“Amy” is the documentary film about the tormented life and death of Amy Jade Winehouse, one of the most incredible and controversial singer and songwriter of all times. Amy was found dead on 23 July 2011 in her house in Camden, London, poisoned by alchohol. She was only 27.
The World Premiere had place at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2015, while the UK premiere was in June, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It was released theatrically on the 3rd July 2015 in UK and USA, and worldwide on 10 July. The movie earned 3.44 millions of pounds and became the second most seen documentary in UK, overtaking “Senna” (3.17 millions) and “March of the penguins” (3.3 millions). But is still far from “Fahrenheit 9/11” by Michael Moore (6.5 millions). The producer James Gray declared:
“The country falled in love again with her and is satisfying to have contributed in creating a more complete image of someone who was misunderstood a lot during her life. It has been a great honour to have had the possibility to tell her story”
The director Asif Kapadia, talking to NME about the documentary, told about the rage rising in him while realizing the movie and that he would like that also the audience can experience the same anger.
“The people who watch the movie tend to feel guilty” says Kapadia ” Maybe because everyone of us thought this girl was a bully and laughed at her. We never thought at what we could do for her. She was a disturbed girl but still everyone: every comedian, every presenter treated her without thinking about it”.
THE FAMILY
The family of the singer took a distance from the documentary. Amy’s mother declare that the movie is “misleading and contains lies: testimonies has been collected between a few chosen of Amy’s friends and acquaintances, most of whom neither took part in the last part of her life. While the father of the singer says “The first time I saw it I felt awful. Amy herself whould have been angry for it and would have never accepted it”.
Anyway the movie has been a real success with an incredible rating by all the critics.
As riveting as it is sad, Amy is a powerfully honest look at the twisted relationship between art and celebrity—and the lethal spiral of addiction Rotten Tomatoes
