You may love Celine Dion, hate her, or laugh at her madly, it can’t help but appreciate Aline by Valérie Lemercier. This beautiful film, presented out of competition in Cannes and then in Angoulême, offers a fictionalized biography of the Quebec singer that Valérie Lemercier embodies from early childhood to adulthood under the invented name of Aline Dieu.
The latter looks like Celine, sings like Celine, marries an older mentor like Celine, is an international star like Celine… but she’s not quite Celine. “Changing my name allowed me to feel more free to tell her story”, explains Valérie Lemercier to 20 minutes.
Love in songs
The actress and director wrote her screenplay in collaboration with Brigitte Buc (co-author of Royal Palace!) by emphasizing the love Aline feels for her companion without neglecting the details of her artistic life.
Victoria Sio, discovered in the musical The sun King, lent her voice to Valérie Lemercier for the sung parts. “Our complicity was total, specifies the latter. She was able to give an interpretation of the songs that corresponded to the emotions that I wanted to express in the film. “
Emotions, Aline is full of them. This film on edge is not a parody. Valérie Lemercier is as inhabited by Celine Dion. She did not want to meet her before the shoot, but she studied each of her performances to achieve a hallucinatory mimicry. The viewer soon no longer knows if he is dealing with Aline Dion or Céline Dieu! “I wanted to deliver a vision between fantasy and reality, insists Valérie Lemercier, but in no way make fun of Céline. “
A benevolent film
This is whereAline surprises and moves. The sincerity of Valérie Lemercier in her love for the singer is communicated to the entire film. Touched by the loneliness of Celine Dion after the death of her husband, the director reveals the woman as well as the star. “She touched me,” she admits. And there was something deeply moving about her relationship with René Angelil, they were so closely related. This is what emerges from this tender film, an ode to family and song. Aline often brings tears to my eyes while amazed with its sumptuous musical numbers and superb reenactments. This benevolent film does good. Simply.