Valerie Lemercier on how she wrote, directed, and starred in the not-quite-biopic.
Alineis in theaters April 8.
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It is about a woman who looks and acts and sounds like Celine Dion.
If Lemercier had gotten her way, she would have even played Aline as an infant.
I wanted to speak about the artists life, which is also mine, says Lemercier.
Youre alone when you go out.
The changing rooms in the theaters are awful.
There are no windows.
Its not very glamorous.
I wanted to speak about all of that.
You take some artistic liberties with Celine Dions life, starting with her name.
Why didnt you want to do a straight biopic?I changed the name first.
My co-writer said to me, Change the name.
It will all be easier.
And, in fact, it was.
Celines younger than me.
I changed her name to be more free.
And I preferred to make small digressions.
To make a movie, you need strong images and symbols.
Its between something true and something untrue.
I didnt know anything about Celines life or her love story.
Just the beautiful songs.
I didnt even know her English repertoire.
I saw Celine onstage for the first time while I was writing the script.
I was really struck by the performance, by the voice.
There are books this thick on Rene and her mother bigger than the ones about Celine.
There was so much material: the love story, the family story, the success story.
Have you met Celine before or since the movie?No.
She liked it and said, I see how much you love her.
But Celine didnt want to read it.
She doesnt want to see the pictures of our actors or be part of it.
I understand why she prefers to not see the movie.
I hope she will see it one day.
Because, of course, I did it for her.
If her manager had said, I dont like this, would you still have made the movie?
Did you feel like you needed that permission?It would have been difficult.
But that was not the story I wanted to tell.
I wrote it as an homage.
Dieumeans God in French.
Was that a bit of a wink, a joke about her elevated status?No.
It was not a joke.
Its just close to Dion.
Some people really are named Dieu.
What were some other details you invented?
For example: Did Rene actually propose to Celine by putting a ring inside an ice-cream cone?No.
In the film, she meets him just after she goes ice-skating, wearing her mothers gigantic shoes.
She was not ice-skating right before she met him.
I think she had normal shoes on in real life.
But I wanted to explain why she has 10,000 pairs of shoes.
And its also a comedy, so I wanted funny things that were not bad for her.
Its fine to laugh about my ownmaladroit.
I think its not funny to do that to a poor little girl.
When Im signing records, we used big records.
And we took off my wrinkles.
Onstage, Ive played a lot of kids and teenagers.
Its one of the things I love to do.
Of course, it could be strange for Americans, because you dont know me.
But in France, they know Ive played that kind of character.
So maybe its more funny for us.
My producer asked me to take that out.
One time I will show it to you.
Because it was so funny.
For me, its a big regret that its not in the movie.
They met when she was 12.
Probably if I cast a small girl, it would be more embarrassing.
The first night they sleep together, people said, Ooh, this sequence is very strange.
I said, Remember, we are both 55!
Sylvain is older than me by ten months.
Theres a makeover montage and a lot of conversation about her looks and the need to fix them.
I was in the countryside, and a lot of children looked the same, and I did not.
But she became a butterfly.
Her mother said, Youre the most beautiful little girl.
And Rene told her all the time that she was the best.
If you become beautiful, its because of the love of the people who have confidence in you.
You really embody Celines natural wackiness.
Can you talk to me about finding that tone?
Because its a fine line youre not making fun of her.I think we did that in editing.
The script was funnier, more of a comedy.
But I wanted to mix funny and sensitive.
We know all along that Guy-Claude is going to die.
The day we edited the death, I came back very sad.
It felt like it happened to me.
Victoria Sio provides Alines singing voice.
It was likeThe Voicewith no names attached.
She was letterB,and she was really the best.
They told me, She works a lot.
She will be easy to direct, and that was the case.
Of course, she was obliged to sound near to Celine, but I wanted to hear her heart.
I wanted her to be in the song.
I think she had the most difficult job of that movie, to make 16 songs.
Theyre not complete in the movie, but we did it for the record.
What was the process of matching up your performances to her vocals?
Did you lip-sync to her?She was singing to match me.
I was alone in 22-centimeter heels.
And I was crying.
I was really in the songs.
I was totally, 100 percent in the songs.
How did you mimic her physicality?I watched tons of videos.
I would watch, watch, watch Celine.
It was in my body.
But the other songs, I did alone.
I was in her head and her body, and I know how strong she was.
I am not so far from her physically.
Im taller, and I am probably bigger, but its not too contrary.
When I saw a picture of me as a small little girl, we really are the same.
We have the same big nose, small mouth, big arms, big hands, feet.
I couldnt play another singer.
Also, although we speak the same language, we dont always put things the same way.
As you may know, Quebecois movies come to France with subtitles even Xavier Dolans.
So we reached a compromise: I asked the Quebecois actors to speak as if they were more French.
If you put in the real expressions from Quebec, it would be too distracting.
I dont speak about maple syrup.
I didnt want to have any limitations for Celine.
And you were concerned about showing this film to different audiences: French, Quebec, American.
They know less Celine than us.
It really was funny even at Guy-Claudes death, there was laughing.
The Japanese are very crazy about the little girl.
I dont want to be loved, I just want to be understood.
I heard two of Celines siblingsthought the film was disrespectfulbecause it painted her as growing up in squalor.
Whats your reaction to that?Its difficult to say.
We proposed to the Quebec distributor to have the family see the movie all of her brothers and sisters.
And they didnt want to.
Of course, they didnt recognize Celine in the film.
Because not everything is true.
I think its very difficult when youre so close.
Alines house is not exactly the same as Celines.
I know she didnt leave her house through a window wearing her wedding dress.
I never wanted to be unkind.
I spent all my energy to make her onscreen family a good family with love.
Renes family loves the movie.
Celine and Renes son, Rene-Charles, requested a copy of the film.
Have you heard from him?We gave something to him but I have no news.
What would you say if you could meet Celine now?First Id say, You have nice shoes.
And afterward, well see.
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