Amy

The creator of a gripping documentary on legendary F1 driver Ayrton Senna has returned five years on with a portrait of Amy Winehouse. In her short, tumultuous life, the singer made an indelible mark on the history of popular music before the demons of dependence put an end to her career at age 27. “Her dream was to do this sort of show, to play in jazz clubs to small audiences. She had one of the most pure relationships to music. Such an emotional relationship to music. She needed music as if it was a person. And she would die for it,” pianist Sam Beste says of her. But dream and reality rarely share the same stage, and so crucial encounters in her personal life drew the six-time Grammy winner away from the plans she had made. Buffeted by love’s harsh winds, casting longing looks at the bottom of a just-finished bottle, looking forward to another flight of drug fancy. Sensitive and perceptive – and just too vulnerable. Thus the documentary’s take on a singer blessed with a unique soul-jazz voice, and it leaves us with the same inner sadness that permeated her entire life.