Inspired by a True Diva

How do you write, direct, and star in a Céline Dion biopic without losing your nerve? First step: Change her name.

- RACHEL HANDLER

THE FILM ALINE, which premiered last year at Cannes to an audience both baffled and delighted and which was deemed “scary” by The Guardian ahead of its April release, defies simple explanation. It is about a woman who looks and acts and sounds like Céline Dion. This woman’s life includes many of Dion’s own pivotal moments: discovery as a gawky but preternaturally talented young girl by a much older manager who eventually becomes her ponytailed husband; a “makeover” and an ascent to international superstardom; a Titanic performance at the Oscars; a Vegas residency. But here, her name is Aline Dieu and she is played in a César-winning performance by French writer-director-star Valérie Lemercier at every stage of her life—including at age 5, shrunk down and warbling at a family wedding. If Lemercier had gotten her way, she would also have played Aline as an infant.

A Dion obsessive who co-wrote the film with her frequent collaborator Brigitte Buc, Lemercier says Aline was “freely inspired” by the singer’s life, though she takes some strange creative liberties: scenes in which Aline gets lost inside her own mansion or reveals a long-awaited pregnancy by carving the letters BB into a bowl of her husband’s carrot purée with her hands. Lemercier pitches her performance somewhere between earnest homage and camp imitation, mimicking Dion’s spontaneous, limb-flinging dance moves and wide-eyed energy. But she insists she is not making fun of Aline or Céline— instead, she sees Aline as a tribute to a fellow artist grappling with the highs and lows of stardom.