“If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl,” he says. Celine Dion. His case is almost unique in the world. The singer, who gave voice to My Heart Will Go Onthe main song from the production of his compatriot James Cameron in Titanicsuffers from a very rare neurological disease, which affects one in a million people.
Is he stiff person syndrome.
Céline made her illness known to her fans two years ago, in 2022. Since then he continues to battle with a goal, like the carrot that is put in front of the donkey. Recover his artistic career.
“It’s not difficult to put together a concert. The difficult thing is to cancel it,” she rightly says. “I miss music. And I miss the public a lot,” she says at another point.
Stiff-person syndrome affects the central nervous system. Stiffness, muscle spasms and an increased sensitivity to external stimuli, which induce muscle contractions, are its predominant features. In her case, as she tells in the documentary, the first spasms were in her vocal cords, no less.
Céline Dion has been battling for 17 years
But in truth Dion has been battling the disease for 17 years. So many times he went out to give concerts thanks to the medication they gave him, until he couldn’t take it anymore, and he had to cancel them. And he had to lie, hiding his delicate state of health.
“He was touching the microphone, like it wasn’t working. There were times when we had to stop the concert. A quick change, but it never came back. The lie weighs a lot now”, she is sincere.
“This film contains shocking scenes of medical trauma. Caution is recommended to the viewer” is the legend with which it begins I’m Celine Dionwhich premiered this week on Amazon Prime Video.
And in the new documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Irene Taylor, she is shown at her most vulnerable, without this meaning that there are any low blows. The director – who 15 years ago had a short documentary nominated for an Oscar, The Final Inch– is an intimate, private look at the singer’s valiant struggle with the syndrome.
The director does not position herself as an interviewer, nor has she chosen doctors to explain what the disease is, which has no known cure, but does have palliative care. The only one who speaks is Céline, until she arrives at a crucial moment in the film, near the end.
Video
The clipping belongs to the documentary about the singer’s fight against the disease. The director was authorized by the artist to film the moment and include it in the final cut.
And it is a crisis that she goes through, the result of a spasm, shortly after trying to rehearse one of her songs. She is helped, calmed and supported by her physiotherapist and an assistant. Céline herself, as seen in the documentary, allows the cameramen to continue filming her in the midst of the convulsion.
Celine Dion’s strong statements
“I needed my instrument. And my instrument wasn’t working. So we upped the dosage. The medication has a duration,” Dion explains. “I was full of adrenaline and I heard the audience: ‘Céline, Céline, Céline! ’ It was over after 20 minutes. I left the dressing room, went backstage and wished everyone luck. The audience was going crazy. But then I had a spasm and my voice went up. The medication had worn off. It was over. It was 80 and 90 milligrams of diazepam a day. One medication out of many,” she explains.
The film does not stop only at the present time of the 56-year-old musician, but also reviews her childhood, her great concerts, the birth of her children, including two twins, who walk through the mansion where they live in Las Vegas , and the death of her husband, the musician and her manager, René Angélil, in 2016. Strangely, there are very few images of him. Like the weight is placed elsewhere.
The promotional poster for the documentary shows it splendidly. But what is attractive about the film is the sincerity with which Céline’s life is shown. “If I can’t run, I will walk. If I can’t walk, I will crawl. I’m not going to stop” is one of the many phrases, through tears, in this raw and moving story.
Documentary film. United States, 2024. Original title: “I Am Celine Dion”. 103′, SAM 13. Of: Irene Taylor. With: Celine Dion. Available in: Amazon Prime Video.
