She is barely fifteen years old and she is already being interviewed on television. Her features are those of a child, curls surround a still round face. But when we ask her what she dreams of, her answer is that of a woman who already knows what she wants, more than anything: “I want to sing all my life”, she said, her proud gaze fixed into the camera. The tone of the documentary, posted online on Prime Video, is given: Céline Dion will never give up, ever.
But the images of hope of a young girl in flower barely extinguished, after a brief fade to black, a completely different atmosphere takes hold. Lying on her side, the 55-year-old singer awaits the intervention of a medical team. She is in crisis, terrible spasms paralyze her body, she cries, she is a prisoner of herself. The diagnosis has been made, she now knows that she has Stiff Person Syndrome (SPR), a rare neurological disorder, which affects one to two people in a million. She also knows that if treatments act against this immune disorder, the disease cannot be cured, but can stabilize. It is hope that carries her, as much as an iron will, which she displays throughout the 102 minutes of the documentary.
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For a year, Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated director Irene Taylor followed the star in her daily life. Celine Dion opened the doors to her house in Las Vegas, where she lives with her twins, Eddy and Nelson. Barefoot, without makeup, in pajamas, she wanders from room to room. After having treated Bear, her labrador (to whose memory the film is dedicated), she makes herself a coffee and then comes the moment when she has to take the medicine. Pill bottles of all colors cover the bathroom shelf. But that’s not all: she then has to undergo an infusion of painkillers which leaves her knocked out.This is from 17 years ago”, she said, lying on a sofa. “I started by having a spasm in my vocal cords. After breakfast, my voice started to rise, it wasn’t normal…” Tears come to his eyes. “We can’t see anything, but it’s everywhere. Last year, I couldn’t walk anymore, I no longer had my balance… I miss music a lot. And I miss the people too…”
Lies and imaginary illnesses
Images of the countless concerts she has given around the world (“I’ve traveled all over the world, but I haven’t seen much”, she said to one of her sons) show her on stage, in breathtaking form, with an impeccable voice. The contrast with his distress today is all the more cruel. “I try to sing, but I can’t… I think I was talented, that I accomplished great things,” breathes the star again, who already speaks in the past tense.
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During the long interviews given to Irene Taylor, Céline Dion addressed all the subjects, even the most intimate, which are all opportunities to review archive images. Her parents, her children, her husband René. Sometimes all it takes is a photo, a piece of jewelry, a drawing for us to dive into this extraordinary life with her. Like when visiting a warehouse where all his stage costumes are stored. A place that has become, over time, a sort of small personal museum.
What is still striking in I Am: Celine Dion, it is the incredible simplicity of this planetary star. A gentle mother with her children, a polite woman with everyone, from the hotel doorman to the physiotherapist who helps her regain her mobility. “I don’t want to sound dramatic, but I could have died”she comments again. “I needed medication to walk, to swallow. I took two, three, five, too many. When you had to cancel concerts, you had to lie. We invented sinus infections, ear infections… I don’t want to lie anymore.”
Because she believes they owe at least that much, so she recorded a message for her fans. “If I can’t run anymore, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk anymore, I’ll crawl. But I won’t stop”, she said, rage and sorrow in her voice. She promised them to come back on stage. And Celine Dion always keeps her promises.
I Am: Celine Dion Documentary Accomplished by Irene Taylor With Celine Dion Prime Video 1:42.
