{"id":24815,"date":"2015-07-03T00:59:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T06:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=24815"},"modified":"2015-07-03T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T07:00:00","slug":"amy-winehouse-through-the-lens-and-the-bottom-of-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/amy-winehouse-through-the-lens-and-the-bottom-of-a-bottle\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy Winehouse, through the lens (and the bottom of a bottle)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"im\">By CURT SCHLEIER<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(JTA) \u2014 To anyone who has read a rock-and-roll biography or caught an episode of VH1&#8217;s &#8220;Behind the Music,&#8221; it is a sadly familiar tale: An artist achieves great success only to self destruct.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There&#8217;s something called the &#8220;27 Club,&#8221; made up of a surprisingly number of influential musicians who died at that young age. Among them are Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and, as of July 2011: The\u00a0English songstress Amy Winehouse.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_24820\" style=\"width: 209px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24820\" class=\"wp-image-24820 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"Amy Winehouse performs &quot;Rehab&quot; during 2007 MTV Movie Awards - Show at Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic)\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1-680x1024.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1.jpg 1992w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 199px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 199\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24820\" class=\"wp-image-24820 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"Amy Winehouse performs &quot;Rehab&quot; during 2007 MTV Movie Awards - Show at Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic)\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1-680x1024.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Amy-Winehouse1.jpg 1992w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-24820\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amy Winehouse performs &#8220;Rehab&#8221; during 2007 MTV Movie Awards &#8211; Show at Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Winehouse is the subject of a powerful new documentary, \u201cAmy,\u201d which is both fascinating and painful to watch. She released only two albums during her brief career, though two more (a compilation and live performance) were released in short order after her death, from\u00a0alcohol poisoning.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A singer of remarkable talent \u2014 her last recording was a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_OFMkCeP6ok\" target=\"_blank\">magical duet with her idol, Tony Bennett<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Winehouse&#8217;s erratic, drug-addled ways threatened to overshadow her image (videos of her\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/they-know-that-shes-no-good-amy-winehouse-booed-off-stage-in-serbia-2299931.html\" target=\"_blank\">being booed off the stage in Belgrade<\/a>, too drunk to sing, spring to mind). And what &#8220;Amy,&#8221; the film, does best is bring Winehouse to life, turn the caricature we imagine her to be into a\u00a0complex,\u00a0full-blooded human being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At first, it didn\u2019t look as if director Asif Kapadia (&#8220;Senna,&#8221; about the race car driver Ayrton Senna, who died at age 34) would pull it off. He was approached in 2012 \u2014 shortly after her death \u2014 by the head of Universal Music UK about making the film. Although Asif says he knew of Winehouse and owned her records, he wasn&#8217;t a fan. Still, he and his team were intrigued by the idea.<span class=\"im\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They gathered material, but the\u00a0people he wanted most to participate \u2014 her first manager, Nick Shymansky, and lifelong friends Juliette Ashby and Lauren Gilbert \u2014 were not interested. They said it was too soon.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But over the course of a year, he built trust with them \u2014\u00a0or, perhaps, just plain wore them down \u2014 and they agreed to take part. Shymansky\u2019s participation proved critical, since he possessed a cache of videos he\u2019d taken of the young, playful and hopeful singer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There were recordings of messages she\u2019d left on his machine that he\u2019d saved:\u00a0<span class=\"im\">\u201cThis is your favorite Jewish girl \u2014 apart from your mother.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Shymansky\u2019s contributions adds an unparalleled level of intimacy. We see a teenage Amy sing &#8220;Happy Birthday&#8221; in the soulful, jazzy voice of someone much older. In a voiceover \u2014 played over a montage of still photographs \u2014 she claims she didn\u2019t consider the possibility of a show business career. Still, she says she \u201cstarted writing music to challenge myself,\u201d like James Taylor and Carole King, whom she admired.\u00a0<span class=\"im\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When Island Records president Nick Gatfield (who signed Winehouse) met her, he says he saw \u201ca classic Northlands Jewish girl. She had an attitude.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">She was still that little Jewish girl with an attitude after recording her first album, &#8220;Frank,&#8221; in 2003, a jazz album that proved more a critical than a commercial success.\u00a0While making a promotional appearance on TV, one\u00a0talk show host called her speech &#8220;common&#8221; \u2014 meaning it as a compliment, that she didn\u2019t put on airs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When considering her future at the time, Winehouse, in an interview with a British print journalist, predicted,\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to be at all famous. I don\u2019t think I can handle it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Certainly, there were early signs of trouble. She was treated for depression as a child and was also bulimic, which she attributes to her parents\u2019 divorce when she was nine. But the added pressure of success started a downward spiral from which she never recovered.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At first, it was alcohol. There was an early opportunity to help, in 2005, but Winehouse said she\u2019d only go to rehab if her father thought it necessary. He said it wasn\u2019t. That became the inspiration for her biggest hit, the multiple Grammy-winning song, \u201cRehab&#8221; \u2014 but ultimately it was scant reward for what was to come.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sometime after the release of her hit second album, &#8220;Back to Black,&#8221; she met Blake Fielder-Civil, her on-again, off-again boyfriend and, eventually, husband. It was Fielder-Civil who introduced her to hard drugs, and he even had the unmitigated chutzpah to film them doing drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As her addictions and demons took over, Winehouse changed.\u00a0Her performances became uneven; she slurred words.\u00a0She became so difficult\u00a0that Shymansky quit as her manager. He told her: \u201cI love you but I don\u2019t like what you\u2019ve become. I don\u2019t want to be around you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Winehouse signed her road manager Raye Cosbert as Shymansky\u2019s replacement, which proved a bad choice. Cosbert had divided loyalties: To do one part of his job, he had to keep her on the road \u2014 even, as it turns out, when that wasn\u2019t in her best interest.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In fact, the filmmakers suggest that she purposely\u00a0went on a binge drinking spree, hoping that her management would cancel\u00a0her last tour \u2014 the one where she gave that disastrous Belgrade appearance \u2014 to no avail. She was in drunken oblivion when they came to put her on the plane.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The documentary has already generated considerable controversy. Winehouse&#8217;s father, Mitch, claims the film was edited to make him look bad \u2014 and that he didn\u2019t say she shouldn\u2019t go to rehab. He just said she shouldn\u2019t go to rehab \u201cat that time.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span class=\"im\">In any case, he\u2019s not the only villain here. Watching the film, it&#8217;s hard not to rage not only at her father, but also at Cosbert\u00a0and Fielder-Civil.\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s the power of \u201cAmy.\u201d\u00a0It strips away the trappings of celebrity to reveal a genuine and talented person. Beneath the beehive hairdo, she was a young woman in considerable pain, who, more than anything, needed more people in her life to be more concerned about her well-being than riding her gravy train.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"im\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cAmy\u201d opens in New York and Los Angeles\u00a0<span class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Friday, July 3<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and nationwide\u00a0<span class=\"\"><span class=\"\">July 10<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Amy%20Winehouse%2C%20through%20the%20lens%20%28and%20the%20bottom%20of%20a%20bottle%29\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7139,7137],"tags":[1711,8790,8795,89,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24821,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24815\/revisions\/24821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}