Asif Kapadia’s deeply affecting Amy Winehouse documentary delves beyond the tabloid headlines. Here’s Jamie Graham’s reaction…
Far from being another long-lensed ogle at the supernova that was Amy Winehouse, Asif Kapadia’s (Senna) heart-breaking documentary is a startlingly intimate affair, gaining access to friends, lovers and family – and their treasure trove of photos and videos – to caress the soul of an extraordinary artist, a vivacious young woman.
Winehouse’s closest friends, family, business colleagues and husband, Blake Fielder-Civil (whom many consider introduced Amy to hard drugs) all have their say, and Kapadia allows their accounts to play without imposing editorial judgement. Each viewer will arrive at his or her own valuation, no doubt. What is inarguable, however, is that there were times, and many of them, when a different path might have been taken. Certainly the tabloid-presented persona of Winehouse as a defiant, kamikaze wild child is shown to be fraudulent: here was a woman whose hurt ran deep, who was ill-equipped for fame and who was open to healing. As singer Tony Bennett says, “Life teaches you to live it, if you can live long enough.” (A touching scene shows Winehouse, aged 26, recording a track with Bennett; nervous to be sharing a mic with one of her idols, she repeatedly asks to do it again, distraught that she’s messing up.)
Kapadia makes the decision to conclude his film soon after Amy’s death, aged 27. The years of alcohol, heroin, crack cocaine and bulimia have taken their toll, and the filmmaker feels no need to measure the repercussions, trace the legacy: Amy has already succeeded in commemorating its subject's spirit and talent, with the tragedy of her loss once more feeling fresh and overwhelming.
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