Céline Dion lays bare her demons in a new documentary that is almost unwatchable and brutal.
In ‘I Am: Celine Dion’ we see the diminished icon, hidden in the midst of the splendor of Las Vegas, paralyzed by agony, held up by bottles full of Valium, literally holding on, crying – screaming – at the camera.
Stiff person syndrome (SPS), her one-in-a-million autoimmune disease, has paralyzed her voice and robbed her of the ability to sing.
His chest muscles, he explains, push on his lungs, strangling his superhuman song machine.
“I don’t want the fans to hear that,” he shouts, rasping out a few bars. She doesn’t want to be seen like that, but she feels like she has to.
“The lie is too heavy,” he says, revealing how he has secretly fought SPS for almost two decades, making up excuses and ruses for canceled shows (a sinus infection, a hearing problem) or holding the microphone closer to the audience when he couldn’t. . say the words and take dozens of pills a day.
“I could have died,” he admits.
In ‘I Am: Celine Dion’ we see the diminished icon, hidden amid the splendor of Las Vegas, crippled by agony, propped up by bottles full of Valium, literally clutching herself, crying – screaming – into the camera.
After canceling her planned 2021 Sin City residency, she feels like she owes her fans an explanation: Adele, take note! – And she promises to return to the stage: ‘If I can’t run, I will walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll run…I won’t stop.’
The problem: It’s hard to know if your sheer willpower and boundless bravery will be enough. And who is Celine Dion without her voice?
We see her life and career locked away in a warehouse, a clinic, almost a funeral: shoes and costumes, robes and old toys from her children, never to be used or played with again.
Between intravenous drips and plasma infusions, she struggles to maintain normality for her children; the two youngest, only 13 years old, probably don’t remember much about their father.
René died in 2016 and it’s clear that Celine never recovered. How much suffering can a woman endure?
After a two-year hiatus from singing, she forces herself through a painful recording session, becoming obsessed in a way that only a true star can.
Stiff person syndrome (SPS), her one-in-a-million autoimmune disease, has paralyzed her voice and robbed her of the ability to sing.
He hates what he hears on playback and pushes his body to the limit – the miserable penance that follows is enough to make you turn away.
Your therapist notices for the first time the subsiding spasm in your foot. Relax, she says, with your ankle closed at 90 degrees.
But her hands twist like claws and soon she is rigid on her stomach, her back arched unnaturally and unable to lift her neck.
Then comes the frothy, full-blown seizure. Medical staff rush in, but the prying cameras remain.
Diva below.
Ten long minutes of tortured convulsions and childish cries, tears staining her makeup-free face. How could we be allowed to see such intimate torment?
He wanted to jump through the screen and help, push away the prying lens and save his last remnants of dignity.
But by admitting her shame, by exposing her loss of control, she takes control and gives us the most honest narrative of her life, her legacy, this cruel final chapter she can muster.
Her hands twist like claws and soon she is rigid on her stomach, her back arched unnaturally and unable to lift her neck. Then comes the frothy, full-blown seizure.
Ten long minutes of tortured convulsions and childish cries, tears staining her makeup-free face. How could we be allowed to see such intimate torment?
Instead of a voice, this may be all he has left to offer legions of fans desperate for one more performance.
No one is prepared for this to be the last goodbye, least of all Celine herself.
We witness a woman who subsists on hope and a fierce desire to channel her remaining talent and energy toward recovery. We pray with her for a nebulous intervention – medicinal or miraculous – that will bring her out of the abyss of herself.
But worse than any on-screen trauma is the abiding realization that this grand journey through Celine’s life and pain is being told now so she can tell it, a living eulogy for a star who refuses to be dimmed.