Aline (sometimes titled Aline, the Voice of Love internationally) is a French and Canadian dramedy directed, written and played by Valérie Lemercier and co-written by Brigitte Buc. It was released in 2021.
The story is a fictionalized portrayal of the life of Céline Dion in everything but name, with Lemercier starring as "Aline Dieu", a Canadian singer from Quebec who rises to international superstardom.
Lemercier won the César award for Best Actress in 2022 with this film.
Aline provides examples of the following tropes:
- The '70s: Aline performs for the first time for French television in that decade. There's Real Life footage of TV host Michel Drucker (who's been hosting variety shows and talk shows since that decade) to go along with it.
- The '80s: At one point, Aline does aerobic exercises in a club with everyone wearing the era's typical garish aerobic outfits. She also watches a young Vanessa Paradis making her debut on television (which happened in that decade).
- The Cameo: French TV host Michel Drucker has a Voice-Only Cameo As Himself (to go along with Real Life footage of himself from The '70s) when Aline performs on French TV for the first time.
- Cool Old Lady: Aline's mother gladly helps her to start her singing career.
- Digital De-Aging: Valérie Lemercier was 57 year old and played Aline through various stages of her life, even as a teen, and consequently some such effects were used.
- Digital Head Swap: Lemercier plays Aline at every stage of her life from childhood through to middle age, with her body and face digitally adjusted for age-appropriateness in post-production.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: When she goes to Paris for the first time, young Aline poses at the Trocadéro with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
- Gilligan Cut: In the opening prologue about the Dieu family, Anglomard (Aline's father) says he doesn't want children. Cut to Sylvette (Aline's mother) being pregnant. She ends up having fourteen children with him.
- Good Luck Charm: The coin Aline's father gave her to bring her good fortune.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Aline is the youngest of fourteen siblings (as is Céline Dion in Real Life).
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The whole point. Aline is Céline Dion in everything but name, so is Guy-Claude for Dion's manager and husband René Angélil. To hammer it further, Guy-Claude does call Aline "Céline" the first time they meet and the mother has to correct him.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sometimes, the French Valérie Lemercier keeps the Quebec accent, and other times she doesn't.
- Something We Forgot: The day Aline is brought to manager Guy-Claude, she forgets to take her ice skates off her feet, forgetting about her regular shoes. Once she's in Montréal, her mother, her brother and her realize this, and she has no other option than to borrow her mother's old and poorly fitting shoes.
