This Much I Know To Be True (2021 | UK | 108 minutes | Andrew Dominik)
“Thank you for the words, the music, the grounding sanity that your words bring to me in times of strife. I’m curious, behind it all: the music, the words, the suits, the grief, the tenderness, and shame, and guilt, and joy, who are you?”
Nick Cave, in his typical somber and thoughtful mindset, reads this quote from one of a dozen fan letters he’s plucked out of the volumes of notes, communications and emails that he receives on any a given day. It’s a nice set up to the new documentary/music video/love fest This Much I Know To Be True. The film attempts to answer just that, even if only discovering a snippet of what makes up this mystical creature we’ve come to know and love over a nearly fifty-year career in music and the arts. Director Andrew Dominik takes for a stroll through the life and times of Cave during the pandemic and treats us to an extended concert of sorts while he and Warren Ellis perform their newest upcoming release CARNAGE.
Without a doubt this film a follow-up to his 2016 One More Time With Feeling. For one thing he’s using the same director, for another the set in which he’s doing these live recordings looks nearly identical complete with a penetrated fourth wall where we see the crew filming and extras walking around in the background. Perhaps this is a lead-in letting us know that every few years he’ll be doing a full-blown film just to set up the release of an album. Or, perhaps these films are a catharsis, the previous film coming only a year after his fifteen-year-old son Arthur had died. One More Time With Feeling was a reaction to that, an outpouring of emotion and music that I can only hope lead to a release of pain and allowed him to find a way to move forward.
This new venture on the screen, however, seems to be far more uplifting, with the feeling of excitement, eagerness and dare I say hope for what’s to come next. He shows us around his statuary studio that’s been in place since the beginning of lock down. He’s built a world of ceramic figurines and small religious scenes in what he called his “mania for making things” in an interview with Interview Magazine early on in the pandemic. It feels oddly normal that he take on this new avocation considering his well-known inclination toward the religious, but still expresses his darker punk side through delightful depictions of the devil.
The dynamic duo of Cave and Ellis have been band fellows and collaborators for nearly for ages, but CARNAGE marks their first as a duet both in performance and creation. This film captures the energy of their live performance as Cave slides his hands up and down the piano, spins around the floor, lifts his arms like a ballerina and sings into that retro-style microphone of his once again; all the while Ellis sits quietly creating the atmosphere in which his partner comes alive. It’s interesting that the only real change from Andrew Dominik’s One More Time was the location in which they perform (both were in London but the first took place at Air Studios, and this new installment is at Battersea Arts Centre). The grand hall at Battersea with its worn brick walls and towering ceiling are a beautiful change of scenery that gives texture not only to the scene but to the performance itself. If you enjoyed the picture from 2016, you’ll love this one. I don’t think I’ll ever be disappointed by an opportunity to watch Nick Cave perform.
This Much I Know To Be True premiered in person on March 11th and virtually on March 13th at SXSW Film 2022. Be sure to check out all the SXSW 2022 Sunbreak Coverage