“Back to Black”: Eindimensionaler Film über Amy Winehouse | BR24
New Critic in German
1 Like
I think there are only two ways to make a feature film about Amy and neither of them work because Amy was just too connected to her music. In this respect, a feature film is simply not feasible. Either you have an actress doing the dubbing or a halfway good singer (and that would sound like karaoke). The makers of the film (and Mitch) simply didn’t understand that. Kapadia got it right with the film, by the way, he once said that he had more material - so I would like to see that. Mitch constantly says that he loves Amy, but his actions say otherwise: In his book he shows Amy as a toddler on Cynthia’s lap with no clothes on, sorry, I don’t think that’s possible, especially not in public. He’s auctioning off her underwear (yes, yes, the foundation), important things that surely meant a lot to her, like her blue Fender Stratocaster guitar. My absolute nightmare would be that he sells the rights to Back to Black to advertising and then I hear it as a jingle, sorry, I’m serious. Amy’s works are worth nothing to this person. Poor Amy.
4 Likes
Me again, I looked for reviews all day today and found a lot of positive ones. It really makes me sick how people like this shit. What a shame, and then I saw Dale Davis and Ade at the official opening. How can they approve of something like that? I’m just angry and sad. But apparently there are a lot of people who don’t love Amy as much as we do here on the forum. The exploitation continues…
4 Likes
I haven’t watched it but I have felt repulsed by it since they announced it, and I think it looks sooo tacky. I’m not surprised it’s been panned. The reviews are terrible across the board. I’m glad. The continued exploitation is disgusting. I wonder what will come next?
3 Likes
The Evening Standard is pulling no punches.
1 Like
So I’ve now tormented myself through the Spanish version of the film. And painfully true, I only persevered to write this review. The fact that I didn’t understand any of the dialogue was actually a good thing because it meant I could concentrate entirely on the actors. In general, the film seems like a cheap Spanish telenovela. I’m glad that Marisa sings herself, it all sounds the same, but at least Amy’s voice was kept out.
First things first, Amy’s personality, which we all love and what made her so extraordinary: her intelligence, her humor, her bubbly energy - none of that can be found. Even worse, in many scenes Amy comes across as extremely unsympathetic, even aggressive and like a little child. All the actors seem one-sided and I had trouble even identifying them. Except Mitch, of course, the loving father who is always by her side. Blake seems just as unbelievable as Amy, the scene of him dancing in the pub almost has something humorous about it. I only know Blake through the interviews, but to me he always seemed very calm, nothing looked right either, Blake was very thin and didn’t look like he had just come out of the music shop.
Marisa seems to confuse singing with facial contortions. The whole film is full of errors in content:
Amy smoked joints, here cigarettes
Blake taking Amy to the Shangri-Las was her own idea
She got the Beehive from her Aunt Cynthia, see above
When Amy finds out that Cynthia has cancer, she sits with her on a bench - she was in New York at the time
Appears with Frank in the Camden Crawl - was only in 2007
Cynthia is buried in the coffin and laid out - burned
Street scene merged with Sanderson Hotel - was in Los Angeles
Blake’s arrest at Jeffreys Place- was in Bow
Amy’s acceptance speech at the Grammys-Blake is omitted
But I think the biggest presumption is that they made their song Back to Black as if Amy had written it about Cynthia!
The whole film is full of errors (wrong wardrobe etc.), time errors. It’s hardly about Amy’s music, and maybe that’s a good thing. Good actors should be able to convey different emotions at the same time - nobody can do that here.
The only positive thing (if that’s really the case), the scene where she overdoses, was probably cut out?
I’m glad that’s behind me now, so if you want to get in a really bad mood, check it out.
5 Likes
I just watched it and I don’t know how, but I also managed to understand some of the dialogue (I don’t speak Spanish, but maybe some similarities with Italian helped me a bit 
)
Most of the time while watching, I felt either annoyed by the historical inaccuracies and by some scenes that to my eyes were nothing but a lack of respect towards Amy, or totally detached during scenes that just couldn’t remind me of Amy’s soul in any way.
When I talk about disrespectful scenes, I don’t think only of those clips we had already seen, like Marisa/Amy acting madly during Blake’s arrest, or being unnecessarily selfish and aggressive. I also think of Blake introducing Amy, who claims she never heard of them, to the Shangri-Las, and also of Cynthia “creating” the beehive for Amy. To me, these are not only historical inaccuracies: they also end up, maybe unintentionally, obscuring Amy’s originality and creativity, as well as her amazing knowledge and taste in music. Indeed, they chose to focus on the love story between Amy and Blake, which could be an understandable screenplay choice, but in the end this left almost no space for showing Amy’s talent. Even the development of her career remains in the background: from her marriage onwards, she is shown performing only three times: at the Shepherd’s Bush (singing a song that wasn’t on the setlist), at Glastonbury 2008 (one of the few scenes they recreated quite well) and at the Grammys (yes, they made her perform at Glastonbury before winning the Grammys). Of course her addiction problems and her relationship with Blake had an enormous impact on her during that period, but how can you fully understand what Amy’s life was like in 2007 if she’s never seen touring around the world?
We can’t hear Marisa’s rendition of Amy’s voice because of the Spanish dub. As for her appearance and singing, only in very few shots she somehow reminded me of Amy (I wasn’t expecting more than that, especially when it comes to singing – sometimes, however, she sounds autotuned, which is annoying). I don’t think the actress is to blame, with such a hard task to accomplish (we can all agree that nobody could ever look and sound exactly like Amy) and, most of all, with such a poorly written script to follow.
On a positive note, I think it’s good they managed to give Cynthia enough space, and the scenes they put here and there showing Amy’s desire to become a mother were bittersweet. The first encounter with Blake could also have been enjoyable, had it not been for that absurdity of him “teaching” Amy about the Shangri-Las 
but all in all, I had the impression of a very bad-written movie (the second half in particular seemed pretty confused, and the historical misplacements didn’t help) which forgot to put the focus on Amy’s greatness, so that her portrait ends up being incomplete, not to say unfair.
5 Likes
I thought the same thing… I was trying not to be too harsh because I don’t understand Spanish, but the errors, wrong outfits and pacing made it really hard to be open minded. I will say the singing wasn’t as horrendous as I thought it would be. And I’m glad they didn’t add Wake Up Alone in that one scene of Marisa reenacting Sheperds Bush because that would have made me angry :D The scene where Amy tells Mitch she got married and he falls to his knees was so corny but probably the funniest part of the movie to me 
This was just a bad movie in general and felt very lifeless.
5 Likes
It sounds so absolutely terrible that it almost makes me to curious to see it, although I know I would be outraged throughout!
4 Likes
All I’ve got to say about this whole thing is I wanted it to be good, at least enjoyable like Bohemian Rhapsody was that introduced Queen to a new generation of fans, but instead we get this hot trash. The only good thing I can name right now is that since the film’s announcement, r/amywinehouse jumped up by 3K+ members, so I’d imagine she’s getting attention again in other places, too. Maybe, a majority can realize she wasn’t the ghastly picture the tabloids painted of her. I’m starting to absolutely hate Mitch these days for his increasingly disgusting behavior.
6 Likes
i feel like they should’ve just left things at the 2015 doc… truly. we didn’t need a biopic.
4 Likes
haven’t seen it yet but it sounds like a complete shit show.
1 Like
An Italian TV news report from a few days ago (not the most followed news programme, but it’s still national TV):
“Back to Black, the film on Amy Winehouse’s life which retraces the early years of the career of the English star who died untimely at the age of 27, arouses controversy. Too much morbidity and little emotion, the main criticism leveled at director Sam Taylor-Johnson: the biopic would dwell too much on Amy’s addictions instead of bringing out how talented and skilled – while also fragile as she always told in her songs – she was. Other accusations are directed at Marisa Abela’s performance as the main character: brilliant at lending body and voice, but unconvincing and unexciting. The songwriter’s father was also criticized for allowing filming in her house, thus transforming a place of memory into a film set.”
3 Likes
but the jump also means that people are now coming to believe that Mitch and Blake were superheroes, not assholes.
5 Likes
Unfortunately some people are this gullible and quick to judge.
3 Likes