CANNES, France (AP) – Celebrity-worshipping Cannes got a sobering reminder of fame’s dark side Saturday with “Amy,” a powerful documentary about the late singer Amy Winehouse.
“I don’t think I’m going to be at all famous,” a teenage Winehouse says at one point in the film by British director Asif Kapadia. “I don’t think I could handle it.”
Winehouse was a global celebrity when she died in July 2011 of accidental alcohol poisoning at age 27.
The sense that the singer foresaw her fate lends extra poignancy to the film, which is getting its world premiere at a Cannes midnight screening.
Kapadia, who made acclaimed documentary “Senna” about Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna – another star who died young – interviewed 80 of Winehouse’s friends, family and collaborators for the film, layering their words over footage of the musician from childhood onwards.