Andrew Dominik had no clear idea what film he wanted to make when he came to make This Much I Know to Be True,the second music documentary he has made with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The first film,One More Time with Feeling,was shot six years ago and suffused with Cave’s grief for his son,Arthur,who died accidentally in 2015. “The first one was just Nick asking me to come and do this thing - and it was weird,because the film just didn’t matter;there was a situation going on that trumped everything,” says Dominik.
This time around,he only knew that he wanted to film the songs on the Bad Seeds’ most recent albums,Ghosteen andCarnage:songs of requiem,grief,acceptance and love. “Because I had a connection to them,” says Dominik. “I’d been there when they were made,you know. And it wasn’t a great time in my life when they were making those songs,so they really meant something to me. But the motive for making these films is not that I want to say something. I turn up,something’s going on and I film it.”
Plus it was COVID time. “We wanted to hang out,you know what I mean? Do a play date,kind of thing.”
Bad Seeds composer and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis says that their work now overlaps so much with Dominik’s that he feels like part of the band. Ellis and Cave wrote the music for Dominik’sThe Assassination of Jesse James (2007) and the forthcomingBlonde,based on Joyce Carol Oates’s imaginary biography of Marilyn Monroe;Dominik stayed around after shootingOne More Time with Feeling to help mixGhosteen.
“And when we didCarnage,I would send him the mixes. Andrew has an opinion and when you’re making stuff,you need an opinion so you can move forward. And Andrew is nine out of 10 times right. We’re just waiting for him to join Grinderman so we can make that elusive third album.”
Ellis used to be wary of the idea of making concert films,because he thought the presence of a camera would change how they behaved. “But with Andrew,you know,I don’t even notice he’s there. Of course,you know you’re filming,but I think there is a comfort there that can only come about through trust.”
The film took shape as they talked about it. When Dominik turned up,as he puts it,Cave showed him the extraordinary figurines he had been making that depicted the story of the Devil. “And I realised it’s just a disguised account of his life,you know.” That had to be in there. So did The Red Hand Files,the website where Cave answers readers’ questions about life with thoughtful essays. “Because he was obsessed with them. There was a period when I was living with him in LA and he was making a record at the time but,really,all he cared about was the Red Hand Files.”
Dominik was also keen to have Marianne Faithfull,whose voice is heard onCarnage,in the film. Both Cave and Ellis are close to her,but nobody pretends she is easy-going – on top of which she was suffering the long-term effects of COVID and was in a wheelchair. “Warren and Nick started telling me how difficult it was going to be,how impossible it was going to be and then I thought ’OK,we’ve got to get her here! It’s going to be great! It’ll be good! And she was.”
Dominik has found Cave’s reconciliation to bereavement moving to watch. “Nick’s kind of recovered. Which is amazing because I don’t think the person in the other movie would have believed such a thing was possible. I guess what Nick found out earlier than most people do is that at a certain point,life is just going to become a series of losses so how do you deal with that? And he has good advice about it. The thing that strikes me,watching the film,is just how sane what he had to say was.”
The music is melancholy,but the dominant mood ofThis Much I Know To Be True is thus a quiet joy. “Nick was determined,and this seems like a weird thing to say,to make the best of Arthur’s death,you know,” says Dominik. “And he was very diligent about it. So here we are,years later and you know,Nick’s a pretty happy guy! He feels pain,I’m sure,but as his capacity for that has increased,so has his capacity for everything else. And I guess that’s what the film has to say.”
- STEPHANIE BUNBURY