Comedian Valérie Lemercier is aware of individuals assume it is bizarre that she performs a personality primarily based on Celine Dion in any respect ages of her life, beginning at age 6, in her new movie, “Aline.”
After the unauthorized biopic debuted on the Cannes Film Festival final 12 months, journalists have been confused, shocked and entertained abruptly by the challenge. A Vanity Fair reporter (*6*)known as it “one of the strangest approaches to a biopic I’ve yet seen.” The Daily Beast described it as wanting “like the French equivalent of a Will Ferrell movie.”
Lemercier, who is a well-liked slapstick comedian in France, mentioned she thinks the humor in her movie, which debuts in theaters Friday, goes over the top of those that have been important.
“The first character I wrote was a child,” mentioned Lemercier, who wrote, directed and stars within the film. “A thing I love to do is play children. It’s surprising for you … but in France people know that I often play small girls. It’s, for me, something funny to do. Maybe it’s a little bit freaky, I know that.”
In reality, she mentioned, she nearly took the bit even additional — she needed to play Aline at 6 months outdated, as a child with one tooth, sleeping in a drawer.
“My producer asked me to cut it,” she mentioned. “But maybe one day.”
The course of concerned digitally adjusting Lemercier’s physique and face for age appropriateness in post-production. Onscreen, it seems to be, as The New York Times described it, as if she has been “shrunk to Hobbit size and Facetuned into near-oblivion.”
I’m taking part in her in any respect ages, with all my physique, my palms, every little thing.
Valérie Lemercier on her position
“It’s not my own face on a child’s body,” she mentioned. “I’m playing it with all my body. It’s visual effects. They reduced me. I’m playing her at all ages, with all my body, my hands, everything.”
Sometimes, Lemercier mentioned, there are not any results in any respect.
“At the school I only had a big desk. … My paper is bigger,” she mentioned, referring to a scene that takes place in a classroom. Or “when I’m singing, I have a big microphone,” she added.
The visible results course of in post-production took six months, she mentioned.
Lemercier mentioned that to these within the U.S., the place Dion had a residency at Caesars Las Vegas for 16 years, the singer was at all times thought-about “glamorous.”
“That wasn’t the case in Quebec and in France,” she mentioned, the place Dion turned well-known as a baby.
“She was a little bit strange at first. At first she was like an adult. She had problem with teeth, with hair everywhere. I didn’t want to play only the glam singer. I wanted to show [the] growing pains of adolescence.”
Humor apart, Lemercier mentioned she additionally needed to make the movie a “tribute to Celine.” In addition to exhibiting Aline’s profession rise, it highlights the relationships she has along with her Quebecois household, with 14 youngsters, in addition to along with her manager-turned-husband, Guy-Claude (impressed by Dion’s late husband, René Angélil).
“I think for me, a main thing of a life, it’s love,” Lemercier mentioned. “Of course this story couldn’t have been without that love story. … This career couldn’t have been without that love story. [And] she fell in love very early.”
She mentioned she researched Dion extensively.
“I was a fan, but I didn’t know everything,” she mentioned. “And I became a great fan … when I spent time to read the book about her mother, her husband and about her, of course.”
Dion has not commented on the movie, which has gotten blended responses from those that know her. Dion’s relations spoke out towards the movie, criticizing it for factual inaccuracies, France24 reported.
“I think it’s difficult to see your own life,” Lemercier mentioned when she was requested about their reported response. “If I were Celine I wouldn’t go quickly to see the movie.”
But, Lemercier famous, “of course, that’s why I changed every name.” At the top of the day, “it’s not real.”
She mentioned she usually desires about Dion and Angélil. But if she have been to meet Dion in individual, it will be “really a dream.”
She mentioned she would attempt to strike up a dialog by complimenting Dion’s footwear, which might probably be good.
But, Lemercier mentioned, “I would be so shy.”