Valérie Lemercier did not allow herself to be reached by the virulent comments of Claudette and Michel Dion, who demolished her comedy Aline by deploring that their family was portrayed there as “a gang of Bougon”. “It’s a fiction,” recalled the French actress and director.
• Read also: Our review of Aline: a tribute to the Diva
• Read also: Aline and Céline: the true and the false
Claudette and Michel Dion created a shock wave by delivering their first impressions on Tuesday evening Aline – film freely inspired by the journey of their famous sister Céline Dion – on the set of the show The week of 4 Julie.
Arguing that Valérie Lemercier had “paid for a nasty trip on the back of Celine’s life”, the two members of the Dion clan said they did not recognize their family, nor the house of Charlemagne in which they grew up, presented like a cabin.
Claudette Dion added some on Wednesday by denouncing the Newspaper the “factual errors”, the “lack of research” of the script and the “bad taste” humor of the feature film. She even confided that she wanted to leave the screening at the start of the film.
“When I saw my parents on an unpainted balcony of an old cabin, I wanted to leave the room right away,” she recounts. Our house in Charlemagne was not a cabin. It is true that we were not rich, but we did not live in poverty like what we see in the film. “
Photo QMI Agency
Valerie Lemercier
A fictionalized story
Interviewed at Newspaper Wednesday, Valérie Lemercier did not want to react directly to the words of Michel and Claudette Dion.
” I did not watch [leur entrevue à la télé], but I’ve heard of it, she said.
“I said from the start that this film was fictional and that there are a lot of things that have been invented and fictionalized. What interested me was having a little freedom to tell this story. It is cinema, a fiction. I’m not going to apologize for existing and for making this movie. […] I was very careful to pay tribute to him [à Céline] and never to spoil her and her family. I don’t think I messed around with the world. “
Valérie Lemercier assures that Claudette and Michel Dion’s comments surprised her but not saddened her. “I prefer to look on the bright side of things,” she slips. After the Tuesday night premiere [à la Place des Arts], I also received testimonials from very close people [de Céline] who were very moved and who liked very much. “
For Danielle Fichaud, who plays Aline’s mother (character inspired by Maman Dion), everyone is entitled to their opinion. “But I think they [Claudette et Michel Dion] were too caught up in their story to understand that it is fiction. Personally, I prefer to remember the number of people who told me that the film was a beautiful representation of Quebec and that the character I play was the mother or grandmother they would have liked to have. “
Unsurprisingly, the question of the approximate Quebec accent often comes up in reviews published in Quebec. The French actress expected it and said she was ready to live with these reproaches. “We know very well that I am not from Quebec and that my accent is not perfect. But I did not try to imitate Celine’s voice and her way of speaking, ”she concluded.
Aline takes on thursday.