In “I Am: Celine Dion” and in other documentaries made about Dion, director Irene Taylor assumes that the singer’s followers are famovski lovers and fans that opt for no more than 5 minutes of her documentary which is about the artist’s cultural background. This is not a typical VH1 Behind the Music program. Despite the absence of talking heads apart from Celine’s, there is no brazen slander. Instead, say Doris, I Am does not portray the diva image Celine tries to keep off: a mother and a simple woman with no make up with her children and devoted people around. In December 2022, Dion revealed she was afflicted with Stiff Person Syndrome, a strange illness that many people were not even familiar with.
There was notice of Dion being special as far back as the age of twelve when she was first unearthed. That sense of being different though could not come in a more concerning manner. SPS syndrome, a rare and incredibly debilitating disease, starts off with muscle twitching but gets progressively worse till it causes an entire body siege. For Dion, that diagnosis is precisely what made an international concert tour impossible and threatened the very prospect of her singing ever again. This is literally the worst thing that could ever happen to someone blessed with Celine’s voice – and an apt starting point for Taylor’s heart-wrenching portrait.
One of Dr Dion’s earliest filmed interviews shows her saying ‘My dream is to be an international star and to be able to sing all my life’ in a humble-defiant manner. Who doesn’t love Celine Dion and who wouldn’t want to be like her? It is almost aspirational and the sort of depiction which most Tik Tok users would resonate with. Just as painful to know now is the fact that having achieved success far beyond her most naïve and most sloppily pretty teenage fantasies thanks to her singing, she lost it to a disease which even Beethoven could not contend through his sheer will, a disease which burnt away a teenager’s ability to sing.
The song is an entirely stylistic piece that showcases the depth and emotion that comes with Dion’s voice. “I Am” was filmed with Celine’s Canadian roots as a primary focus. While it may be the intention to present him as an artist whose every single word belongs to him, it’s believable Celine had full creative control over the direction of the film. The relationship between the song and the film isn’t very complicated; Celine is simply expressing herself through a turmoil of emotions and chaos. You should understand through her voice the turmoil that was conveyed in her life, and not her politics. The first thing that strikes me about Dion’s performance is that it’s about how she doesn’t give a toss about what others think.”
Taylor showcases, in this case, career compendiums of Dion’s performances and entire sections devoted to extraordinary single-standing concerts in which the audience gave Dion infinitely more than was sensible—exquisite tonality that never failed to mix heavy percussion and light violence into every lead. There exists something so cutely naive about her ballet choreography that it comes across as angular and fluid, which is why learning of her being a ‘stiff person’ comes as a shock. For those who have no clue what this syndrome is (which is most of us), have we for once managed to overlook something that was in fact screaming for attention?
One could say that reportedly it was Dion’s singing voice which ruled the world: a five-octave range wrapped in a tall skinny body who would sing to his heart. By the time, Disney offered her a duet in ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Dion already had nine French albums. The single ‘Titanic’ was the one that drove her further, leading to a sustainable position at Vegas. It was as if the day of the concert, Dion loved me more than the audience and vice versa. “Because You Loved Me” is not only a eulogy to Rene but a message of gratitude to her audience.
In “I Am,” there seems to be less of Dion’s songs than perhaps one would expect with the composer, “and cellist” Redi Hasa’s more contemplative style being more suitable than the ballad lyric singing Mariah is searching for direction in for this piece – yet a few, such as “All by Myself” when sung by the now married off singer, are quite good – Hasa’s string compositions structured on Max Richter’s music allowed for a soundtrack that suited the rhythm in which the film was writ. As it drags on, with Dion’s natural pace of speech, Taylor is capable of stimulating drama within. Although she is a seasoned entertainer. Nevertheless, she makes a convincing argument when she delivers the quote that justifies the title of the work: “The person I am today … I didn’t invent myself. I didn’t create myself. I am.”
What kind of intimacy is any of what it is that Taylor manages to film? There are charmingly unscripted moments at their residence in the extravagantly over the top Celine Dion Las Vegas house such as any time Celine can be found with her teenage twin sons. Or one cites Taylor finds out how her life is organized: fitting rooms filled with her shoes, a closet with her gowns and a creative collection of her memorabilia, an annoyingly organized sock bulkhead and an office where pushed up sharpie markers seem almost deliberately orderly.
Taking a moment after a heartfelt moment on which she and the twins send a get-well message to a sick teammate, Celine comes back for a second round this time vacuuming the couch. But we often hear her humor in private situations as well as over the screen – e.g. in various skits with Jimmy Fallon, James Corden and Deadpool.
The word “diva”, which surely describes Dion, encompasses also the traits synonymous with a prima donnas: egotistical and sulky diva behaviour, which could not be further from the personality that the Taylor depicts. French actor-director Valérie Lemercier’s salad, tastefully sullied “Aline” went more into Dion’s psychology, and the very relation with René, while “I Am” looks more or less like last year’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.” What both docs share is the focus on the doctors’ bodies’ volume – the volume goes pair with pain applied to the persons, which in a way is quite brave in our unfriendly to disableds media consumers society.
Well, we all know that times were different than when the unique voice of Dion first graced us. Back in the ’90s, the media didn’t show the same understanding as it does now, but people had to admire their heroes, as they were always quiet about their obstacles and struggles, but not anymore. Dion’s remarkable talent means she is just one of us though in her movie, Taylor herself makes the persona more intelligible. The footage of her working through an entire day while trying to record the song “Love Again” is disturbing yet uplifting, but more so is the horrific image of dion panicking because of an SPS attack in the last scenes of the work.
Dion has a starring role as ‘herself’ in “Love Again.” But in “I Am” – She is Celine Dion. It appears that we underestimated her all along in terms of strength of character. And that’s not the end of the story. Before the release of the documentary, I listened to some of her songs again and heard something that complemented the so many ways in which she expressed love. That dimension of Celine Dion surfaces yet again in the fantasy filled documentary where Celine shows gratitude to her supporting singers, band, and the crew as well as her dedicated fans.
Dion is not a person who appears to take things for granted or even claim disability as something that aggravates – perhaps, many viewers would argue – the opposite is true.
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