‘Insane’ and ‘horrifying’ Celine Dion biopic receives five-minute standing ovation at Cannes

Unauthorised film casts 57-year-old actor to play ‘My Heart Will Go On’ singer at ages five and 12

A bizarre Celine Dion biopic in which a 57-year-old actor plays the singer at the age of five has received a five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.

Aline, which stars and is directed by the French actor Valérie Lemercier, was unable to secure the rights to Dion’s name, yet is significantly inspired by the French-Canadian singer’s life. As a result, she is named in the film as “Aline Dieu”.

Premiering out of competition at this week’s Cannes Film Festival, the glitzy unauthorised musical left critics and audience members baffled yet intrigued.

“Aline was kooky as hell,” tweeted Vulture’s Rachel Handler, who also dubbed it “a truly weird delight” while admitting that she “felt horror” at certain moments.

Among the life events recreated in the film are Dion’s marriage to her manager René Angélil (though here he is called “Guy-Claude Kamar”), an incident in which she got lost inside the enormous mansion she bought for herself, and the time she sang “My Heart Will Go On” at the 1998 Oscars.

One of the stranger decisions was to feature Lemercier, 57, playing Aline at all stages in her life, including as a five-year-old and later at 12. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” wrote Kyle Buchanan in The New York Times. “As a cinematic presence, pre-teen Aline looks less like our main character and more like she’s ready to terrorise Vera Farmiga in the next Conjuring movie.”

“Even the film’s more straightforward dramatic scenes are still tinged with a bit of insanity,” he continued.

“The image of a 57-year-old actor playing a 12-year-old Celine Dion in Aline should be carved onto the side of the Cannes Palais,” added Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson.

“I’ve seen the Celine Dion #Cannes2021 movie Aline and I will never be the same,” tweeted Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh. “Magnificent camp!”

Despite the film not having the rights to Dion’s name, it does confusingly feature a fair amount of her music, including a cover of “River Deep, Mountain High”, a number of French-language songs and “My Heart Will Go On”.

Other films to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival include a documentary told from the perspective of a cow, a musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and the long-awaited sequel to The Souvenir.

Aline is currently without UK distribution.