"I Am: Celine Dion" documentary - Official Topic

[jpatdeleon09]

The English singer and writer Tracey Thorn watched it and said on Twitter:

 

"Had to fast forward through quite a lot that I found boring. And then obviously there are some bits that are extremely uncomfortable. I was left very unsure about it."

 

Never heard of her name…

[ewh12]

 

 

Never heard of her name…

 

 

She’s famous for being one part of the music group “Everything but the Girl” one of their major hits was a remixed version of “Missing” and a lot of smaller hits.

 

But yeah, my initial thought was, how can you think a doc is good without getting fully invested in it? Seems like she was only fishing for things that a traditional doc would provide, like talking heads and music facts (this is not one of those)

Edited June 26, 2024 at 10:14 AM by ewh12

[seantrainor]

All the Mariah fans. Lambs.

 

Girl I'm actually a Lamb first. Lmao I love Celine dearly! Don't put us all in one basket. Most of us love Celine.

[scielle]

Oh look another "she's cool now" opinion piece, this time from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/arts/music/celine-dion-documentary.html

 

Celine Dion Can Only Be Herself

The singer’s over-the-top sincerity and expressiveness were once seen as irredeemably uncool. In the new documentary “I Am: Celine Dion,” they have become her superpowers.

 

 

 

“I always envy people who smoke and drink and party and don’t sleep,” Celine Dion tells her physical therapist with an exaggerated sigh, midway through the new documentary “I Am: Celine Dion.” “Me, I have water and I sleep 12 hours.”

This monastic constraint has long been a core part of the Celine Dion legend. A professional singer since 12, she spent decades meticulously caring for her voice as though it were an endangered hothouse flower, committing to long stretches of vocal rest, complicated warm-up rituals and a lifestyle of exacting discipline — all so she could leap octaves and belt soaring notes with gobsmacking precision.

In a cruel twist of fate, though, even the ceaseless care Dion devoted to her voice could not preserve it. In 2022, she revealed in an emotional Instagram post that she has stiff person syndrome, a rare and incurable neurological disorder that causes painful muscle spasms and affects roughly one in a million people. After watching “I Am: Celine Dion,” a remarkably candid portrait directed by Irene Taylor on Amazon Prime Video, it is difficult to imagine a disease that would be more personally devastating to Dion, whose entire career has been one long exercise in control, sacrificing all for the ecstatic release of live performance.

Since her emergence as a Québécois child star with a precociously huge voice, something about Dion’s essential nature has remained constant, impervious to both changing trends and scathing critique. Whether power ballads were in fashion or not — and by and large, they were not — she sang them with the conviction of someone who’d never even heard the word “restraint.” “At her best,” wrote Elisabeth Vincentelli in a Times review of Dion’s most recent New York performance in February 2020, “Dion projects a sense of bigness — besides fairly simple graphics, the background videos in her show often showed cosmic images, as if they were the only thing measuring up on the Dion scale.” This bombastic approach gained her a worldwide fan base and a requisite backlash that she may have finally outpaced.

In 2007, the music critic Carl Wilson used Dion’s 1999 blockbuster album “Let’s Talk About Love” as the inspiration for an insightful, ultimately sympathetic book-length examination of musical taste, the assumption being that (at least 17 years ago) Dion’s name was a symbol for all things gauche, sincere and uncool. (The book’s subtitle? “A Journey to the End of Taste.”) “Schmaltz rots faster than other ingredients in the musical pantry,” Wilson wrote, “which may be why we doubt the possibility of a Celine Dion revival in 2027.”

As the years have passed, I wouldn’t bet against it. The sympathy engendered by her diagnosis aside, Dion is not nearly as polarizing as she was two decades ago. “My Heart Will Go On” has become a relic of kitschy ’90s nostalgia rather than the unavoidable and tiresome cultural monolith it was during the reign of “Titanic.” Musical tastes have become more elastic since Wilson’s book was published, streaming has lowered the stakes for fandom and made it easier to revisit artists’ catalogs, and listeners are less likely to see the industry bifurcated into us-vs.-them binaries.

But one of the main reasons people have softened toward Dion over the years is her absolute, undaunted commitment to her own kookiness. In 2008, the writer Rich Juzwiak put together a supercut of wacky clips titled “Celine Dion is amazing”: more than five minutes of Dion gesticulating wildly, indulging in nonsensical stage banter and, in one instance, launching into a spirited backstage cover of “Who Let the Dogs Out" mashed up with “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” That over-the-top excessiveness at which Wilson and his hip Gen X-er peers once turned up their noses now seems like a virtue; denizens of the internet appreciate a reliably meme-able celebrity when they see one. Dion never seems to fear looking ridiculous. In an age of media-trained musicians careful not to speak out of pocket, her zaniness has become its own mark of authenticity.

“I Am: Celine Dion” has plenty of those “Celine Dion is amazing”-type moments, and thank goodness, because her singular, offbeat sense of humor balances out the film’s more harrowing scenes. Rather than relying on other talking heads to put her stardom in context, Dion is the only person interviewed in the documentary. While this does sometimes make the film’s perspective feel one-sided, Dion’s megawatt charisma means she is more than up to the task of carrying an entire film on her own. One of the most memorable sequences finds her giving the cameras a tour — “I feel like Liberace!” she says and laughs — through the vast storage warehouse where she keeps her ruffle-and-sequin-encrusted costumes, custom designer outfits and stilt-like shoes. Oh, the shoes.

“When a girl loves her shoes, she always makes them fit,” Dion says, imparting the wisdom of a true diva. “Every time I went to a store and I loved the shoes they said, ‘What size are you, ma’am?’ I said, ‘No, you don’t understand, what size do you have? I’ll make them work, I’ll make them fit.’”

It’s a hilarious moment, but it’s also bittersweet. Again, there is that sense of self-sacrifice — the insistence that even in the face of discomfort the show (and the shoe) must go on. As she walks among her old stage clothes, delighting in the minute details of craftsmanship, the joy Dion gets from performing is palpable, but so is the anxiety that she may never know that particular kind of release again.

“When you record, it sounds great,” Dion says in the film. “But when you are onstage, it will be greater.” What becomes clear — throughout many montages of Dion singing live, feeding off the energy of her audience — is that performing is her lifeblood, and the stage has always been the place where she can be her most quintessential self. And so she is putting the full force of her tenacity and self-discipline toward building her strength back, in hopes that she can someday return.

That is, however, a herculean task. Toward the end of the documentary, during a physical therapy session, Taylor’s cameras continue to roll while Dion experiences a severe attack of full-body spasms; her face is frozen in pain, her limbs stiffen and the only sounds she can make are awful moans. For an artist who has long valued the control she has over her body and the instrument of her voice, this level of candor is particularly striking.

Just as difficult to watch is the sequence that precedes it, which finds Dion in a recording studio struggling to sing the relatively muted ballad, “Love Again.” Her vocal cords constrict — she compares the spasms to an unseen hand choking her — and that once mighty voice comes out in a whisper. Ever the perfectionist, she winces listening to the playback.

In the film, Dion compares herself to an apple tree, proud of doling out the shiniest fruit for her fans. “I don’t want them to wait in line if I don’t have apples for them,” she says. She still does, though. Dion’s voice may no longer be the precise instrument she nurtured for decades, but “I Am: Celine Dion” shows that hitting those stratospheric high notes is not her only method of inspiration. There is strength, too, in sharing the bitter fruit of her struggles, and throughout them remaining gloriously, consistently herself."

 

 

[scielle]

Irene discusses the John Farnham section in this interview:

[Critiaslux]

Oh look another "she's cool now" opinion piece, this time from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/arts/music/celine-dion-documentary.html

 

Celine Dion Can Only Be Herself

The singer’s over-the-top sincerity and expressiveness were once seen as irredeemably uncool. In the new documentary “I Am: Celine Dion,” they have become her superpowers.

 

 

 

“I always envy people who smoke and drink and party and don’t sleep,” Celine Dion tells her physical therapist with an exaggerated sigh, midway through the new documentary “I Am: Celine Dion.” “Me, I have water and I sleep 12 hours.”

This monastic constraint has long been a core part of the Celine Dion legend. A professional singer since 12, she spent decades meticulously caring for her voice as though it were an endangered hothouse flower, committing to long stretches of vocal rest, complicated warm-up rituals and a lifestyle of exacting discipline — all so she could leap octaves and belt soaring notes with gobsmacking precision.

In a cruel twist of fate, though, even the ceaseless care Dion devoted to her voice could not preserve it. In 2022, she revealed in an emotional Instagram post that she has stiff person syndrome, a rare and incurable neurological disorder that causes painful muscle spasms and affects roughly one in a million people. After watching “I Am: Celine Dion,” a remarkably candid portrait directed by Irene Taylor on Amazon Prime Video, it is difficult to imagine a disease that would be more personally devastating to Dion, whose entire career has been one long exercise in control, sacrificing all for the ecstatic release of live performance.

Since her emergence as a Québécois child star with a precociously huge voice, something about Dion’s essential nature has remained constant, impervious to both changing trends and scathing critique. Whether power ballads were in fashion or not — and by and large, they were not — she sang them with the conviction of someone who’d never even heard the word “restraint.” “At her best,” wrote Elisabeth Vincentelli in a Times review of Dion’s most recent New York performance in February 2020, “Dion projects a sense of bigness — besides fairly simple graphics, the background videos in her show often showed cosmic images, as if they were the only thing measuring up on the Dion scale.” This bombastic approach gained her a worldwide fan base and a requisite backlash that she may have finally outpaced.

In 2007, the music critic Carl Wilson used Dion’s 1999 blockbuster album “Let’s Talk About Love” as the inspiration for an insightful, ultimately sympathetic book-length examination of musical taste, the assumption being that (at least 17 years ago) Dion’s name was a symbol for all things gauche, sincere and uncool. (The book’s subtitle? “A Journey to the End of Taste.”) “Schmaltz rots faster than other ingredients in the musical pantry,” Wilson wrote, “which may be why we doubt the possibility of a Celine Dion revival in 2027.”

As the years have passed, I wouldn’t bet against it. The sympathy engendered by her diagnosis aside, Dion is not nearly as polarizing as she was two decades ago. “My Heart Will Go On” has become a relic of kitschy ’90s nostalgia rather than the unavoidable and tiresome cultural monolith it was during the reign of “Titanic.” Musical tastes have become more elastic since Wilson’s book was published, streaming has lowered the stakes for fandom and made it easier to revisit artists’ catalogs, and listeners are less likely to see the industry bifurcated into us-vs.-them binaries.

But one of the main reasons people have softened toward Dion over the years is her absolute, undaunted commitment to her own kookiness. In 2008, the writer Rich Juzwiak put together a supercut of wacky clips titled “Celine Dion is amazing”: more than five minutes of Dion gesticulating wildly, indulging in nonsensical stage banter and, in one instance, launching into a spirited backstage cover of “Who Let the Dogs Out" mashed up with “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” That over-the-top excessiveness at which Wilson and his hip Gen X-er peers once turned up their noses now seems like a virtue; denizens of the internet appreciate a reliably meme-able celebrity when they see one. Dion never seems to fear looking ridiculous. In an age of media-trained musicians careful not to speak out of pocket, her zaniness has become its own mark of authenticity.

“I Am: Celine Dion” has plenty of those “Celine Dion is amazing”-type moments, and thank goodness, because her singular, offbeat sense of humor balances out the film’s more harrowing scenes. Rather than relying on other talking heads to put her stardom in context, Dion is the only person interviewed in the documentary. While this does sometimes make the film’s perspective feel one-sided, Dion’s megawatt charisma means she is more than up to the task of carrying an entire film on her own. One of the most memorable sequences finds her giving the cameras a tour — “I feel like Liberace!” she says and laughs — through the vast storage warehouse where she keeps her ruffle-and-sequin-encrusted costumes, custom designer outfits and stilt-like shoes. Oh, the shoes.

“When a girl loves her shoes, she always makes them fit,” Dion says, imparting the wisdom of a true diva. “Every time I went to a store and I loved the shoes they said, ‘What size are you, ma’am?’ I said, ‘No, you don’t understand, what size do you have? I’ll make them work, I’ll make them fit.’”

It’s a hilarious moment, but it’s also bittersweet. Again, there is that sense of self-sacrifice — the insistence that even in the face of discomfort the show (and the shoe) must go on. As she walks among her old stage clothes, delighting in the minute details of craftsmanship, the joy Dion gets from performing is palpable, but so is the anxiety that she may never know that particular kind of release again.

“When you record, it sounds great,” Dion says in the film. “But when you are onstage, it will be greater.” What becomes clear — throughout many montages of Dion singing live, feeding off the energy of her audience — is that performing is her lifeblood, and the stage has always been the place where she can be her most quintessential self. And so she is putting the full force of her tenacity and self-discipline toward building her strength back, in hopes that she can someday return.

That is, however, a herculean task. Toward the end of the documentary, during a physical therapy session, Taylor’s cameras continue to roll while Dion experiences a severe attack of full-body spasms; her face is frozen in pain, her limbs stiffen and the only sounds she can make are awful moans. For an artist who has long valued the control she has over her body and the instrument of her voice, this level of candor is particularly striking.

Just as difficult to watch is the sequence that precedes it, which finds Dion in a recording studio struggling to sing the relatively muted ballad, “Love Again.” Her vocal cords constrict — she compares the spasms to an unseen hand choking her — and that once mighty voice comes out in a whisper. Ever the perfectionist, she winces listening to the playback.

In the film, Dion compares herself to an apple tree, proud of doling out the shiniest fruit for her fans. “I don’t want them to wait in line if I don’t have apples for them,” she says. She still does, though. Dion’s voice may no longer be the precise instrument she nurtured for decades, but “I Am: Celine Dion” shows that hitting those stratospheric high notes is not her only method of inspiration. There is strength, too, in sharing the bitter fruit of her struggles, and throughout them remaining gloriously, consistently herself."

 

 

 

It took more than 20 years, the loss of her love, and illness, but at last they see what we saw since day 1.

 

 

[Nmj]

 

 

Girl I'm actually a Lamb first. Lmao I love Celine dearly! Don't put us all in one basket. Most of us love Celine.

 

First off, I’m a guy.

 

Okay sorry, it was a joke, however the loudest lambs are making horrible jokes about Celine’s illness. Let’s be real, even Mariah doesn’t care for Celine she’s still talking s*** about her Divas performance with Aretha 25 years later.

Edited June 26, 2024 at 11:04 AM by Nmj

[Nmj]

Irene discusses the John Farnham section in this interview:

 

I actually didn’t mind the scene… However, it was way too long, they could’ve done it a few minutes less. And gave those a few minutes to Celine, talking about her performance of all by myself when she returned to the stage after Renes death; Instead of showing it with zero context.

[jpatdeleon09]

Laura Pausini recommended this documentary via Instagram

 

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[scielle]

I don't know how reliable this site is, but according to this, it's the top film on Amazon, worldwide, at the moment: https://flixpatrol.c...0/amazon-prime/ Edited June 26, 2024 at 11:14 AM by scielle

[jpatdeleon09]

 

 

First off, I’m a guy.

 

Okay sorry, it was a joke, however the loudest lambs are making horrible jokes about Celine’s illness. Let’s be real, even Mariah doesn’t care for Celine she’s still talking s*** about her Divas performance with Aretha 25 years later.

 

Yeah I think some lambs who watched the docu already feel bad for saying those things at Celine just like that critic in telegraph.

[jpatdeleon09]

That Farnham scene obviously Celine is having a crush moment. let’s give that to her lol

[No1IrishFan]

Saw it last night and I’m still unpacking it in my head. Overwhelming feeling of sadness that she’s going through this but equally the determination and resilience is so inspiring. All in all I loved it but it was a wave of up and down emotions.

 

My BF didn’t like the doc. He thought Celine was great and it really gave the sense of how much she misses performing but he hated how the doc was put together. Too much back and forward and random performances slotted in with zero context. I get that she was trying to show the difference in performing Celine and private Celine but if a conversation led to a particular clip being shown, it would have made more sense.

[comingback]

I'm still in shock about Celine's SPS crisis scene in the docu. I'm glad she is doing better now. Does anyone know the SPS community reaction about the docu?

[scielle]

Coverage of the doc on ABC News/ GMA: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/video/celine-dion-pulls-back-curtain-private-health-struggles-111432497

[mirage]

From that interview- Its so exciting and such a relief to hear her say the words surrounded by this new team (John & Joyce & Co.) How she says they are giving her space and time and have patience, only makes me assume Platel wasnt all of these things all the time.

Haven't watched that one yet, are they really gone now? Wonder why. I'm curious to know who Joyce is, if she has experience in this business.

 

Could somebody tell me who the 2nd guy was when she had her crisis? Couldn't tell if it was Jeremy the bodyguard.

 

In the beginning of the documentary they showed her having a crisis in what I think was a hotelroom.

I'm amazed that nothing about her health has been leaked to the press then.

Some stars have zero privacy when it comes to their health, but celine definitely surrounded herself with an amazing team.

 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-F721B met Tapatalk

 

 

[Nmj]

Haven't watched that one yet, are they really gone now? Wonder why. I'm curious to know who Joyce is, if she has experience in this business.

 

Could somebody tell me who the 2nd guy was when she had her crisis? Couldn't tell if it was Jeremy the bodyguard.

 

In the beginning of the documentary they showed her having a crisis in what I think was a hotelroom.

I'm amazed that nothing about her health has been leaked to the press then.

Some stars have zero privacy when it comes to their health, but celine definitely surrounded herself with an amazing team.

 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-F721B met Tapatalk

 

The Joyce is lady that poses with Celine outside her New York City premiere.

 

Yes, I thought the same. The opening spasm scene Seems to be in a hotel room? I wish we had more context of that incident and even someone who watched with me said I’m so surprised that none of the paramedics spoke off the record about this and nothing leaked to the media.

[scielle]

Coverage of the doc on ABC News/ GMA: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/video/celine-dion-pulls-back-curtain-private-health-struggles-111432497

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[rathnakumar]

I went to IMDb to check the rating and I read a couple of reviews and I just wanted to punch the people who wrote it. How disgusting are they to call her a narcissist. They're clearly just haters.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to rant here because I was so upset.

Edited June 26, 2024 at 01:00 PM by rathnakumar

[TommKat22]

#1 in the U.S. now too! ☺️

[Nmj]

#1 in the U.S. now too! ☺️

 

This will be her most successful “release” in ages. Ironically people are showing up for Celine the person, not Celine the singer. It all started with Irene she did the same. That’s true LEGEND status.

[jpatdeleon09]

I Am Celine Dion is now #3 on Prime Video PH

[drove all night]

Looks like the frame of René's picture (taken of the booklet of the soundtrack) was originally a mirror in their home in Admirals Cove.

 

What do you think? I'm pretty sure it's the same!

[Nmj]

Looks like the frame of René's picture (taken of the booklet of the soundtrack) was originally a mirror in their home in Admirals Cove.

 

What do you think? I'm pretty sure it's the same!

 

It’s probably still a mirror, she probably just has his photo taped inside it.

[ordinary fan]

Just watched the doc. Oh my ....

This was so incredible in so many ways. My love and respect for her grew even more, like beyond to describe for me. Thank you so so much Celine, you are so brave

[Nmj]

It might be a little effect, however‘s official Instagram followers is up over 100 K from 6.5 million to 6.6 million. So this documentary is definitely giving the buzz. Too bad our team doesn’t know how to run a social media page sadly.

 

It might be a little effect, however‘s official Instagram followers is up over 100 K from 6.5 million 6.6 million. So this documentary is definitely giving the buzz. Too bad our team doesn’t know how to run a social media page sadly.

Edited June 26, 2024 at 01:41 PM by Nmj

[sarit_celine]

After watching and I'm lost for words. What an amazing brave soul is dearest Celine.

[Shaun]

Powerful.

 

If I could choose only one word to describe the documentary that’s what it would be. I found it to be incredibly moving and it puts everything else into perspective. We worry about her not sounding good on a particular night when in fact she was living through an actual nightmare. Thank goodness she seems to have found treatment that works for her and has come out the other side of this.

 

“I think I was very good.” No Celine, you ARE very good and we’re here whenever you’re ready.

Edited June 26, 2024 at 01:44 PM by Shaun

[Ronny83]

Do you think there will be an "extended version" of the documentary?

 

Isn't it weird that the 2LP version of the soundtrack will be out in August?

[Lolo88]

Do you think there will be an "extended version" of the documentary?

 

Isn't it weird that the 2LP version of the soundtrack will be out in August?

 

I thought exactly the same thing 🤔 it's really weird they release the LP version in August 🧐

 

If there's an "extended version", will they release it in blu-ray or will it be released on Amazon Prime still? 🤔