With Back to Blackit’s a new biographical film (biopic) on the dazzling career and stormy life of British singer Amy Winehouse who is about to hit the screens, starting in the United Kingdom on Friday.
Even before its release in France on April 24 then in the United States and Canada on May 17, the film was criticized for its bias on the life of the late singer and for having surfed on the sulphurous reputation of the artist, who suffered deeply from public attention and tabloid harassment.
“Given the vulture-like attitude with which people have pursued her life, it’s almost impossible to find a sincere reason to make a film about Winehouse, or at least one that isn’t motivated by bait and switch. gain,” castigated music journalist Roisin O’Connor in The Independent.
Amy Winehouse, who was found dead of an alcohol overdose in 2011 at the age of 27, left her mark on the music world with her raspy soulful voice, her intimate and powerful lyrics, and her unique style inspired by pin-up from the 1950s, with sauerkraut bun, broad black eyeliner and multiple tattoos.
In 2006, his second album Back to Blackawarded a Grammy in the United States, made him known throughout the world, carried by his hit Rehabin which the Londoner recounted her battle against addiction.
THE biopic by British director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of grey) is the second film dedicated to the singer after Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning documentary, Amyin 2015, which was criticized by the Winehouse family.
This film, the second highest-grossing documentary in British box office history, dwelled too much on the negative aspects of the star’s life, denounced his father, who also castigated his representation as a “greedy” man and “seeking attention”.
He attended the film’s premiere in London on Monday evening with his ex-wife, Janis, but director Sam Taylor-Johnson insisted the singer’s family had no part in it.
“It was important to meet them out of respect,” she explained to Empire, “but they couldn’t change things, or dictate to me what I should shoot.”
Quest for “truth”
The filmmaker emphasized having sought “the truth” about Amy Winehouse’s life: “Amy loved her father, whatever he did, good or bad.”
Actor Eddie Marsan, who plays Mitch Winehouse, said he tried to avoid falling into the “comfortable” position of “blaming someone” for the singer’s death, whether it was her father or her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
Back to Black also depicts their stormy romantic relationship, her former companion having been accused of having introduced her to heroin.
Blake Fielder-Civil said in 2018 that he would always carry the “burden of guilt” for playing a role in Amy Winehouse’s addictions.
Marisa Abela, who plays the singer, stressed that the aim of the film was not to “judge” the characters in the story and their decisions: “If viewers feel that Amy should not have loved or trusted to this or that person, it is their right […], but the only bad guys in our story are addictions and the paparazzi. We don’t tell people what to think.”
Despite mixed reviews, this film promises to be a success given the aura that still surrounds the singer, almost 15 years after her death, and the attraction for musical biopics, often profitable regardless of their quality.
Ed Potton, from the newspaper The Timesfinds the film “a little light”, and if he welcomes the efforts made by Marisa Abela to sing like Amy Winehouse, he judges that she is not up to the height of her inimitable voice.
For Peter Hoskin of Daily Mail, the film fails to illustrate the singer’s “rebellious genius”. “Better to listen Back to Blackthe album or the song, and thus remember what made Amy a star”.