Revisiting: ‘Amy’ Utilizes Archival Footage to Capture the Essence of Amy Winehouse
Courtesy of A24.
Over a decade since the passing of Amy Winehouse, the passionate force of her talent and artistry is still celebrated by music lovers from all walks of life. Known for her singular vintage sound and forthright North London personality, Winehouse skyrocketed to fame during her whirlwind career and left a tremendous legacy in British music. With an all too publicized struggle with addiction and mental illness, Winehouse was often mistreated and misunderstood in the public eye at the height of her career. Released four years after Winehouse's death, the 2015 documentary Amy leans greatly on archival footage from the late singer's life and interviews with her friends and family to capture the light and dark facets of her shortened time on earth.
Directed by documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Senna, 2010. Oasis: Supersonic, 2016), Amy made its world premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in the Midnight Section. Comprised almost entirely of home-movie footage from Winehouse's inner circle and paparazzi clips, Amy captures the late star's career from its earliest stages up to her premature death when she was just twenty-seven. Diverging from documentary techniques of talking heads and far-fetched connections to the work's subject, Amy relies on interviews with several of Winehouse's closest confidants, including her parents, her tumultuous husband, and her most intimate musical connections (Salaam Remi, Mos Def, Mark Ronson). In addition, clips from performances throughout Winehouse's career are heavily featured, with her lyrics displayed across the screen to accentuate their profound connections to Winehouse's life.
Courtesy of A24.
Kapadia's decision to stitch together archival footage to create Amy contributes significantly to the documentary's most remarkable achievements in capturing the essence of Winehouse's career. The rawness of the predominantly camcorder footage taken by Winehouse's friends and family matches the singer's emotional edge, catapulting audiences into the singer/songwriter’s personal history. The archival footage also allows Winehouse's powerful music to be platformed, showing performance coverage ranging from her earliest concerts to her very last, just days before her passing. The authenticity of the home footage connects strongly with the documentary's intimate interviews with Winehouse's closest confidants to manifest a powerful sense of who she was outside of her misconceived public image. In its entirety, Amy constructs a deeply emotional and compelling look into Winehouse's tragic story.
While Amy finds strength in its broad spectrum of interviews with Winehouse's dearest family and friends, moments of the documentary express certain biases towards some of the interviewees in a manner that can be manipulative to audiences. Amy extensively features interviews with Blake Fielder-Civil, Winehouse's poisonous husband of nearly three years, who introduced the late artist to many hard drugs and subjected her to intense physical and emotional abuse. While their tumultuous relationship undoubtedly affected Winehouse's life and influenced her choices, the documentary demonizes Fielder-Civil as one of the main catalysts to the late singer's ultimate downfall in ways that are too straightforward to make sense of a person's struggle with addiction. Similarly, Amy's treatment of Winehouse's father, Mitch Winehouse, condemns him as a central player in his daughter's undoing. Winehouse had a tempestuous relationship with her father after he walked out on their family during her teenage years, which undoubtedly left lasting influences on the late singer's relationships with the men in her life as well as her music (lyrics including "I can't help but demonstrate my Freudian fate"). But, again, this defamation of the patriarchal Winehouse can oversimplify his part in his daughter's life and her internal struggles
Courtesy of A24.
Despite its very few shortcomings, Kapadia's 2015 documentary Amy presents an honest and affecting portrayal of Winehouse's artistry and immense legacy as a singer. It is common knowledge in popular culture that Winehouse's private life was often harshly judged or even parodied by famous media personalities during the height of her career. In the decade-plus since Winehouse's death, watching Amy can allow audiences to reflect upon the changing roles of celebrities and how they are viewed or mistreated in the public eye.
Upon its release, Amy became a critical and commercial success among audiences, sweeping the awards season across film and music and garnering accolades including Best Documentary at the Oscars and BAFTAs, Best Music Film at the Grammys, and even a second posthumous nomination for British Female Solo Artist at the BRIT Awards For Winehouse. Amy's authentic portrayal of Winehouse was favored by most audiences, and the documentary continues to hold up as an emotional snapshot of a tragic and talented soul. As of this month, an Amy Winehouse biopic has been announced, with Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy, 50 Shades of Grey) set to direct. This project follows the exhausting trend of biopic adaptations of many ill-fated pop culture figures, with Bohemian Rhapsody and Judy serving as recent examples that failed to capture the core of their fascinating subjects.