Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black is available on Netflix now
It was released in cinemas in April
It was only released in cinemas in April this year, but the Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black has now landed on streaming platform Netflix, for customers to enjoy from the comfort of their own home.
Back To Black follows the rise of Amy's career, and her untimely death at the age of just 27-years-old, with actress Marisa Abela portraying the singer-songwriter.
Is it on Netflix?
Back To Black is now available to stream on Netflix. It was uploaded on Thursday 12th September.
Netflix describe the movie as: 'Raised by her father and grandmother, Amy Winehouse struggles to find the stability in the midst of a rapid rise to fame, addiction and a toxic relationship'.
Is there a trailer?
The first trailer was released for the film in January 2024, showing Marisa Abela in her turn as Amy. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the feature film will charts "life and music".
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson said at the time: "Discovering a talent like Marisa Abela is akin to finding gold dust. The moment she looked into the lens at her first audition I knew she was the perfect actor to play Amy Winehouse.
"She put in an enormous amount of work, attention to every detail and she trained daily for hours to be able to sing throughout the entire movie. She doesn’t impersonate Amy, she inhabits her."
Watch the trailer below:
Who plays Amy?
Marisa Abela landed the role of Amy in the biopic, she's also known for appearing on Industry and COBRA.
Marisa opened up about how she prepared to play Amy in the biopic of her life. Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show on Friday 29th March, Marisa admitted that she'd undergone a lot of preparation for the role of the jazz soulstress - taking on two hours of vocal training every day to try and emulate the singer-songwriter.
She said: "For me when I got the job I wanted to learn to sing as much as I could because this was her chosen medium - this is her art form, this is how she expressed herself. It felt so odd to do all of this work and then come to open my mouth to sing and cut to a studio recording. I trained really hard, I trained for two hours a day for four months.
"It was definitely nerve-wracking. You have to take that fear and use it as a driving factor in your preparation. I wanted to use that energy that I had. It’s an element of responsibility that you feel. I took that responsibility and I worked pretty hard.
"You have to do a lot of work to make her physically recognisable as the person that everyone knows. There’s that other side, the person, the human, the woman behind the music and also what we think we know about her - I think that was the most important thing to me."
Marisa also confessed that no-one had asked her whether she could sing throughout the audition process: "I knew Sam (Taylor-Johnson, director) and I felt the same way that whoever was going to play this part needed to be Amy from the inside out."
Sam confirmed that Marisa had blown her away from the first audition: "I had all these young women sitting outside coming in, and most of them had come in, in some shape or form with either a hoop earring or cat eye or something. Marisa had none of that - she came in as herself but she was the first person in the room.
"I was fiddling around with the camera, chatting with the casting director and I just looked in the lens and Marisa looked up and she completely transformed. She hadn’t even said anything. I thought, 'That's her.'"
First look picture of Marisa Abel as Amy Winehouse:
Back in January 2023 as the project prepared to begin filming, production company StudioCanal released a first look photo of actress Marisa Abel on the set as the 'Love Is A Losing Game' songmaker... And the likeness was striking.
What have Amy's family said about Back To Black?
Amy's family have supported the project, with a statement from The Amy Winehouse Estate reading: "We are thrilled that STUDIOCANAL, Focus Features and Monumental are making this movie celebrating our daughter Amy’s extraordinary music legacy and showcasing her talent in the way that it deserves."
Who is in the cast?
As mentioned, Marisa Abela starred as Amy. She's joined in the film by Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse, Juliet Cowan as Janis Winehouse and Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated Lesley Manville as Amy’s grandmother, Cynthia.
Marisa shared a tribute to Amy on her Instagram profile shortly after the announcement of her casting, simply writing: '“And for London. This is for London. Cause Camden Town ain’t burnin down”. I love you, Amy. ❤️'
When was it out in cinemas?
The film was released in the UK and Ireland cinemas on 12th April 2024, and was released in the US on 10th May 2024. Filming began on Monday 16th January 2023 and wrapped in April 2023.
Why did Sam Taylor-Johnson want to make a film about Amy Winehouse?
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson also expressed her understanding of the gravity of her role, saying: "My connection to Amy began when I left college and was hanging out in the creatively diverse London borough of Camden. A few years later Amy wrote her searingly honest songs whilst living in Camden. Like with me, it became part of her DNA."
Sam, who also directed John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, added: "I first saw her perform at a talent show at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho and it was immediately obvious she wasn’t just ’talent’... she was genius. As a filmmaker you can’t really ask for more.
"I feel excited and humbled to have this opportunity to realise Amy’s beautifully unique and tragic story to cinema accompanied by the most important part of her legacy – her music. I am fully aware of the responsibility, with my writing collaborator – Matt Greenhalgh – I will create a movie that we will all love and cherish forever. Just like we do Amy."
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Back To Black is out on Netflix now.
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