Film Review: 20,000 Days On Earth (15) (U.K. 2014) (Directors: Ian Forsyth & Jane Pollard), The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Wednesday 17.09.2014 19:00

Many of you will now be aware that this is the documentary about that most revered of Aussies, Nick Cave. All that is seen in the film, apart from the footage of 'im and 'is band playing live, has a high degree of artifice to it. I am not daft enough to expect that music documentaries are entirely factual, though this is unusual in that there is no attempt to hide to hide the fakery. It all felt a tad too contrived for my tastes.  

I had pondered how to do this review. I suspect it will be most straightforward if I say that I did enjoy the film, though I did have issues with it. I particularly enjoyed the sections which had Nick talking about processes of thinking and creativity; I enjoy how he uses language and how he 'puts things'. I also greatly enjoyed the parts where Nick is conversing with his band-mate/compadre, Mr Warren Ellis. Warren has a presence I warm to and find endearing. I enjoyed the sections where Nick (& Warren) were discussing Nina Simone, though this is because I'm a Nina nut. I liked when Nick was reflecting on his earlier career, and found the detail he gave intriguing. I had wished there had been more of this, though also understand he finds it hard to recollect from these earlier times. 

I did not like the passages where he picks-up in his car and has short periods of reflection with Ray Winstone, Blixa Bargeld & Kylie Minogue. I did not feel these added anything, and were just a bit of fluff distracting from the more important elements. I felt there was too much focus upon the latest album and it's music to the detriment of his great previous work.

I felt it odd that there was a complete editing out of the Nick Cave 'story' of one Polly Jean Harvey. Nick had once referred to her as his muse (the break-up of their relationship is the basis to the entire 'The Boatman Calls' Album). Though now he does not like that term, as he feels it does not do justice to his wife, Suzie. 

The was another section where he was speaking with a psychoanalyst (who he has never met before or since). A part of this section which I found particularly revealing is that he states that he himself does not believe in god. The god type figure who he devised for his songwriting is purely a device. It was only days later I realised that this greatly annoyed me, as an element of his songs I greatly liked was the preacher-style fire-&-brimstone-stuff (a la 'Red Right Hand'). Sadly for me, if he does not mean this stuff, if it is all a performance, then I don't know if I can relate to it as I did. I'll have to wait and see, though I do think that there is an argument to say, if he does not mean it, then it is just another version of pop; which is the last thing I ever would have expected to have said about Nick Cave.

Finally, I do wish to make clear, the film does not inform of much. There are the occasional nugget or the odd insight slipping through the artifice, which again I think is entirely apt. This is entirely as it should be. I don't like it when a music documentary removes a performers mystique, and this certainly does not do that. The film also has several moments which are very funny. 

Rating: 07/10.