Amy,
released in 2015, takes the form of a documentary style piece telling the life
and death of singer songwriter Amy Winehouse whom was found dead in her Camden
home, aged only 27. The British made film directed by Asif Kapadia has received
29 film awards to date including a BAFTA and an Oscar. The film took £3million
from the box office in the opening weekend however also received controversy
for its portrayal of Amy's father Mitch whom attempted to sue as he felt he was
shown to neglect Amy when it came to her health. Overall, the film was a great
success in giving an insight into the late singers private life, showing unseen
footage and hearing her friends and family reminisce. According to the film and various interviews shown
throughout it became apparent that initially Amy wanted to stay true to her
humble upbringing and simply write songs and produce them. A clip from her first
interview with Jonathan Ross is shown and she talks of being made to
take elocution lessons, an example of how the industry tried to shape
her into their ideal from a very young age, simply to make her more marketable.
Several years into her career Amy was on demand by various labels, overwhelmed,
she attempted to change management as she feared she was being moulded into a
pop star and was losing herself. In the end, Amy became bigger and more successful
than she expected. She started out as blues and soul singer with the aim to
create music and reach out to a fan base of this genre. Instead her character
and wit meant that people fell in love with her and how to down to earth she
was. Her music became more and more popular across a wide audience to the point
where her music could be heard globally.
Since Amy's death technology has had a huge impact on Amy's
career. When she died her friends took a vow of silence to never discuss
her private life. Kapadia however conducted over a 100 interviews with friends
and families, in a sensitive and personal way that friends of Amy felt comfortable with. Kapadia said in an interview
for The Telegraph I just sat there in a room
with a microphone,’ he says. ‘I turned the lights off and we sat in the dark
and talked. It became the technique for this film because it was so personal. Sometimes
people wouldn’t want to talk, or they’d agree to talk just for 10 minutes, then
it would become an hour, two hours, five hours…’ . On the other hand, it
wasn’t always the case that technology had a positive impact on her life. Her
brief relationship with Blake was often documented in the media, and from this is
what most believe was the demise of Amy as her drug and alcohol fuelled life is
what lead to her death in 2011.
Kapadia explores various representations throughout. The representation of issues is shown through Amy's drug and alcohol abuse, also the pressure she felt from the music industry and pressure to produce albums despite her telling management that she wasn't in the right place to write. The representation of youth is explored as Amy was 27 when she died and therefore became apart of the '27 club' amongst other stars such as Kurt Cobain that died so young due to reckless living driven by alcholism and drug addiction. In addition, family issues are represented through the seperation of her parents when she was 8 years old which it is believed was her downfall and what ultimately lead to her being so dependant on Blake and on substance abuse.
