Entertainment

Cult Movie: Talent does the talking in Winehouse doc

Amy Winehouse performs Rehab during 2007 MTV Movie Awards
Amy Winehouse performs Rehab during 2007 MTV Movie Awards Amy Winehouse performs Rehab during 2007 MTV Movie Awards

Amy

AROUND the time of her Back To Black album Amy Winehouse recorded a session and interview for me on BBC Radio Ulster. Truth be told, she was, at that time, just another singer doing the rounds to promote her latest record.

I was familiar with and, if I’m honest, a little ambivalent towards her first album Frank but I’d liked what I’d heard of her new stuff. Being an old soul boy, I’d dug the Ray Charles flavour of Rehab and admired the sense of Shangri-Las girl group melodrama that hung over tracks like Back to Black.

So the session was booked and in swanned Amy, slightly world weary guitarist in tow. I offered to set up a mic stand for her but she politely refused, saying she was happy to perform sitting down. She then proceeded to sing Love Is A Losing Game from the new album.

From a purely musical perspective the track was a heart-wrenching ballad that would do Billie Holliday proud but the performance she gave of it seated just a foot or so away from me that afternoon was easily the most soulful and moving session I’ve ever had the privilege of witnessing.

That she did it while chewing gum and sitting with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her leather jacket only added to the casual magic. A short but lively conversation about her passion for 60s soul and The Specials later and she was gone, the media whirlwind of her future waiting ominously around the corner.

The reason I share this shameless showbiz story with you today is that Amy, the quite remarkable documentary that traces the singer's all-too-brief life, is currently running at the QFT in Belfast and is well worth seeing.

For a life that was driven into the tabloid mud with depressing speed, Asif Kapadia has taken a cool-headed, sensible approach to the story. Rather than glory in the media glare that surrounded the young singer once that Back to Black album had found a place in the public’s collective heart, Kapadia lets the talent do the talking.

There is no narrator here to lead us in, no hand-wringing celebrity friends to say how much her music meant to them. Instead lyrics float heartbreakingly on to the screen, teenage diaries are trawled for clues and unguarded moments caught on camera are shared.

At times this approach makes for almost painfully sad viewing. Watching the bright and funny young girl drain away into the horror of heroin dependency is tough going. If Amy comes across as a confused and troubled woman harried by fame and a fatal love for a man who was destined to only accelerate her decline then others are less fortunate. Footage of lazy TV comics from Frankie Boyle to Graham Norton using her spectacular collapse into addiction for cheap one-liners is crass and depressing.

Kapadia has charted high-speed life before with Senna but Amy takes the art form even further. Some – including Amy’s father Mitch who branded the film-makers “a disgrace” – may not see this as the real story of her life but in purely filmic terms this is harrowing in its depth and hugely impressive in its structure. Remember her this way.