Sam Taylor-Johnson goes from Back To Black to retour au noir as she gets red carpet ready for the Paris premiere of her new Amy Winehouse biopic
Sam Taylor-Johnson went from Back To Black to Retour au noir on Monday evening as the final premiere of her Amy Winehouse biopic kicked off in Paris.
The director stood on the red carpet with cast and crew – including Marisa Abela, who plays Amy – outside L’Olympia in the French capital, ahead of the official screening of the divisive film.
And she gave social media followers an insight into her preparations for the main event in a series of Instagram posts, shared before leaving her hotel in Paris.
One image shows a selfie from her luxurious suite. Taylor-Johnson, 57, wears a terrycloth hotel robe as her hair and makeup are meticulously prepared ahead of her red carpet appearance.
A second finds her ready for her close-up in a glamorous black evening dress as she turns to the camera in the hotel corridor.
Sam Taylor-Johnson went from Back To Black to Retour au noir on Monday night as the final premiere of her Amy Winehouse biopic kicked off in Paris
The director gave social media followers an insight into her preparations for the main event in a series of Instagram posts, shared before leaving her Paris hotel
The director also shared a photo from the red carpet, taken with her actress daughter Angelica Jopling, 26.
Taylor-Johnson’s promotional trip to Paris concluded with a visit to Brasserie Lipp restaurant on Boulevard Saint-Germain, where the filmmaker shared a photo of her menu.
Back To Black tells the life of the late singer Winehouse, who tragically died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27.
The film, which was approved by her father Mitch, has sparked outrage from the singer’s friends, who slammed the film for its “grisly” depictions of the star’s drug addiction and also the filming of her funeral.
Now Tyler James, 42, who appears briefly on screen despite living with Amy from the age of 18 until her death, has slammed the film, claiming it missed huge chunks of the star’s life.
He told The Sun: ‘I wish Amy could have seen it. She would be furious. Amy deserved much better. She was a superstar.
‘I didn’t expect it to be realistic or completely accurate. But it was worse than I thought it would be. It was terrible and doesn’t do her justice.’
He also claimed that the script failed to show what a “hilariously funny and intelligent” person Amy was.
Taylor-Johnson also shared a photo from the red carpet with her actress daughter Angelica Jopling
Taylor-Johnson’s promotional trip to Paris concluded with a visit to Brasserie Lipp restaurant on Boulevard Saint-Germain, where the filmmaker shared a photo of her menu.
Tyler, who first met Amy at the age of 12 and briefly plays Spike Fearn in the film, said: “I don’t have to be there for the whole movie to know what we meant to each other. I was there for her in real life and this is just a movie.”
It comes after the biopic was branded by critics as a ‘poor piece of filmmaking’ and a ‘Saturday night imitation’ of the star.
The Evening Standard awarded the film just one star and described Back To Black as a ‘poor, poor piece of filmmaking’ from reviewer Hamish Macbain.
He wrote: ‘This is a film that does not paint a beautiful or honest picture of her as a person, nor does it show how special an artist she was. The final scene in particular, with its completely unfounded, sensational implications, made me physically gasp in horror.’
Peter Hoskin of The Ny Breaking also gave the film one star and criticized filmmakers for skipping key details of Amy’s life.
Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse and Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil in Back To Black