Automatische concepten

English summary

What is it about Nick Cave? He is a rare phenomenon: a musician whose career spans decades and who is constantly improving and reinventing his music. Take his latest album, for instance. ‘Push the sky away’ was released last year and hailed as the year’s best album by music critics. Two sold-out concerts in Amsterdam followed.  Cave worked the audience like a young god, sweeping them along in a sensational music spectacle charged with energy.

Describing Nick Cave throws up terms like ‘literary’, ‘unpredictable’, ‘passionate’, and ‘brilliant’. This Australian rock legend and writer (who now lives in England) is anything but ordinary. And so, naturally, neither is this ‘documentary’. The film shows the twenty-thousandth day of his life, ingeniously weaving together fact and fiction. We see him talking to his psychiatrist, visiting his band mate Warren Ellis, at home on the sofa, eating pizza and watching Scarface with his kids. And, of course, we see Nick Cave the musician. Cave comes across as a man with a self-deprecating sense of humour who philosophises at will about the art of writing songs and his legacy. What does he fear the most? Losing his memory, because we are our memories!