By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Andrew Dominik
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2022
Running time: 105
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15721828/reference/
Michael says: “THIS MUCH I KNOW TO BE TRUE is the second documentary by filmmaker Andrew Domink (BLONDE; THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD) to revolve around Nick Cave, the first being 2016’s ONCE MORE WITH FEELING. This latest doc was filmed during the pandemic. and was Cave’s attempt to connect to audiences with a stylized concert film. I like Cave’s music, although I can’t say that I am a fan, or even that knowledgable about his work. His duet with Kylie Minogue, Where the Wild Roses Grow was the first song of his that I noted and Emm Gryner led me to him with her sublime cover of his gorgeous song, Straight to You. Since then I’ve picked up a compilation, and his dark, deep-voice poetry set to music is intriguing to be sure. This concert focuses on Cave’s collaboration with frequent partner, Australian musician/composer Warren Ellis (not to be confused with the British comic book writer, which I did at first).
“The film starts off with a rather fascinating segment focusing on Cave’s transition from making music to becoming a ceramicist, before launching directly into the dark, atmospheric performances. Featuring a fairly stripped down ensemble of Cave on vocals and piano, Ellis playing synths, violin, and vocals, a trio of backing vocalists, a string quartet, and a drummer, the mournful songs feature Cave’s poetry in epic form, and are highlighted by dramatic tracking shots and lighting. There are a few doc bits interspersed, but this is basically a concert film, and it felt a little long, with a little too much attention paid to the mad scientist trope that Ellis presents, but as Cave himself said about their musical collaboration (and I’m paraphrasing here) moments of sublime beauty emerge out of a whole lot of shit. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the film was shit, in fact by the end, I was feeling quite positive about it, that’s largely due to the fact the sublime moments really were pretty lovely, and overshadowed the rest. It’s probably not for everyone, but it did intrigue me enough to add ONCE MORE WITH FEELING to my list of films to see. 3 1/2 cats”