ALINE FILM. Aline by Valérie Lemercier, fake biopic on Céline Dion, is nominated for 10 César in 2022. However, the singer from whom the film is inspired did not speak on the subject.
[Mis à jour le 25 février 2022 à 20h30] With AlineValérie Lemercier set herself a completely crazy challenge: to propose a true-false biopic of his idol, Celine Dion. And as much to say that the bet is brilliantly successful, since the feature film is nominated 10 times for the César 2022 (Best film, best director, best actress, best actors and actresses in a supporting role…). Despite the critical success of the film in France, the family of the Quebec singer took a stand against Alinedeeming this fake-biopic insulting to his family members.
For her part, Celine Dion has, it seems, not seen Aline. In any case, unlike the members of her family, she did not react publicly to this fake biopic which is dedicated to her. When the film was released on November 4, 2021, Valérie Lemercier declared to Gala that the singer “knew the project, knew that the film was going to be released soon”. “She even said she wanted to see it. I don’t think she knows who I am at all, but, of course, I would like her to see it. I did it for that too .”
The director, who also plays the leading role, explained in Le Télégramme that Celine Dion’s entourage had read the script and appreciated it. However, that did not prevent the singer’s brother and sister, Michel and Claudette Dion, from stepping up to denounce “inaccuracies” and “a humor that goes too far”. Valérie Lemercier reacted to the daily La Presse by recalling that “it’s not a documentary, it’s a fiction. It is said at the beginning of the film: there are things which are not true, which are the order of the imagination of Brigitte Buc and me, who wrote the screenplay.”
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Synopsis – Quebec, end of the 60s, Sylvette and Anglomard welcome their 14th child: Aline. In the Dieu family, music is king and when Aline grows up we discover her a gift, she has a golden voice. When he hears this voice, music producer Guy-Claude has only one idea in mind… to make Aline the greatest singer in the world. Supported by her family and guided by the experience and then the budding love of Guy-Claude, they will together write the pages of an extraordinary destiny.
Aline’s bet was daring, and if we are to believe the critics, Valérie Lemercier takes it up brilliantly. On Allociné, the feature film received a rating of 4.1/5 from the press, very largely won over by the biopic. Among the positive reviews, note that of the Parisian who salutes “a great film and a true declaration of love for Celine Dion”, when “this very personal biopic is a success” for Ouest France when La Voix du Nord describes “a very nice fan-film which turns out to be incredibly touching”.
Note, however, that Valerie Lemercier takes some liberties with Celine Dion’s life, which is why the film is called Aline and isn’t entirely a biopic of the singer. 20 minutes thus notes “liberties taken with reality […] but she treats her with great respect. His film is in no way parodic. It touches deeply.” “We laugh, we cry, we sing, we dance, and we cannot say which, Valérie or Céline, bursts the screen.” The specialized magazine Première finds, however, that “the musical scenes, surprisingly straight, lack madness. But this restraint has the advantage of leaving the field open to a fantastic band of Canadian actors unknown in our latitudes (Danielle Fichaud, Sylvain Marcel, Roc LaFortune…) who give the film its extra soul.” Céline fans Dion and the others should be seduced!
In Aline, a film that looks back on the phenomenal rise of her fictitious alter ego and her romance with her manager, producer Guy-Claude (during René-Angélil in reality), there are logically several sung sequences. If these are played by Valérie Lemercier, it is not the actress and director who gives voice to Celine Dion’s hits.
The songs from the movie Aline are performed by Victoria Sio. The singer has a few titles to her credit, but it is above all for her roles as Isabelle in the musical “The Sun King” and Queen Anne of Austria in the musical “The Three Musketeers” that she is known to the public. In C à vous, Victoria Sio explained that “Valérie’s will [Lemercier]it was to find a voice that comes close to Aline – which comes close to Céline -, but not to do an imitation, because, in any case, Céline Dion, there is only one.” The public will he be able to make a difference?