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I am: Celine Dion (I Am: Celine Dion, United States/2024). Address: Irene Taylor. Edition: Richard Comeau, Christian Jensen. Available in: Prime Video. Our opinion: very good
Documentary films dedicated to the life of an established artist tend to become odes to his genius and figure sooner rather than later that rarely give room to the more human sides of the idol. I am: Celine Dionthe documentary that shows the intimate life of the famous Canadian singer and her daily struggle to live with the serious neurological disease she was diagnosed with in recent years, inverts the formula. Yes, the archive images of the most brilliant moments of her career and her immense talent are present, but the real heart of the film directed by Irene Taylor is in the detailed account of Dion’s daily routine, who is as open and expressive at home as she always was on stage.
One of the first scenes of the film declares its intentions: the symptoms of the rigid person syndrome suffered by the 56-year-old artist are crudely displayed and although low blows are avoided, the truth is that the disease itself and how it affects the artist is heartbreaking.
Of course, the most successful and compelling choice in the film is for Dion to talk not only about her sufferings but also about her long career, her successes but, above all, her love for music, the stage and the commitment she feels. by the public that has followed it for decades. A love that she does not know if she will be able to experience again given the physical limitations that affect her entire body and that sadly include her vocal cords.
The documentary begins some time before the singer decided to publicly announce her diagnosis in 2022 and focuses on the development of her career since she was a child, as the daughter of a couple of musicians who put aside their artistic ambitions to raise their 14 children. in a town on the outskirts of Quebec. From that childhood full of songs and many financial constraints to her current life in the mansion she lives in Las Vegas with her teenage twin children and a large group of assistants attentive to her well-being, the great constant in Dion’s life, according to her, It was always acting, singing on stage and letting “the voice be the driver” of his life. Without control of that instrument that made her immensely famous, universally admired but above all very happy, the artist asks herself, looking at the camera, stripped of all vanity, who Celine Dion is without everything that was her identity for most of her life. life.
The answer is revealed as the cameras follow his physical therapy sessions, conversations with his children and his desperate attempts to test his voice, but it is also revealed in scenes that at first seem lighter. Especially in that sequence in which she follows her on a tour of the enormous warehouse where she keeps all of her cataloged memories with obsessive attention. The drawings that her children made in the dressing room while she was performing and the letters from her fans coexist with her impressive collection of dresses and shoes that for a while clear the sadness from her eyes and give her a shine. playful. “I think she was very good,” she says, looking at the splendid costumes she wore on stage. And there is no false modesty in her statement but rather a nostalgia and longing for what she loved and she does not know if she will be able to do it again.
The correct decision to limit the interviews in the documentary to the statements of Dion – an eloquent and self-reflective interviewee – is somewhat diluted by the inclusion of the many images of the shows she gave over the years in different parts of the world. This opens the shutter too much and dilutes the focus of her most personal sensations and the heartfelt confessions that the artist makes while looking at the camera.
It is there, in these conversations, where the narrative manages to account not only for the scope of the tragedy of his illness but also for his desire to overcome some of the limitations it imposes on him, especially when it comes to acting. “If I can’t run, I walk and if I can’t walk, I crawl. But I’m not going to stop, I can’t stop.” says Dion after suffering an attack that the cameras capture with her approval and that for many viewers may be too explicit, but for the artist it only reinforces her determination to sing again.
Exciting and at the same time intrusive and respectful, the documentary does not allow itself to be tempted by the triumphs of the artist or by the tribute that she obviously deserves and prefers to accompany her journey to become, to continue being, who she is: Celine Dion.
