Four years after Britain’s greatest jazz artist passed, Asif Kapadia (Director of Senna) has released a revealing docu-film about the life and work of our beloved Amy Winehouse. In the past, many directors have tried to capture the beautiful rise and the devastating fall of the singer in documentaries including; Amy Winehouse What Really Happened, My Daughter – Amy Winehouse, and Amy Winehouse: The Untold Story, but all of which have been sorry attempts to fill the hole Amy left when she died. Kapadia’s Amy though is the documentary to end all documentaries. Through the seamless montaging of home-videos, studio recordings and interviews there is no rival to Kapadia’s glorious homage to Amy.
Despite the excellent reception amongst critics and fans alike, the film has not gone without its share of controversy and upset. The Winehouse family have denounced the picture as ‘inaccurate’ and they mentioned that they are going to make their own film about the star in collaboration with Reg Traviss (Amy’s boyfriend at the time of her death) whose voice is noticeably absent in Amy. It is not surprising that the family have reacted in this way. The viewer certainly does get the impression that her family –who were supposedly not around in the singer’s youth- sold their daughter out for the money she generated. However, Kapadia insists “The finished film that people are going to see is an honest representation of everything that we heard and saw. It’s not trying in any way to try and point a finger at any single person.”
Despite the excellent reception amongst critics and fans alike, the film has not gone without its share of controversy and upset.
The voice of Blake Fielder-Civil is haunting throughout the docu-film. His slow, melancholic commentary of their relationship plays a dark contrast to the upbeat footage we see of the couple together. Although Fielder-Civil is villanised alongside Mitch Winehouse in the film, it also makes it clearer than ever that those two men truly were the love of Amy’s life.
For me, what is really outstanding about this documentary is that the director never imposes himself on the story – you can tell that he genuinely just wants to create something worthy of the star’s memory. He allows Amy to tell her own legacy by showing her lyrics and key performances at poignant moments in her life. The Amy Winehouse story has always been told by the girl herself, this docu-film perfectly reiterates highlights what she has already said.
For more on Amy Winehouse and Kapadia’s Amy, see The Gryphon – Music section.
Cameron Tallant
(Images: Winehouse family, Neil McCormick and Film 4)