This’ll25 take you Black
New film charts life & death of flawed singer Winehouse
A NEW biopic on the life, legacy and music of tragic icon Amy Winehouse is out this weekend. Here, takes a first look at the muchawaited film, Back To Black.
ERIN MCCAFFERTY
The latest film to chronicle the life of singer Amy Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at 27, opens in cinemas on Friday.
Directed by Sam Taylor-johnson, Back to Black charts her life growing up in London, her path to music superstardom and her sad downfall at such a young age.
But unlike other films about her, it focuses on her relationships with her father Mitch, grandmother Cynthia and husband Blake Fielder-civil.
It was never going to be easy to make a film about
Amy, given the singer’s iconic status and her legions of die-hard fans around the world.
But Johnson, has created a perfectly paced movie, that provides an insight into the standout events of her short, but drama-filled existence, while remaining sympathetic to her flawed and loveable character.
It hinges on the performance of Marisa Abela, a little-known British actress, who plays Amy.
She certainly looks the part and her moves, gestures and speaking voice are all close to the mark, even if her singing is not up there with world famous vocalist Amy.
The first shot is an aerial view of Amy, running through the streets of inner-city London.
“I want to be remembered for just being me,” she says in a raw London accent, as she pounds the concrete pavements.
She’s seen in her trademark look: winged eyeliner, raven black beehive, heavy gold jewellery and low-cut leopard print top. The potential of a talented and precocious young woman struggling to find her place in the world is emphasised at first. We view her turbulent relationship with her emotionally stunted dad, played by Eddie Marsan, who drives a taxi and seems at a loss as to how to handle his sassy daughter.
Their Ashkenazi Jewish culture, in 1990s London, provides a backdrop for the drama.
The relationship between Amy and her much-loved grandmother, who she refers to as Nana, and which is beautifully played by Lesley Manville, is a poignant one.
It is Cynthia, a former stage singer, who inspires her love of the music and the fashions of the 1960s. She also mothers her in the absence of her real mum Janis (we only get a glimpse of her in the movie), and who becomes her confident when she falls for working class bad-boy Blake.
CHEMISTRY
There is sizzling on-screen chemistry between Amy and Blake, played by Jack O’connell, when they first meet in a bar in Soho.
They can’t keep their hands off each other, even though he already has a girlfriend.
Their relationship flourishes at first, but he clearly feels threatened by her increasing fame, and urges her to give up singing.
Her drinking becomes heavier as the movie unfolds. She becomes violent towards Blake, leaving his face covered in scratches when drunk. In real life, Amy was also bulimic, and though this is not shown, it’s referenced towards the end.
What we see is the gradual and tragic unravelling of a talented, but vulnerable character, as their relationship disintegrates, in tandem with her skyrocketing music career.
The pair were married between 2007 and 2009 in a romantic but rocky on-off relationship.
It’s after she and Blake have broken up again, and he’s imprisoned for beating up a barman, that she tries heavier drugs.
While we presume this is a moment of despair, it’s not adequately explained, one minute,
she’s drinking vodka, and the next, she’s addicted to drugs.
After going to rehab, when Amy hears Blake has fathered a child with his former girlfriend, she falls apart.
The cracks begin to show in her performances, and within weeks she has died from alcohol poisoning.
However, we’re simply told this at the end, and not shown how.
The film ends with Amy repeating the same phase she started with, “I want to be remembered for just being me”.
Cinema audiences can decide if Back to Black has done that.