Aline

And Compassionate Release, Plus Mahmoud Khalil

If you are a pop music fanatic, “Aline” just might blow you away. Cowritten by, directed by and starring Valèrie Lemercier, it is a pure act of super fandom. Lemercier, a well-known French actress (she last popped up in Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance”) has done the incredible. Securing the rights to Celine Dion’s life and music – but notably not her name – Lemercier has made a warts and all adaptation of the life of the pop songstress with the mammoth voice. And in Lemercier’s telling, there are and never will be any warts, so how dare you imply otherwise.

Lemercier gives a full-bodied performance as something of an alt-reality version of Celine Dion, a French-Canadian songstress named Aline Dieu, born to a crowded household of more than a dozen children. A frankly-amazing visual is that Lemercier plays a seven year old Aline, her head digitally superimposed on the body of a child. The effect is a great gag not only because it’s an amusing idea, but also because the effect is rather professionally done. It’s the first instance that this movie is dedicated towards examining that Aline’s/Celine’s life is frankly absurd, and yet it all happened as they say it is. Pop music in the nineties was a wild time, kids!

And that includes Dion’s own eyebrow-raising relationship with her manager. Rene Angelil famously met Celine Dion at an upsettingly-young age, and that element is preserved here. The hirsute Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel) is seen as an older Svengali who recognizes Aline Dieu’s talent from afar and recruits her to record and tour. In Lemercier’s retelling (which seems close to the record, a Dion fan might want to weigh in), Kamar watches Dieu grow up from afar as an innocuous observer, one self-conscious about his own age and appearance. It’s Lemercier’s Aline who longs for Kamar from afar, hoping her affections can be returned as she ages, and insecure that this brilliant man could ever see anything to love in the gawky, goofy songstress. Lemercier’s version of this relationship is nothing less than The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

From there, we follow the rise and, uh, rise of Dion’s career. She begins to fill the crowd at Canadian shows, and soon finds international acclaim. There’s no reference to her duet with R. Kelly, but there is a scene where she slags on “My Heart Will Go On” until Kamar convinces her it’s a good idea. All the while, we have probably the reason why Lemercier made this movie. She gets into a series of shiny dresses, gets onstage, and belts out the songs of Celine Dion. Victoria Sio is credited as the soundalike for these popular Dion hits, but that’s Lemercier nailing every single physical detail of Dion’s infamously wild dance moves.

The narrative plays out like every music biopic you’ve ever seen, with Dieu grieving over the death of Kamar. She is crestfallen, but she finds the strength within to go on. Because that’s what her heart would do, according to the song. Narratively, the film breaks no ground, though it is a marvel to see Lemercier stretch her fandom so far, playing Dieu as a child all the way to modern day. It could have been even wilder – there is footage on the cutting floor of Lemercier’s head grafted onto the body of baby Dieu. It’s stuff like this that maybe hints at why Celine Dion has been fairly mum about this movie. There are some rumors she’s seen it, but thus far, there have been no public comments. Good. Preserve the mystery, Celine! And THAT’S the way it ISSSSSSS!

Kamar passes on, of a terminal illness, at the end of “Aline” – in real life, Angelil was a victim of throat cancer. This recalls my memory of compassionate release, as it is represented in federal prison. As established in the hard-on-crime 90’s, parole and early release were abolished on the federal level. Since then, inmates are forced to endure at least 85% of your sentence. The only ways out are through officially commuted sentences, compassionate release, or death. It helps if you’re Paul Manafort.

Compassionate release is technically the most likely exit, or at least it should be. If you are of advanced age, you’re encouraged to make such a plea. However, they limit such a gesture for those who have violent crime on their record – sex crimes fit under this broad listing. It’s exceptionally difficult, and in fact it depends on how willing the Department of Justice is to show compassion. I was down during COVID, and William Barr very specifically was told to limit compassionate release proportionally. I knew plenty of people with respiratory problems and a few guys with terminal illnesses. They all applied for compassionate release, but I never saw any of them get the certification that they were selected. One day, they all just disappeared. Think about that – the idea is that it is somehow conditional that some people have to die in prison, the last place anyone wants to die. Whatever the situation, it doesn’t convey what they think it’s conveying.

Shortly before publishing this, I became aware of the status of Mahmoud Khalil, an American citizen who has been imprisoned and will potentially be deported as per the orders of the President. I want to stress this as hard as I can — Khalil was an American Citizen who Committed No Crimes. Khalil, a Palestinian man who had just graduated from Columbia University, had been a protester in campus against the Israeli occupation. He was arrested and detained by ICE. He is an American citizen.

I wrote about my concerns regarding this issue before. But that was an “oopsie”, at the intersection of racism and incompetence. This is another matter. If you ever wondered what it would look like when the President waged war against the people of his country, you’re looking at it right now. So far, it looks like people are laying down. The mainstream media is barely reporting this. Columbia put out a “diplomatic” press release in response that, essentially, threw Khalil under the bus. The ADL actually approved of the decision.

I thought a lot about this. Khalil had become a prisoner because he was speaking out over the deaths of innocents and the danger his homeland faces. They locked him up for it, and now he’s being forced to leave his eight-months-pregnant wife in America. On the same day, Tony Hinchcliffe received a fancy new Netflix deal. Hinchcliffe, who called my Puerto Rico (OUR Puerto Rico, as it’s American territory) an island of trash. Hate speech was rewarded in America, a couple of days after protest language got a man arrested and deported.

Khalil’s life is likely ruined by this, and it’s doubtful a Trump presidency would let him back in. But this is only a warning shot. Trump has his friends, and whatever speech they want snuffed out, they will snuff out, and put you in cuffs for saying it. If you rightfully call Vladimir Putin a murderer, you’re a target. If you slander Amazon or Facebook, you’re a target. If you accurately call Donald Trump a rapist (because he’s raped women), you’re a target. Columbia bent the knee, and afterwards they still lost funding from the White House, $400 million. There’s no benefit to bending the knee.

Now, I’m back in prison, with you. We’re all in prison, and this is a prison state. When I was in prison, I never lived without fear. I knew that if you say or do something “untowards” (or even if it SEEMS you do), a cop could cuff you up and throw you in the SHU, for months on end. Guess it’s the same now. Maybe you won’t have your citizenship revoked (maybe you will!), but you will be apprehended, and imprisoned. In prison, you also have to worry about those around you who might snitch you out. Trump and company have enough Fox News viewers and foot soldiers that now, your neighbor might be coaxed into trading his humanity too. If you hear something, say something.

This is not about crime, it’s not about the First Amendment. This is about silencing dissent — we have a boy-child President who demands worship and this is one of many ways he thinks he’ll get it. He wants you to kiss his ring, forever. If not, he wants you dead. It really is that severe. Your typical corrupt government would do this in secrecy, and we’d hear nothing about Khalil. These boys are bragging about it. They’re crowing. They hate you.

There is good news and there is bad news. The bad news is, the only way you can reach this administration is to hurt them. Hurt them bad, hurt them irreparably, hurt them with intention and confidence. The good news is, you don’t have to do this physically. These people are weak. Donald Trump wants to deport protesters not because he cares about what is being protested, but because it’s a suggestion from his rich supporters, and he’s been convinced it gets in the way of the universal adulation he thinks he earns, he thinks he deserves.

But if enough people let him know he’s not worshiped, not beloved, he can be hurt. The worst thing you can do to him is make him feel little. It’s extremely easy to make a bully like him feel little, but it’s something no one is willing to do. It’s something of which he’s still unfamiliar. Don’t stand by while he erodes your freedom. Be outspoken. Call your representatives. Let them all know he’s a little person. Let them all know that if we do this together, he won’t know what to do. You are nothing to him, but he is nothing to US without our love. Withhold it. Let him know it can’t be requested, can’t be purchased.

Now is the time. we have no choice but to hurt his feelings. Hurt Donald Trump’s feelings, and stand up for yourself. Keep speaking the truth about Donald Trump, and he will lose. Don’t stop protesting. Don’t go silent. Make him sweat. He’s an elderly man, just a little bit of sweat can change everything. Hurt him for Mahmoud Khalil. Hurt him for yourself.