Went to see Amy
last night.
No question that the film deepens our understanding of Amy
and for me, I think for all of us, appreciation of her talent and achievements
as a musician. Of all the people in the film, she is the one who comes out best
and you cannot help but feel compassion for her.
However, I wanted to walk out; turned out later that we all
did but didn’t want to say so in case the others were caught up in the
narrative and wanted to stay. Five stars all over the place but for me, honestly,
it felt like voyeurism and I don’t
consider myself to be a voyeur, in any sense. Why would I want to intrude on
Amy Winehouse?
And it’s long, way too long. Over and over again hammering
us on the head with how awful the paparazzi were.
It’s made with much skill; I saw the interview the director
did on TV explaining his struggle to locate mobile phone footage and obtain
interviews with those who knew her. And it is beautifully edited; there is one
slo-mo shot that sums up her desperation around two-thirds of the way through
that is almost worth the cinema ticket alone. But I don’t watch cinema or
television or go to the theatre or even read a novel to admire the
Director’s/Authors/Pianist’s skill. I go for enlightenment or to learn something
about other lives I didn’t know before, preferably without the use of a
sledgehammer. The Director gave an interview here
where he says something like, we are all
responsible . I see his point: if
there wasn’t public/media interest in her destruction, the likes of Graham
Norton couldn’t make witty capital from her situation and get away with it. So
we all watch and wonder how it got to this.
We are all complicit.
But it is too intrusive, just too intimate and I felt as
though I was spying; shouldn’t be out there, not in this format anyway.
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