20,000 DAYS ON EARTH (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard). 97 minutes. Opens Friday (September 26). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN
I’m not sure whether 20,000 Days On Earth is a documentary, an essay film or a work of complete fiction. I do know I enjoyed it, so it doesn’t really matter.
Co-written by directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard with their subject Nick Cave, the film takes the form of a conventional profile of the Australian-born musician, now in his mid-50s and living in Brighton, England.
But it’s not long before we realize it’s more of a stylized representation of Cave’s life, following him over the course of a single impossible day. He wakes up at home in Brighton, has lunch with his collaborator Warren Ellis, records a song with him in France and then performs with the Bad Seeds at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
In between, Cave drives around with the actor Ray Winstone, former Bad Seeds bandmate Blixa Bargeld and singer Kylie Minogue – or his imagined versions of them, anyway – and chats about his life and work.
Whether you go for it depends largely on your own opinion of Cave’s career and persona, which has evolved over the decades from “apocalyptic town crier” to “gentlemanly murder balladeer.”
As 20,000 Days On Earth demonstrates, he’s still bemusedly picking himself apart and putting himself back together, just to keep busy.
