THE NEW MUSICAL BOX

ONE NIGHT WITH NICK CAVE

Nick Cave must be the most famous Australian living in Brighton: certainly the most famous antipodean musician and writer - and in a fascinating new documentary, 20,000 Days On Earth, both Cave and the Sussex city get plenty of air time.

In fact, the documentary probably isn't one in the strictest sense of the word, but it is an award-winning film made by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard that provides a tantalising look at the life and works of Nick Cave, front man of The Bad Seeds and much more besides. Released a couple of weeks ago, the directors candidly say that they hadn't intended creating this docu-drama. They'd worked with Cave previously on short video shoots and what started out as an invitation to film footage of his latest album project soon turned into a feature-length work. Whilst it's packed with some excellent set-ups which illuminate the creative process - from song-writing to laying down tracks in the studio - it also takes a refreshing approach to the character of the man himself. Several sequences are fictional, but they reveal elements of Nick Cave's motivations and there's no doubt that his erudite and thoughtful responses add much to the joy of the film.

Part of the viewing experience is being drawn into these fictional pieces. Thus an encounter with a psychiatrist - in reality an actor - draws out some fine dialogue and reveals Cave's thoughts on (for example) his childhood and relationship with his father. It's clear that Cave has added much to the writing of the film and a series of linking sequences allow him the chance to frame much of the narrative direction of the work. He's also made good use of The Bad Seeds themselves, particularly Warren Ellis who comes across as a combination of gracefully ageing hippy and the sort of cool teacher that you'd wish you'd had at school. Sequences shot at his cliff-top home where he and Cave exchange ideas - and Cave diplomatically refuses a stew made out of eels - give a good grounding to much of the rest of the work.

Directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard

Cabbie Cave and Kylie

Some pieces work well.There's a clever device that's used to introduce people from Cave's past: Cave drives his car around the streets of Brighton, the gloomy, rainy city that he grumbles about but clearly loves, and acts as confessional cabbie to such as Ray Winstone and Kylie Minogue. Each unscripted sequence was simply a twenty minute straight shoot, the camera mounted on the dashboard showing Cave asking his passenger questions. In other hands, this could have been trite and artificial, but somehow, there's a touch of magic and they are delightful vignettes that add so much to the film. 

I'm not so sure of some of the early concert footage: I can understand why it's there, providing context and a sense of history, but although it's not overdone, it did take me away from the feel and conceit of the work. However, that is a minor issue - and all is more than redeemed by a wonderful and almost elegiac closing sequence, a shot of Cave standing on Brighton's shingle beach at night. The camera slowly pans back from Cave and out to sea, a single steady slow and aerial move that reveals the motionless Cave and the houses and hotels, lights winking in the windows, gradually coming into view. It is simply stunning.

Edith Bowman (left) interviewing Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Barry Adamson
at The Barbican, 17th September 2014

I was fortunate to see the film on the day of release and it was enhanced by a live feed from London's Barbican Centre where Nick Cave and several participants were interviewed on stage about the making of the film. BBC Radio's Edith Bowman acted as host and whilst her ability to handle the televisual aspects of the role aren't in doubt, she was an odd choice to interview Cave. Her questions and interjections were quite shallow, but fortunately, the set-up succeeded - and it gave Cave the chance to play a number of his piano ballads live on stage. 

And very wonderful they were too.

Nick Cave - Piano Ballads

And the title of the film? 

I did spend a few minutes just before the start working out how old Nick Cave was - and my mental arithmetic eventually came to an answer somewhere between 54 and 55. It was perhaps fitting that this semi-fictional work was released a week before he turned 57. 

Alan Dorey

18th September 2014