Dalida

I prefer this one over the 2016 film which in my opinion was too shallow, confusing, and directed in a strange way which omitted too many important details, while giving often biased views of her life.

This 2-part TV film however also omits a large part of Dalida's life (the first 22 years of her life in Cairo, Egypt) where she was born and participated in several activities including her 1955 Miss Egypt Beauty Pageant which led her to participate in several Egyptian movies, until finally a French director discovered her while filming The Mask of Tutankamoun in Luxor, and persuaded her to try her luck singing in France.

Seems like both directors of this movie and the 2016 one don't want to show any details about her 22 years of living in Egypt. What a shame since she was already well-known in Egypt before moving to France and becoming an international star there. I'm sure a lot of fans would have liked to see what life in Egypt was like back in the 1950's-quite a modern, cosmopolitan, prosperous place to be full of people from different parts of the world including other Italians like Dalida's family, Greeks, Armenians, British, and even French.

Joyce Bunuel's bet to go with an Italian lead-actress who didn't look the least bit like Dalida and didn't speak a single word of French, was an awfully risky one! Yet, you can tell that Sabrina Ferilli did her homework and pulled it off brilliantly! 5 minutes is all it took for me to forget that she was dubbed. I immediately realized that she had spent half-a-year studying and rehearsing Dalida's every move and keen expressions! But the one thing she absolutely nailed down was displaying the sadness and agony that this woman endured her lifetime, the minute she stepped off stage.

Another pleasant surprise was that Christophe Lambert finally delivered what seemed to be his finest performance to date. I was led to believe that his supporting role was the most challenging one. Richard Chanfray was the most colorful lover Dalida shared her life with and to that extent, Lambert was accurate in his rendition.

My wife and I were thoroughly entertained and 3 hours went by in a breeze! If you don't know who Dalida was, do yourself a favor and find out why the earth stood still for everyone who did on May 3rd 1987!

I really don't understand why some people were so negative in their appraisal of this movie. I thought it was amazingly well-done, and in fact have watched it numerous times. It got to the point that I was calling friends over and forcing them to watch it with me, which I normally never do for a movie! In short, the acting was sensational ... you really feel for Ferilli as she's portraying all the twists and turns in Dalida's life. As for the moving being two fast ... it's a woman's entire life in two DVDs!! Be reasonable ... how much do you expect them to be able to fit in? Anyway, I say "Excellent Work!" and ... when is it coming out on DVD in North America? ;)

This TV bio is perfectly adapted to its subject: It has the intellectual gravity of a sea cucumber and the superficial good looks of the drama queen it depicts. Dalida's torments were mostly of her own making and the result of egotism, ignorance, narcissism, vanity, hormonal imbalances, greed, possessiveness, shallowness and narrowmindedness. There is no way this film can make them look interesting without resorting to dire soap opera effects, i.e. one surgical emergency after another whenever tension slacks or Dalida's career or chicken-hawk love affairs lapse into repetition. The series furthermore makes no effort to compare Dalida's output with that of her contemporary equals, e.g. Petula Clark et al., to describe her place in the variety firmament or to give a glimpse of the society she moved around in. Supporting roles are equally wasted, hollow and one-dimensional. Strictly for spectators of both sexes who wish to channel their inner drag queen...

I'm a huge (huge, really huge) fan of Dalida. I was waiting with great expectation for this movie. I saw it and couldn't find anywhere the Dalida I "know". Everything is shown in fast forward, one doesn't have time to absorb everything, because suddenly you have a subtitle saying "3 years later". The actress (probably) gave her best, but wasn't enough, even forgetting the physical unresemblance, the fact that she was dubbed doesn't help her much. Couldn't they find someone who speaks french? As Italian was not needed because even with her family or Luigi Tenco, she always spoke in french (odd, don' you think?). But pay close attention to Vittoria Scognamiglio, the french voice of Dalida - it's absolutely unbelievable. She the only thing that's worth on this movie: she managed to get the right tone, accent, color... you seem your listening to Dali's talking. The rest of the cast is average: Arnaud Giovaninetti and Charles Berling are above average. It's a shame that such a great story couldn't be told in another way: with a steady pulse, with passion and not with a soap opera undertone that discarded all possibilities of making something memorable. We'll always have her story...

PartII I've seen a couple of times more these series. Although I still agree with all from the above, I have to admit that some things start to look better: Sabrina Ferilli does a remarkable effort to convey the right feelings from this tormented character. The production valus are outsatnding: sets, props and wardrobe. The choice of the songs and the original soundtrack are great. I guess I really needed to see it once more to start enjoying. I've changed my rating from 3 to 5.