This Much I Know to Be True may seem like the third in an unintentional trilogy of films about Nick Cave, but as the musician has settled into the autumn of his career, this outing feels more like a promotional film than an incisive portrait of an artist. When we last saw Cave in One More Time with Feeling (2016), director Andrew Dominik captured the musician still struggling with the death of his young son, Arthur. Dominik used his film to study grief while capturing Cave playing songs from his acclaimed Skeleton Tree album.
Dominik returns for a second outing in This Much I Know to Be True, focusing on the partnership of Cave and Warren Ellis via their collaborations on Ghosteen (2019) and Carnage (2021), the first record to co-credit both men without the inclusion of the Bad Seeds. (The first Cave documentary – 20,000 Days on Earth (2004) – was directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.) This time around, we see a lighter and, dare we say, happier Cave who is not only part of a thriving musical partnership but appears to have ascended to a place of spiritual comfort.
Unlike One More Time with Feeling, this new documentary feels like a concert film rather than a deeper look at the Cave-Ellis partnership. All the performances were filmed in a desolate warehouse and often backed by strobe lights, like a more expansive version of the solo show Cave recorded during the pandemic at Alexandria Palace, except with Ellis, some singers and a few musicians backing him up. It feels like a front row seat at a Nick Cave show, save the times the camera spins on a circular dolly track set up around Cave and Ellis.
The interviews with Cave and Ellis are too brief. Cave discusses his newfound love for making ceramics, his process for answering questions from fans on his Red Hand Files website and how he no longer identifies as a “musician” but more as a “person.” This idea, of Cave pushing away at that restless spirit that has hounded him his entire life and no longer allowing it to define him, is interesting fodder, but Dominik doesn’t push too deep in his questioning. Ellis, on the other hand, doesn’t get much of a chance to speak. We get to see his disorderly home where he proudly displays a copy of Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium but little else is heard from him.
Fans of Cave and Ellis will love This Much I Know to Be True, especially if the pandemic or price of tickets kept them away from their recent tour behind Carnage. For a casual viewer, watching Cave check in with his son Earl via FaceTime or discuss how answering fan questions is a push against his true nature, may mean very little. One thing missing from the film is Cave’s sharp sense of humor. There is none of that here. Someone recently said that Cave has morphed into A Man with Very Important Things to Say and Dominik’s new film confirms that he takes pride in offering sage advice to his fans. Perhaps the only moment of levity comes from another musician as fans of Marianne Faithfull will find much to enjoy when the cantankerous legend stops by to lend guest vocals.
Hopefully the peace and levity we see in this film will continue to inspire Cave to create and, most of all, sustain him. Just days before the movie’s release, another of Cave’s sons, Jethro Lazenby, died unexpectedly at 30 years old. In the opening sequence of the film, Cave displays a series of ceramic sculptures narrating the life and death of the devil. At the end, the devil learns forgiveness. Cave explains the biggest lesson one can learn is that behind the veil, life is completely out of our control. May those words bring him comfort in this dark time.
Photo courtesy of Trafalgar Releasing
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