Film Review: 20,000 Days On Earth

On the 10th of November Boris and I celebrated 8 years together, and we couldn´t think of a better way to commemorate the day than with a movie about Nick Cave.
Nick Cave has been a huge inspiration for Boris and his music, and Cave´s Berlin days with Blixa Bargeld have indeed inspired us to move to the infamous city. I recall I have told you about the film The Wings Of Desire numerous times before lol.

Official Trailer

We were beyond excited to see the film. We heard some mixed reviews but came relatively open minded. We do not love Cave´s current music but this was not a reason not to see the film (one of the main reasons was to see him without his horrific mustache).

In short, the movie is a semi documentary and tells Nick Cave´s 20,000th day on earth (52 years). We watch him wake up, do his daily duties like writing, visiting a psychologist (lol), playing music in the studio, recording, performing (well not on the same day presumably) and even going to his private archive. His fucking, private archive...

If you can sense my opinion shining through the words, then yes- some parts of the film I did not like, and felt they were kind of portraying a superstar in his "sort of a regular day schedule". Stuff like Nick Cave wearing ugly huge golden rings annoyed me a bit, and some song scenes made me cringe since I do not emphasize with their lyrics and don´t find them charming like they used to be.

Also, if you are looking for crazy rare footages of The Birthday Party and Cave´s 80s concerts- don´t expect too much. There is not a lot of it in the film except of some photographs and stories from the past.

But- but! 

This is where my criticism ends, as I absolutely loved the rest. Through the film you can hear Cave´s narrative, him talking about a bunch of things like writing songs, the experience of performing on stage etc. from his point of view. I found this narratives incredibly inspiring and I could connect to every word. As a musician Boris felt really attached to them too.

We managed to get a bunch of postcards from the theater!

The film is visually beautiful- the editing is great and I could sink into it while watching.

But the best part for me personally was probably in the end, the scene where Cave performed on stage during which his old performances were shown, making it a collage of Cave from the past and the present. I cried at this part. It was incredibly touching in a very positive way. The comparison of the old and the present made me appreciate everything we are doing in Berlin, in terms of our music especially. 

It was a very emotional moment for me, since to me Nick Cave associates with The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds in the 90s. Those little scenes of him performing with his backcombed hair, red shirt + black vest and the entire band so young had really inspired me.

We went out of the film with a very positive feeling. The whole superstar Cave in some moments of the film wasn´t too bad, more so it could have been presented in a worse way... Instead we got the impression that Cave as he is today is a bit lost, as if in previous years he had more direction, more confidence. But perhaps it was only our impression.

I also had a very young feeling after the film. It was not like watching some old rock star and thinking "this is all well and good but I don´t want to end up like this". Nothing of the sort- the film depicted Cave in a very heartwarming manor, not snobbish (as it could have been) and still very dark and wondering...

I have a heroic plan about stealing the film poster later this month, since the nice girl in the theater said they are not even allowed to sell it to anyone. I hope I will be able to pull that one off.

I encourage you to go see the film if Nick Cave´s music has ever touched you, his way of thinking and view on life. Despite us not liking his music today we still enjoyed the film greatly.

N. Finsternis