Celine does not belong to us

Since Friday, I have listened to I don’t know how many times the trailer forAline, the film that the comedian and director French Valérie Lemercier dedicates to Celine Dion.

I get chills every time, it looks so good!

But when I read that the director wanted to “reassure” Quebecers to tell them that she was not scratching Celine in her film, I wondered why she was walking on eggshells so much.

Are we so susceptible that we could not accept that an artist emits the slightest downside to “our” Celine?

DON’T TAKE IT PERSONAL

In all the interviews, Valérie Lemercier takes the trouble to point out that her film is a tribute and not a pastiche, that it is respectful and not caricatural. It’s crazy anyway! As if Celine Dion were an untouchable, on a pedestal, that no one can offend without alienating eight million fellow citizens.

Already when the poster for the film was leaked and the first images of the film were shown, it was felt that some fans were uncomfortable with the film. Aline.

What was bothering so much? The fact that it is a French woman who embodies a Quebec diva? Sorry, but that’s the hallmark of an actress, an actor. The actors of District 31 are not police officers either.

If the actors can only play a character of the same nationality as them, why did no one take offense that Sylvain Marcel, who plays the role of René Angelil, is not of Syrian, Lebanese and Canadian origin?

Some fans were also annoyed by the fact that Valérie Lemercier did not have a “real” Quebec accent. Well, we should connect!

When Marion Cotillard used a huge Quebec accent in the film Rock’n Roll by Guillaume Canet, she was ridiculed because her accent was too accentuated. (And because she spoke suddenly of “damn eater of mustard” and “I fall on the ass”).

Valérie Lemercier has decided to minimize the accent and not to use any “tabarnac” and no “calisse” … and are there people who complain? Coudonc, get connected!

Listening to and reading certain comments, one gets the impression that no one except Quebeckers can embody Quebeckers, cannot comment on the situation in Quebec, cannot report on Quebec.

Do you remember the outcry when a reporter from Elle France had described Ricardo Larivée as a “gentleman trapper”? Imagine if Italians went wild every time a comedian somewhere on the planet imitates the Italian accent by speaking with his hands!

THE QUEEN OF SELF-MODERISION

Celine Dion is a national pride. But it does not belong to us.

And if one day, a director or a novelist decides to make a film or write a book that would be devastating or simply critical of Charlemagne’s diva, I hope that we will have, collectively, the necessary maturity not to make a national crisis.

And you know what ? Who is the person who makes fun of Celine the most?

It’s Celine herself!