Asif Kapadia’s objective with Amy (2015) was to illustrate the other side of Amy Winehouse, and to do this, he constructs a very clear narrative throughout the documentary. It displays different periods of the titular singer’s life, such as her childhood, adulthood, and the parts before her death.
The narrative begins with showing clips of Amy in her teens singing and having fun with her friends. This informs the viewer of a couple of things, such as Amy’s singing talent but also the humane normality to her actions, contrasting the fabricated image that she had at the time of the documentary’s release. In essence, it introduces our ‘protagonist’. In this time, we get to see the thought process behind her early song writing, making them far more personalised.
throughout the narrative, we are introduced to the story’s antagonistic force, or at least as Kapadia portrays it. These characters are Mitchell Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil, Winehouse’s father and ex-fiancé respectively. They are presented as negative influences in her life in the narrative.
Kapadia uses the songs ‘Back to Black’ and ‘Rehab’ as a means to portray Winehouse’s state in the narrative. In the early half of the film, its an expression of her freedom and youthful creativity, while also explaining the deep personal involvement with the writing of both of the songs. by the end, however, it serves as a harrowing reminder of Winehouse’s swiftly declining mental and physical health as the song’s original message gets completely lost, and the once rebellious freedom it portrayed now instead represents her spiral into stardom insanity.
The final ‘act’ of Amy features her final days, as her life completely falls apart, leading up to her death. In many ways, this act reflects how her legacy was treated by the media and those around her; swarmed with paparazzi who do not care for her wellbeing, encouraged to her death by people who are in no place to help her, with a public image of drugs and alcohol. Other than her songs, which are now faceless imitations of their original selves, her legacy is all but forgotten. This is why the film is called Amy; it is Kapadia’s attempt to see beyond the poor public image of the singer and show things from the perspective of her as a person rather than a star, the one the media failed to capture.
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