Delivering Powerhouse Emotions and Performance for Aline – Celine Dion Inspired Biopic

• MPC Film & Episodic is among the nominees on the shortlist for a 2022 Genie Award – Best Visual Effects - Feature Film – to be presented at Paris Images Digital Summit on January 26.

Aline is the life story of Canadian singing sensation Aline Dieu, loosely based on power vocalist Celine Dion. After a successful world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition), the biopic was released in cinemas in France and other countries, and acquired by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films for U.S. distribution, with a theatrical release now slated for April 8.

In a joint statement as reported by Variety, Roadside and Goldwyn said, “Valérie’s (Lemercier) tour de force performance as an emerging worldwide singing superstar created an enormous splash at Cannes this year, and we think American audiences will be every bit as thrilled to discover this one-of-a-kind entertainer in movie theaters early in 2022.”

Lemercier, one of France’s most popular actors and comedians, not only stars as Aline/Celine, but directed and co-wrote the film. In her multiple roles, she worked closely with MPC Film & Episodic VFX Supervisor Sebastien Rame. Over a six-month period, the VFX team worked on over 520 shots designed to bring powerhouse emotions and songs to the big screen.

The director/star sat down with Rame in MPC’s Paris office for a joint interview conducted by Charlotte Lipinska of Télématin, which aired on France Television. They discussed the unique challenge presented by the early scenes in which Lemercier portrays the singer at a very young age.

“We immediately dismissed the idea of putting an older face on a younger body,” says Lemercier. “If I play a child, if I don’t have my body, if I don’t have my hands, I can’t do it. I need to be whole, so Sebastien Rame was there all the time, from the beginning, on the set.”

“There were lots of different techniques,” explains Rame, “but in this case, we moved the camera back to get the impression that Valerie was smaller. So in one scene with the brothers and sisters, we were calculating the proper ratio to position the camera backwards, to get the size of the “real little girl” … For the storytelling, what makes it work is that it’s Valerie playing the child, there is no doubt about it.”

Watch the full interview at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTQnc9WMAj4