Talking about Nick Cave ‘pseudo documentary’ 20,000 Days on Earth was always going to be a stretch for me. For one, I am an unabashed, unashamed, long time fan bordering on obsessive. Prior to writing this I had seen the doco around five times, including at last year’s NZIFF and when it was shown again later in the year when Cave toured New Zealand and presented a Q&A before the screening. To say I was excited would be putting it mildly - I pretty much had a touch of the vapours for days before and afterwards.
Talking about Nick Cave ‘pseudo documentary’ 20,000 Days on Earth was always going to be a stretch for me. For one, I am an unabashed, unashamed, long time fan bordering on obsessive. Prior to writing this I had seen the doco around five times, including at last year’s NZIFF and when it was shown again later in the year when Cave toured New Zealand and presented a Q&A before the screening. To say I was excited would be putting it mildly - I pretty much had a touch of the vapours for days before and afterwards.
Secondly, I could have got all sassy or silly on it but Cave’s name has been coloured of late by the tragic death of one of his sons. Even for a man for whom death and tragedy have been a major subject matter over the years this event would have been unthinkable, the pain impossible to describe. It’s been a rough time for Cave and his wife Susie Bick and family, so I will keep to the matter at hand and the subject.
20,000 Days on Earth originally premiered at Sundance, winning two awards – both the Editing and Directing Awards in World Cinema Documentary. The jury described the film at the time as “being arguably the most exciting film in competition… This is documentary storytelling at it’s most visionary and mind-blowing”, which is no faint praise. I fell in love with it at first watch but know many who didn’t, including fellow fans and devotees of Cave’s work as both a musician and writer. Why? Well it’s not your bog standard doco, and those expecting that will be sadly disappointed.
It is in essence a “drama-documentary” that portrays a fictionalized 24 hours in the life of Nick Cave as directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. The film was inspired by a calculation Cave had made in one of his many song writing notebooks that worked out his time on earth. Forsyth and Pollard have taken this and from it crafted an innovative and powerful film that takes us inside Cave’s artistic process and celebrates creativity whilst flirting with the truth.
Creating its very own genre – which could also be called “fictionalised documentary” – in the film Cave essentially plays Cave, as a late-50s, much revered rock icon living in Brighton, working on his writing, and in the words of one reviewer: “attempting to make sense of his own existence”. The film may be factual, and the character he plays may share Nick Cave’s name, but it has been said that this is as much of a performance as any of his previous screen roles. These include roles in John Hillcoat’s Ghosts… of the Civil Dead in which he played a psychotic inmate in a high-security prison descending into self-destructive chaos, and Tom DiCillo’s Johnny Suede, where he played Freak Storm, a rather ridiculous pantomime-ish rocker singing songs about his father dying in the electric chair. He also appeared as a singer in the brilliant Andrew Dominik film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
But back to the subject at hand, which represents a day in the life of Cave, starting with his awakening in bed (and a rare appearance by his wife) and progressing through a therapy session, a recording session, some ‘real’ family time with his twin boys, concert footage and some very staged personal encounters. Some of these take the form of in-car conversations, Cave playing chauffeur to friends Ray Winstone (who starred in the Cave-scripted western The Proposition) and Kylie Minogue. We also see him sharing a meal with long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, which is so perfect that it was in fact a complete fiction – even the house where Ellis appears to live was hired for the filming, but by god it’s a great house!
To me none of this suggests that the film is dishonest, merely that it is an act, and a beautifully staged new work by Cave. Think of it as that and you will have a wonderful time, and in Cave’s words, “watching that is much more interesting that seeing me trying to replace the latest lawn mowing man…”