This strange unofficial Celine Dion biopic is coming to Cannes

We are not above bowing down before Canada’s First Lady of Song but the new — unofficial, unauthorized — biopic about Celine Dion’s life takes it a step further. The film, titled Aline Dieu, basically deifies Dion, granting her godlike status among her fellow pop stars and musical icons. (In case your high school French is failing you right now, “dieu” translates to “god.”) The film had a premiere back in October of 2020 in Lyon but will undoubtedly make a bigger splash and reach bigger audiences when it reappears for an encore at the Cannes Film Festival early in July.

Cannes is one of the top film festivals in the world, catering mostly to industry types rather than the general movie-going public. So even the fact that the film will screen out of competition for Cannes prestigious awards like the Palme d’Or and the Un Certain Regard title, it still has a chance to garner major attention. TBH, it already is… though perhaps not the kind most filmmakers dream of.

The trailer for Aline Dieu is dropping jaws at the moment… not in awe as much as disbelief. There is a certain unreality to the clip, of a kind that even veteran critics, cineastes, and Dion superfans are scratching their heads over. 

Perhaps it’s the blatant use of Dion’s own songs. Perhaps it’s the mega-strange way the relationship between the singer and her late husband and manager René Angélil is portrayed. Perhaps it’s the actual relationship between Dion and Angélil (she was 12 when she began working with him, 18 when they began a relationship, and 26 when she married Angélil, her senior by 28 years). The relationship takes centre stage in the movie — it’s the thread that follows Dion through her win at the Eurovision song competition all the way through to worldwide success and acclaim.

“We made fun of the Celine Dion-René Angélil couple a lot,” said the movie’s director and star,  Valérie Lemercier, “especially on their age difference, some saying Celine was just an object for him. But of course, it was much more complicated than that. When I wrote the film, I too fell in love with René,” she told French paper Le Figaro (via The Wrap).

If, unlike us, your heart can go on after watching the above trailer, know that Aline Dion will get a theatrical release sometime next fall.

BEFORE YOU GO: Celine Dion dishes the deets on what she will be wearing for her return to the stage

[video_embed id='2200386']BEFORE YOU GO: Celine Dion dishes the deets on what she will be wearing for her return to the stage[/video_embed]