Valérie Lemercier tells Thrillist why she wanted to play Céline Dion as a 5 year old.
WhenAlinewas announced as part of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival lineup last June , it immediately was the kind of thing you justhadto see . An wildcat biopic of Céline Dion direct by and star a French comedian ? sound pretty baseless . What festival goers experience exceeded first moment . The now-57 - year - old Valérie Lemercier not only plays Aline Dieu , a very lightly novelize version of the Québécoise chanteuse , she plays Aline Dieu from childhood through maturity . Not in aBoyhoodkind of style — in aCliffordkind of way . Vanity Fair’sRichard Lawson called it“one of the strange approaches to a biopic I ’ve yet see . ” TheNew York Times ’ Kyle Buchanansaid it was “ right away iconic . ”
Now you’re able to finally see it for yourself whenAlinehits theaters this weekend , and , honestly , Alinelives up to all the superlatives it ’s received . A trip down the unearthly valley to a parallel universe where the vocalizer of “ My Heart Will Go On ” is not quite herself , Lemercier has centeredAlinearound the beloved account between Céline and her belated married man , René Angélil , call Guy - Claude in the cinema and portray by Sylvain Marcel . The fact that he began managing Dion when she was 12 before they coupled up when she was 20 is strange and uncomfortable enough , made stranger by the fact that here , the untested Aline is roleplay by a 50 - something woman . “ The first sequence on the bed , I say , ‘ Do n’t forget , we are 55 each , ’ ” Lemercier tell over Zoom . " I am three month older than the actor who plays Guy - Claude . "
To essay to unpack what is destined to become a cult classic — but has also already won Lemercier France ’s top acting prize , the César award — I spoke with the brain behindAline .
Roadside Attraction
Why make a movie about Céline Dion?
Lemercier first fall in love with Dion ’s music thanks to the singer ’s 1995 French language recordD’eux , but it was n’t until Angélil ’s funeral that she started call back about making a moving-picture show based on the womanhood ’s lifetime . “ I saw , as millions of people did , René ’s funeral on telecasting , and I was very touch by the unexampled loneliness of tattle , ” she says . So she determine to make a movie . “ I spend a portion of time , night and day , during months and months , watch over , reading books about her , but also about Réne , about Mother , who was a very interesting character , ” she articulate . “ About also Canadian Québécoise culture . ” Some of Dion ’s sibling havetaken issue with the mode their family is portrayed . InAline , the phratry is comically large and are engorge into a diminutive house . " The moving-picture show says how much I look up to and love Céline and especially her syndicate and career and everything , " Lemercier counters . Lemercier could n’t use Dion ’s real name , but it ’s signally the work of a fan .
Why did Lemercier play Aline as a child?
Without the context of use of her calling , Lemercier ’s decision is gravel . With circumstance , it makes alittlemore sensation . Lemercier is best known in France as a resist - up comedian . In a way , this is like if , say , Amy Schumer decided to play Adele in a biopic calledClaudele . Lemercier has a chronicle of playing kids in her human action , so this is not unusual . Lemercier explain that her case is not superimposed “ on the babe body . ” It ’s all her . Occasionally , when behave against other adults , she is digitally reduce . Other time , she is surrounded with oversized props as if she wereAlice in Wonderland . “ When I ’m signal the records , they made a large records , I have a big playpen , ” she say . “ When I ’m singe , I have a cock-a-hoop mike . ”
Her desire to act as Aline from 5 through adulthood was based in an oddly empathic reasoning even though she ’s playing a child ’s awkwardness for laugh . “ I did n’t desire to spiel only the glamourous Isaac Merrit Singer , ” she says . “ I desire to take a part of the growing nuisance of adolescence , which was my case when I was a small girl and people were express joy about my body , about my nozzle , about a hatful of things . ” Her doctrine of analogy : “ If I were a lawyer , I did n’t require to send my assistant to do the speculative job . ”
And what about Céline Dion’s music?
Roadside Attractions
