Screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh is known for writing about the lives of musical artists including New Order’s Ian Curtis in Control and Nowhere Boy about the early years of John Lennon.

Now, Greenhalgh has built on his existing body of work with a bittersweet take on songstress Amy Winehouse. “We wanted to make a movie that celebrated her for those ten years, from age seventeen to twenty-seven when she gave us that wonderful music as well as depicting the tragedy in her life and her addiction,” says the screenwriter.

He wanted to illustrate Amy’s emotional state at different points in her life ranging from the ecstatic to the tragic. These included her co-dependant relationship with drug-addled husband Blake (Jack O’Connell) and the death of her beloved grandmother.

We want people to come out of the movie with a smile, but also with a tear

Back To Black introduces audiences to Amy Winehouse (played by Marisa Abela) when she’s a precocious seventeen year old with a mesmerizing voice and a close family – dad Mitch (Eddie Marsan), mum Janis (Juliet Cowan) and nan Cynthia (Leslie Manville). It was essential for Greenhalgh to show how close Amy was with her nan, especially in the opening scenes of his film. “I think it’s the most important relationship in the movie,” he claims.

(Amy Winehouse) Marisa Abela and Jack O’Connell (Blake Fielder-Civil) Photo by Dean Rogers/ Focus Features

“Amy’s jazz education and the ethos of freedom of spirit was definitely embodied in Nan,” Matt continues. Matt notes that she was a regular at the famed Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London.

Dramatizing Amy Winehouse’s Life

Although Matt Greenhalgh conducted extensive research on Amy Winehouse’s life via a cache of television and print interviews, various books and fan bases, he didn’t want to make a documentary. His goal was to “tell this story through Amy’s eyes, through her lens.”

“I was ready to write after about six weeks of intensive researching of Amy Winehouse. The characters that I wanted to get into were there in my head, but most specifically, it was Amy. I think Amy is a co-writer and it’s nice to have her music and her lyrics to be able to bounce off and structure the movie.”

Greenhalgh took Amy’s best lines of dialogue from her interviews. Amy lived her life on her own terms and ended it as such.

The writer can’t speak precisely to Winehouse’s creative process, but he knows she had an overactive mind.

“I think there was a bit of bipolarism in there. When she was on it, she would find creativity and always was inspired by how she lived her life and how the people that she met shaped her. I think that’s why many people realized how real she was because that honesty comes through her music. It was definitely something that I felt straight away.”

Matt also mentions that, like Winehouse, he writes his thoughts in a notebook. “I write my scripts in longhand first, so I don’t go straight to the computer.”

“I felt that I related to her in that aspect. Everything was emotional and she seemed to feel so deeply. And with that beautiful musical mind and education she had, and the drive to formulate those songs, her music is taken into the next level.”

Amy Winehouse had a tumultuous relationship with her manager Raye (Ansu Kabia) and fans alike. She was a mess of explosive contradictions balancing gentleness with violence.

“She always said she just wanted to be a lounge singer, but at the same time, she wanted to play sell out tours. There was always that rub of what fame brought and whether she actually wanted it in the end. I think she probably didn’t,” adds Matt.

“It seemed like if anyone really appreciated the love of her music and what she wanted from a fan. But when it spilled over into celebrity and radio, it just turned into fame for fame sake. She was the first public start to get filmed twenty-four seven and she struggled with that.”

Amy Winehouse burst onto the stage with a clear attitude of uncompromising musical rebellion. “I ain’t no Spice Girl. I don’t go away and write ten hit songs. I gotta live my life and turn that pain into something beautiful.” She was a punk lounge singer who was as savage as she was sensitive.

Matt Greenhalgh. Photo by Colin A Boulter

“We want our protagonists, our creative heroes, not to tow the line and stick her middle finger to the hierarchy. What you’re hearing is genuinely her voice and not someone manufacturing her.”

“Amy said what was on her mind very quickly. She had darker sides, but the moodiness made her more real. She had these ups and downs that affected her creativity. The process was not smooth in her head, yet she still managed to produce these wonderful songs.”

Camden Town is more than Amy’s old stomping ground. It’s a character in itself. The Good Mixer and Dublin Castle pubs, Jeffrey’s Place, Camden Square, and the canal were all used as locations in her story.

“Camden is a little city within the city. It does have that sense of freedom that I think she was obviously attracted to. It also has a darker, grittier side like any interesting place. It’s sort of New York in the 70s and 80s.”

Matt Greenhalgh is from Manchester, so he explored the place and tried to recreate Amy’s footsteps and visit her favorite places as part of his research. “It’s wonderful when you can actually go to the location that you’re writing about and imagine those characters are with you.”

A Perfect Ending

Amy Winehouse bid the world farewell in 2011 in her bedroom in Camden Town. The closing frames of Back To Black were simply a short series of cards stating that she died from alcohol poisoning. We asked Matt about this choice.

“We discussed the bedroom scene at the end because that is a moving moment with intense tragedy and drama, but it just didn’t fit in with the tone of what we wanted to do.”

“There was a scene with people outside, post death, but we felt that might take us out of the story. So, we thought her wandering up to her room with that song ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ in the background and then showing the cards. I think it’s perfect mix of what we wanted to do.”

“The scene outside the house was brilliant because it was like giving the music back to the people. I understand that sometimes you can do these kind of stories, and if you cut to reality, or get too real, you suddenly start thinking about documentaries and you’re not with that character anymore. We wanted to stay with her but we didn’t want to go inside her room.“