«This much I know to be True»: taming suffering7 reading minutes

Cinema Wednesdays - Fanny Agostino

A real appetizer before Nick Cave's appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 2, This much I know to be Truemarks the third collaboration between the Bad Seeds frontman and director Andrew Dominik. This documentary oscillates between stage performances and anecdotes from Nick Cave. While it doesn't reveal anything surprising, the video recordings of tracks from the albums Ghosteen and Carnage are real jewels.

As he embarks on a series of musical projects and tours, one might well wonder where Nick Cave gets his energy from. In 2020, he published a solo performance recorded at London's Alexandra Palace. He performed various songs from Ghosteen, his latest album with the Bad Seeds and classics from his repertoire such as The Mercy Seat, Jubilee Street or even Stranger than Kindness.

But this time, it's his long-time friend Andrew Dominik - for whom he composed the music for the film The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford in 2007 - is at the helm. The director had already lent himself to the exercise with One More Time with Feeling in 2016. The latter came at a tragic time in Nick Cave's life. He was following the production of Skeleton Tree, Bad Seeds' sixteenth album. A dark album, since he had been deeply shaken by the death of Arthur, his youngest son. Andrew Dominik's camera entered the intimate sphere of the Cave family's grief. A poignant testimony, but also uncomfortable for the spectator in the voyeuristic position of a father overwhelmed by the weight of grief.

For this second documentary devoted to his friend, Dominik Andrew is freed from these burdensome circumstances, as is his muse.

Living with ghosts 

In a cramped studio, the director and his friend chat. Dressed in a white smock, Nick Cave presents Andrew with statues of the devil. Evoking the Victorian era with a certain kitsch, Each relic symbolizes a stage in the life of the underworld figure. The last piece of this Way of the Cross is called «The Devil's Forgiveness», explains Cave. The creature lies on the ground. A little boy crouches beside him, holding out his hand. His palm open, in forgiveness. The first loops of Spinning Song, album opener Ghosteen, are superimposed on the image. Then the shot shifts to a warehouse with decrepit vaults. We change our minds. Steel pipes can be made out, the remains of an organ. This image has often been used. Nick Cave's concerts resemble masses.

Like a constellation, the camera pivots around Nick Cave and his musicians. Some shots dedicated to the crooner's haunting voice are fixed. But there's nothing spectacular about it. The shots are drawn out, adapting to the rhythm of the tracks on this mystical album, surprisingly devoid of percussion and fiery riffs. As for the image, it varies between widescreen and the more restricted 4:3 format typical of cathode-ray TVs. It's worth noting that the close-up shots of the artist with a 40-year career mainly benefit from this image treatment. In this bubble, Cave seeks absolution. No, he's not the horned creature that fascinates him. Freed from his demons, the Australian has a posture we've never seen before. That of a man who has tamed his suffering and gaping wounds. The lyrics to «Hollywood» bear witness to this:

«And I'm just waiting now, for my time to come
And I'm just waiting now, for my time to come
And we hide in our wounds and I'm nearly all the way to Malibu
And I know my time will come one day soon
I'm waiting for peace to come».»

The Ellis method

One of the criticisms that could be levelled at the performer known to the general public thanks to his duo Where the Wild Roses Grow with Kylie Minogue lies in the constant staging of her character. Part vampire, part poet, the documentary-fiction 20,000 Days on Earth (2014) exploited this vein by interchanging truths with lies about the man's journey. In This much I know to be True, Nick Cave is also off-center. On screen, Marianne Faithfull, who lends her voice to the track Galleon Ship. The two artists have collaborated on Negative Capability, the British singer's final album. Having narrowly escaped death following Covid, the British diva loses none of her humor. Her furtive appearance in the documentary features her in conversation with musician and composer Warren Ellis.

Parachuted into the Bad Seeds at the turn of the 2000s, Warren Ellis's compositions gradually imposed themselves on the band's artistic choices. In the documentary, Nick Cave acknowledges the influence of this seafaring musician. From the album Push the Sky Away (2013), his grip on the compositions is obvious. His touch softens the saturation of the guitars. It disappears completely on Skeleton Tree. From now on, distorted sound loops take precedence. As skilled on the violin as he is on the bouzouki, this magician takes Nick Cave into uncharted territory.

An ongoing collaboration

The collaboration was so fruitful that the two acolytes composed a plethora of soundtracks. The latest being that of The snow leopard (2021). In the final part of his documentary, Andrew Dominik also captures performances from the album Carnage (2021), a project by the two Bad Seeds gurus. The titles Hand of God as well as White Elephant give two sublime moments of euphoria, marked by a dazzling play of light. Released in 2021, two years after Ghosteen, The new album shows that the creative power of the two partners is not about to be extinguished.

This much I know to be True will delight fans of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It's also a gateway for the uninitiated. The former Birthday Party punk is on an insatiable quest for redemption, while the teenage ghost he describes in Ghosteen inhabits him. In one take of the documentary, Cave sits in front of his computer. In front of the camera, he talks about his website The Red Hand Files, where Internet users can send him their comments and questions. He selects some of them, then answers them by e-mail to his subscribers.

The subject of loss and mourning is recurrent. He defines this activity as a spiritual exercise. Tragic coincidence, horror strikes the singer once again. His 30-year-old son Jethro has died in circumstances as yet undefined. The question and answer site is a confessional for the web age, where the singer becomes a priest and a sinner. As we said, the mass has been said. See you on July 2.

Write to the author: fanny.agostino@leregardlibre.com

Header image: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis in This much I know to be True Charlie Gray