"Dalida" is a French film from 2016, so still a relatively new work at this point, and this one was written and directed by Lisa Azuelos. Well, the book it is based on was of course not written by her, but the screenplay was and the film has the potential to become one of the filmmaker's most known career efforts, maybe even the number one. A lot of that has to do with lead actress Sveva Alviti, who carries the film strongly as she is in pretty much every single scene and it is definitely a breakthrough performance here. No denying that her looks help too just like Valentina Carli's, even if she is sadly not in that many scenes. This is a biopic about the singer Dalida, who was born in Cairo and had gigantic success in Europe thanks to her powerful voice. Of course she existed in reality too, even if I must admit I don't think I have heard of her before or I probably have and I just don't remember the name. But her music was good and I heard songs that I recognized from the Leningrad Cowboys and from the Tarantino film Kill Bill. The way they treated her music in here was interesting and it definitely wasn't as frequent as I thought it would be. At least in terms of what you see and in terms of the story. Instead they included Dalida's songs as voice-over on truly many occasions in this film. For me the approach was working.
In terms of plots and story-telling, the focus was on Dalida and the men in her life, her lovers, but also her brother. We find out how so many of them end up dying by committing suicide and how every time something inside Dalida dies, even if her relationships with these men may have been finished already at that point. I think all the actors did a good job and the ensemble performance is one of the film's biggest strengths. But sadly, in terms of story-telling, there were weaknesses. Sometimes it felt as if entire scenes were missing despite the long runtime and it hurts the film's flow on several occasions. One example would be the scene when she basically begs her freshly divorced boyfriend to marry her, to get her pregnant, so she can be a housewife and mother, but he refuses and one scene later we find out she does not love him anymore even, so I wonder how much time may have passed between these extremely contradictory scenes. Another example is the argument with her brother during the holiday celebrations in which she defends her considerably younger lover (for times back then) and which is so heavy that he quits the party. And in the next scene, they seem to be so close as if nothing happened at all while talking about her boyfriend as if she does not care one bit about him. This is also the pregnancy scene that results in an abortion, a conscious decision that backfires later on and hurts Dalida's mental state even more that she will never become a mother.
But all in all, I think the positive aspects of this are far more frequent than the negative and I believe this is rock-solid execution from start to finish. The music, acting (especially the lead performance), the real character references and also the visual side make up for occasional structure deficits in story-telling. It certainly one of the better recent French films I have seen and why stellar moments and greatness are not really existent here, I enjoyed the film from start to finish. People should check this one out and if they have a stronger connection with Dalida than I do, then I would not be surprised to see this one on several Best-of-the-year lists. If only the music component could have been depicted more convincingly and with this I am also talking about the title character's rise to stardom, which felt truly rushed. Anyway, all in all I give this film a thumbs-down and I suggest you check it out if you get a chance too. Worth seeing for sure.
In terms of plots and story-telling, the focus was on Dalida and the men in her life, her lovers, but also her brother. We find out how so many of them end up dying by committing suicide and how every time something inside Dalida dies, even if her relationships with these men may have been finished already at that point. I think all the actors did a good job and the ensemble performance is one of the film's biggest strengths. But sadly, in terms of story-telling, there were weaknesses. Sometimes it felt as if entire scenes were missing despite the long runtime and it hurts the film's flow on several occasions. One example would be the scene when she basically begs her freshly divorced boyfriend to marry her, to get her pregnant, so she can be a housewife and mother, but he refuses and one scene later we find out she does not love him anymore even, so I wonder how much time may have passed between these extremely contradictory scenes. Another example is the argument with her brother during the holiday celebrations in which she defends her considerably younger lover (for times back then) and which is so heavy that he quits the party. And in the next scene, they seem to be so close as if nothing happened at all while talking about her boyfriend as if she does not care one bit about him. This is also the pregnancy scene that results in an abortion, a conscious decision that backfires later on and hurts Dalida's mental state even more that she will never become a mother.
But all in all, I think the positive aspects of this are far more frequent than the negative and I believe this is rock-solid execution from start to finish. The music, acting (especially the lead performance), the real character references and also the visual side make up for occasional structure deficits in story-telling. It certainly one of the better recent French films I have seen and why stellar moments and greatness are not really existent here, I enjoyed the film from start to finish. People should check this one out and if they have a stronger connection with Dalida than I do, then I would not be surprised to see this one on several Best-of-the-year lists. If only the music component could have been depicted more convincingly and with this I am also talking about the title character's rise to stardom, which felt truly rushed. Anyway, all in all I give this film a thumbs-down and I suggest you check it out if you get a chance too. Worth seeing for sure.