Insights Into Grieving Nick Cave & Collaborator Warren Ellis In New Documentary Winning Hearts

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Nick Cave - This Much I Know To Be True

, Insights Into Grieving Nick Cave & Collaborator Warren Ellis In New Documentary Winning Hearts

Shot on location in London & Brighton, Andrew Dominik’s feature documentary THIS MUCH I KNOW TO BE TRUE captures Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ creative relationship as they bring to life the songs from their last two studio albums, Ghosteen by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and Carnage by Cave & Warren Ellis.

In this document of their first ever performances of these albums, filmed in spring 2021 ahead of their UK tour, the two accompanied by singers and string quartet, nurture each song into existence.

The film features a special appearance by close friend and long-term collaborator, Marianne Faithfull.

Shot in colour by Andrew Dominik and with cinematography by Robbie Ryan, This Much I Know To Be True is a companion piece to Dominik’s 2016 film One More Time with Feeling.

It reaches into the deep friendship and personal relationship between Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, something glimpsed in the 2014 Cave pseudo-documentary, 20,000 Days on Earth.

The film will prove to be another significant moment in the journeys of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, capturing the mood and spirit of the pair as they move through a new, optimistic phase.

The film now released in Ireland has won strong praise for its documentation of two creative talents and is particularly poignant given the tragic recent death of Cave’s son Jethro Lazenby.

Jordan King from Empire Magazine described it as ”Musically sublime, gracefully directed, and filled with an inspiring optimism that couldn’t be more timely, this is another first-class exercise in capturing music on film from Dominik, Cave and Ellis.”

Another positive summation came from Paul Byrnes of the Sydney Morning Herald ‘‘I’ve never been a big fan of Cave. This film made me rethink his talent and gifts. Some will long for the days of short, sharp and violent Cave, the baddest of the bad seeds, but this new Cave is like a messenger from a higher place in the tower of song.”

Film buff extraordinaire Mark Kermode of Film4 and the Guardian in the UK wrote: ”The atmosphere is stripped down and austere, allowing the songs to speak for themselves as they transport us from this world to the next.”

Chris Wasser Sunday Independent in Ireland mused: ”The songs, culled from albums Ghosteen and Carnage, are laced with grief and sorrow, but there is humour and light between the cracks, and Dominik’s film is both serene and joyful, intimate and explosive. Awesome stuff.”
Ben Croll of indieWire took note of Cave’s recent tragedy:  ”If grief underscored every moment of Dominik’s 2016 first Cave doc, for his follow-up he settled on showmanship, delivering a film that is a pleasure from beginning to end.”
Anna Smith from Deadline Hollywood Daily says there’s something for most fans and not: ”If you’re a fan of Cave’s music, there’s plenty to enjoy as he builds up from confessional piano lullabies to angry political high-energy rants. If you’re more intrigued about his character, then the real gems are elsewhere.”
Rafaela Sales Ross of The Playlist praised the impact of the doc: ”Its cinematic prowess is not only a reflection of the directors insight into capturing their soulful, elegiac music, but also a testament to the depth of the relationship built between subject and framer.”
A big fans of the release is Graeme Tuckett of Stuff.co.nz who wrote: ”These interludes are gorgeously well selected, clearly unscripted and uniformly revealing, even as we laugh and reflect on how the wit is back in Cave’s arsenal, while the cynicism and rebarbative invective seem to have gone forever.”

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