DALIDA

U.S. Premiere • Drama, Biopic • France, 2017

DCP • 2.35 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 124 min

Written and directed by: Lisa Azuelos

Cinematography: Antoine Sanier

Film Editing: Baptiste Druot

Original Score: Jean-Claude Petit, Laurent Perez Del Mar

Produced by: Lisa Azuelos (Bethsabée Mucho), Pathé Production, TF1 Films Production

Cast: Sveva Alviti (Dalida), Riccardo Scamarcio (Orlando), Jean-Paul Rouve (Lucien Morisse), Nicolas Duvauchelle (Richard Chanfray), Alessandro Borghi (Luigi Tenco)

International Sales: Pathé Distribution

 

In the tradition of French chanson a singer’s ability to sell the audience on the emotions of the song is everything. Few did this better than Dalida. Over the course of 30 years beginning in the 1950s, this Egypt-born Italian became a French idol with a guileless voice and sensual stage persona, selling 170 million records worldwide. But all that professional bliss came packaged with a fair amount of private torture. This glittery biopic faithfully chronicles the complexities of being a liberated woman in a less liberated era, as well as the ferocious passions of a life in which, despite all the triumphs, suicide became a recurring theme. Lavish recreations of Dalida’s most memorable performances, as well as cleverly edited archive material, distill her stylistic range, from her early incarnation as a yé-yé girl to the sequins and polyester of the disco diva years. Unknown Italian model turned actress, Sveva Alviti, breaks through with a star-making performance, landing both the privately insecure woman and the legendary chanteuse with uncanny aplomb.

 

Knowing that casting can be a big hurdle with biopic, writer/director Lisa Azuelos made a bold decision to go with an unknown. Her international search for the perfect lead took her as far as Greece and Italy. For some this might be an extreme approach, but this was a passion project for a filmmaker not especially known for tackling heavier material. Azuelos got her first foothold in the industry as a writer for television comedy. She hit pay dirt with her 2008 runaway hit LOL, Laughing Out Loud ®, a comedy that so neatly bottled the zeitgeist of a generation, she was invited to remake the feature in Hollywood in 2012. She followed that up with the Francois Cluzet and Sophie Marceau starring Quantum Love (COLCOA 2014). To squeeze the events of Dalida’s life into a 2-hour screenplay, Azuelos worked closely with writer Jacques Pessis, and Dalida’s brother and manager Orlando who with novelist Catherine Rihoit, penned a biography of his beloved sister in 2009.