The film “Aline” is broadcast on TF1 this Sunday, November 5 at 9:10 p.m. Inspired by the life of Céline Dion, did the singer approve Valérie Lemercier’s feature film?
Valérie Lemercier puts herself in the shoes of Céline Dion… or almost. In Aline, her latest film broadcast this evening, she plays Aline Dieu, the double of the Quebec singer. In this faux-biopic, the viewer follows the life of a huge singing star, freely inspired by the life of Céline Dion, from her childhood to the death of her husband and music producer.
Aline had achieved critical success in France. Valérie Lemercier’s performance even earned her the César for best actress in 2022. But what does the main interested party, Céline Dion, think? The latter has, according to the latest news, not seen the feature film and has not reacted publicly to the film dedicated to it.
At the time of the film’s release, on November 4, 2021, Valérie Lemercier said that Céline Dion was aware of the project and the release of the film. “She even said that she wanted to see him,” she assured at the Gala microphone. “I don’t think she knows who I am at all, but, of course, I’d like her to see it. I did it for that, too.” She also claims to have written him a letter, without knowing if she read or received it.
If Céline Dion has not seen Aline (in any case, she has not made it known), members of her family have seen the feature film. If the director assures that the singer’s entourage read and appreciated the script before the film’s release, certain members of her family strongly criticized this false-biopic when it was released.
Michel and Claudette Dion denounced “inaccuracies” in the events reported in the film and “humor that goes too far”. Faced with these criticisms, Valérie Lemercier wanted to remind La Presse that “it is not a documentary, it is fiction. It is said at the beginning of the film: there are things that are not true , which come from the imagination of Brigitte Buc and me, who wrote the screenplay.”
Among the scenes that we see in the film Aline and which do not correspond to the reality of Céline Dion’s life, we can cite the way in which René Angélil asks her to marry him, but also the singer’s brothers, “concentrated in one because we cannot have 25 main characters in a film. Making a film also means making choices,” defended Valérie Lemercier.
Aline, by and with Valérie Lemercier, is broadcast on the TF1 TV program this Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 9:10 p.m. It is also available for purchase and rental on most VOD platforms.
