay. His contrary nature and his alcoholism fueled bad behavior, like when he drunkenly propositioned Whitney Houston on French television.

His first film as a director, “ Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus ” in 1976, debuts in New York in a new restoration this week. It shares its title — roughly translated to “I Love You, Me Neither” — with one of Gainsbourg’s most famous (if not best) hits. Its premise is a tad out of left field, even for him.

Set in a near-desert region dressed to look like a De Chirico vision of the American West, it features Joe Dallesandro — fairly fresh off his long stint as a Warhol Factory hunk — as Krassky (nicknamed Krass), a garbage hauler who tools around with his lover Padovan, a lunk who likes to carry an empty plastic bag around with him.