Amy Winehouse’s lyrics and music were the “guiding star” for director Sam Taylor-Johnson in bringing the late singer’s story to the screen in Back to Black.
The biographical feature film follows Winehouse’s rise to fame and portrays her relationships with her family and former husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
It comes nearly 13 years after the six-time Grammy Award winner died from alcohol poisoning, aged 27. Considered one of the most talented singers of her generation, her untimely death shook the music world.
Photo: AFP
AMY’S PERSPECTIVE
Telling the story from Winehouse’s point of view was essential to Taylor-Johnson.
“I just wanted it to be in her perspective to kind of give her her agency back because I felt like it had been kind of taken away and she’d just become a victim of her tragedy,” she said at the film’s world premiere in London on Monday.
Photo: EPA
“I felt like doing it through her words, her music, kind of like brought the music back to life and celebrated her again, and that felt so important. It felt like she deserved that.”
British actress Marisa Abela plays Winehouse, a role she found both daunting and a dream.
“You don’t get parts like Amy every day. And that’s not because she’s Amy Winehouse but it’s because she was everything in one.”
Photo: EPA
“She was smart and funny and bold and brave, but also incredibly vulnerable and emotional and that’s kind of what I wanted to bring. I wanted to...remind people of the vulnerability of Amy, the girl behind the music.”
INTO THE ROLE
Abela, 27, who performs the Rehab singer’s hit songs in the film said she took daily singing lessons for four months and studied Winehouse’s lyrics in preparation for the role.
Back to Black has been approved by the Amy Winehouse Estate and Taylor-Johnson also met with Winehouse’s parents.
“I didn’t need anybody’s approval. And that’s important for me to say because it’s important also to declare I made the exact film I wanted to make. I had all music approvals. But I wanted to meet with the family out of respect for the fact that I was making a film about their daughter, and it felt wrong not to meet with them. And the fact that they’ve approved this since seeing it, is really good,” Taylor-Johnson said.
“I would hope that Amy would feel proud that her music has stood such a big test of time, and that we’re here to celebrate her again,” she added.
Back to Black began its global cinematic rollout yesterday.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built
“Once you get there, you think, that’s a little embarrassing or revealing or scary... but ultimately, I learned that is where the good stuff is,” says Taiwanese-American director Sean Wang about writing indie breakout Didi (弟弟), which debuted at Sundance Film Festival Asia 2024 in Taipei last month. Didi is a heartwarming coming-of-age story centered on the Asian American experience. Not just a 2000s teenage nostalgia piece, but a raw, unflinching look at immigrant families and adolescent identity struggles. It quickly became the centerpiece of the event, striking a chord with not only those sharing similar backgrounds but anyone who’s ever
“Magical,” “special,” a “total badass:” step forward Kamala Harris, the 59-year-old dynamo who has rebranded her country at lightning speed, offering it up as a nation synonymous with optimism, hope and patriotism. For the rest of us, Kamala’s gift is her joy and vibrancy — and the way she is smashing it just months away from her seventh decade, holding up 60 in all its power and glory. Welcome to the new golden age. Hers is the vibrancy of a woman who owns her power, a woman who is manifesting her experience and expertise, a woman who knows her time has
RSS