Dalida 2017

In 1967, Dalida makes a desperate hotel exit that ends in suicide attempts, and the people closest to her rush in to piece together the many facets of her life. Standing with her are three men who each see a different side of who she is: her ex-husband Lucien Morisse, her former lover Jean Sobieski, and her brother Orlando (Bruno). Together, they lay out a story of a woman whose inner world was shaped by love, fame, insecurity, and a fierce drive to create.

Dalida grew up with a passionate love for music, inspired by a father who was a violinist in Cairo, yet she carried the ache of feeling unattractive because of the large glasses she wore. Her talents would carry her to Paris, where Lucien Morisse, a radio programmer, discovered her and fell for her, even leaving his wife for a chance at something lasting. She married him, but his focus on building her career and delaying marriage sometimes left her feeling unsettled. Soon after, she began an affair with artist Jean Sobieski, a relationship that would again complicate her sense of self. The pattern continued when she left Sobieski to pursue a romance with the temperamental musician Luigi Tenco.

Tenco’s volatile presence culminates in tragedy when he has a breakdown and walks off stage at the 1967 Sanremo Music Festival, later taking his own life. Dalida discovers his body, and many friends and family believe this moment helps precipitate the deepening storm in her mental health. The shock reverberates through her life, but it is not the end of her story. With the support of her brother, she begins to rebuild, returning to the recording studio and finding new audiences as she travels to perform in Italy.

As a new chapter unfolds, she meets a young 22-year-old student with whom she starts a love affair. When she learns she is pregnant, she makes the difficult choice to terminate the pregnancy, believing the timing wouldn’t allow for a responsible upbringing and recognizing the strain of parenthood in a life still intertwined with romance. The relationship ends, but her career and resilience begin to reassert themselves.

Orlando steps into a more active role, managing her career and guiding a period of renewed public success. In the meantime, Morisse’s shadow grows heavier, and he ultimately dies in their old apartment, leaving a complex void in the narrative of her life.

Dalida then enters a relationship with media personality Richard Chanfray. For the first time, she feels a sense of safety and stability, yet the relationship soon sours. He becomes entangled in a violent incident, accidentally shooting the boyfriend of her housekeeper, and Dalida is left to navigate a messy settlement to keep him out of legal trouble. Jealousy and tension arise as Richard’s interference with her career grows, and Dalida even records an album with him, despite his lack of singing talent. A second pregnancy looms in her mind, but another abortion devastates her body—she discovers the procedure has destroyed her uterus, ending any chance of carrying a child herself. A New Year’s Eve party becomes a breaking point: after Richard’s public taunts about her struggle with an eating disorder, she ejects him from her life. He would not survive the night.

With the personal turmoil gradually contained, Dalida returns to work and achieves critical and popular success, notably starring in Le Sixième Jour, a performance that earns her high praise and helps her regain a national welcome, even as she travels back to Egypt to be celebrated by her fans there. Yet the triumph is haunted by the emotional toll of years of heartbreak, creative pressure, and the relentless spotlight. The isolation deepens, and the bulimia grows more severe, pushing her toward a painful conclusion. In the end, Dalida’s life closes in the face of unbearable sorrow, leaving behind a note that speaks to life’s overwhelming difficulty and the quiet necessity of rest.

This portrait threads together music, romance, fame, and pain, tracing how a woman who began with a violinist’s dream and glasses that made her feel unseen moved through a world that kept asking for more—until the weight became too heavy to bear.