La Presse in New York | So alone, Céline

(New York) All by Myself. This is certainly the common thread of the documentary I Am: Celine Dion (I am: Celine Dion), which depicts Charlemagne’s diva as a lonely woman, isolated during the pandemic and prisoner of a rare illness, with devastating effects on her work instrument.

The director of the film, Irene Taylor, whom I met on Tuesday, shares the vision of this lonely and lonely Céline, who carries a heavy secret.

“Before revealing her diagnosis, Céline was going through an extremely difficult period where she was no longer performing, where she didn’t know what she had and where she was taking a cocktail of medications to be able to walk and talk. I wouldn’t call his loneliness pathetic, it was more of an existential loneliness. She had lost her connection with the world that came through her fans,” explains Irene Taylor, who entered Celine Dion’s bubble between the fall of 2021 and 2022.

Where were Céline’s friends during this dark period? His brothers and sisters? His relatives ? There are staff around her, of course. But who among her bodyguards was looking after her?

There is a terribly sad scene where Céline, draped in a long floral dress, listens to Maria Callas, lying on an outdoor chair, as if she were about to take her last breath. Only her dog Bear, a female golden retriever, comforts her.

This 1h42 film, which is released on June 25 on Prime Video, shows a lot of the 13-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy, and almost no René-Charles Angélil. Céline’s dog almost becomes a main character, always asleep at the feet of his famous mistress.

The dog was always with her. I joked that Bear was his audience of one. Céline was walking around her house in sweatpants, sliding from one room to another and Bear followed her everywhere.

Irene Taylor, director of I am: Celine Dion

Spoiler alert: the beautiful Bear died prematurely after filming the documentary. The credits also mention it.

Despite the dark passages you have just read, I am: Celine Dion is not a depressing work. The portion on stiff person syndrome ultimately takes up less screen time than the retrospective of the 56-year-old performer’s successful career. In short, it’s more of a complete biography than a diva’s fight against uncontrollable spasms.

We reconnect with the fashionable and funny Céline when she opens the doors to her clothing warehouse, filled with designer pumps and designer dresses. She says that no matter the size of a high-heeled shoe, from a size 6 to a 10, she will organize herself to fit into it, even if it means destroying her toes.

The documentary takes the tape very far back in time to recall Céline’s modest origins, her 13 brothers and sisters, her musician parents Adhémar and Thérèse, the carrot pies that Maman Dion cooked when the fridge was empty, René’s birth -Charles, the arrival of the Nelson and Eddy twins, the funeral of René Angélil, the difficult recording of songs for the film’s soundtrack Love Again (what nonsense!), excerpts from his antics at Jimmy Fallon’s house, we’re having fun Musicography complete. It’s frankly less interesting for the Quebec public, who have already seen these archive images dozens of times.

The best is this breakthrough into the intimacy of Céline Dion, who shows herself naturally, without any artifice. I would have taken a whole film on it, without bits of concerts or anything.

Regarding the megadoses of drugs she consumed, Céline reveals nothing more than what has already been publicized. “One more pill, two more, five more, too many pills, the show must go on,” she confides to the camera, resigned. Again, I would have dug deeper. Who prescribed all this? Mystery.

Celine Dion speaks mainly in English in the film and the twins speak to her in both languages. There is a rather unnecessary – and very long – portion where Céline records a video message paying tribute to Australian singer John Farnham (You’re the Voice) without us really knowing why.

And Céline wouldn’t be Céline without some dubious comic metaphors. This time, it was the apple that tasted it. You see, Celine Dion has been offering beautiful, shiny, juicy apples to her fans for 40 years. If she no longer has apples to distribute (read: if she no longer sings), will her admirers still come to applaud her?

A fan replied that it’s not so much the apple that interests him, but the tree that produces them. And Céline cried when she noticed that her branches still had fruit to give, even in smaller quantities.

The film ends with the famous crisis scene, where all of Céline’s muscles, tendons and nerves stiffen in the middle of a physiotherapy session. Without wanting to be macabre, it’s like watching a person possessed by the demon, their face contorted with pain and helplessness. It’s traumatic.

Director Irene Taylor was in the small room when Celine Dion experienced this hellish episode. “I pushed my headphones over my ears, because I could no longer hear Céline breathing. This was the most uncomfortable moment. If I hadn’t been filming, I would have asked: should we call 911? What can I do ? But each person in the room had a role to play. There was the physiotherapist, there was a person comforting her and holding her on the table and there was her manager on the phone with the doctor. And we were not extras, we also had a job to do,” says Irene Taylor.

“We would have made Maman Dion proud,” continues Irene Taylor. We have not backed down. And we continued filming. »

This scene, although difficult to watch, will make you understand everything about the last years of the superstar’s life. That’s the Way It Is.

Travel and accommodation costs for this column were paid by Prime Video, which had no control over its content.