20,000 Days on Earth: Film and Q&A with Nick Cave, Curzon Cinemas

Get a moody insight into the mind of Australia’s misanthropic rock legend Nick Cave with new film 20,000 Days on Earth at the Curzon this September. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with the enigmatic and abrasive Bad Seeds frontman via satellite link.

Billed as a documentary, the film (directed by British filmmaking duo Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard) blurs the line between reality and fiction in its exploration of Cave and his approach to the creative process.

Presented as a day in Cave’s life (the title comes from the opening of the film as Cave wakes up to his 20,000th morning), the film features an unusual collision of contrived situations, interviews and excerpts from musical performances- a unique take on the rockumentary format. 

By using the device of a therapist probing the star as an interview technique, the role of the traditional interviewer is intelligently subverted in true Nick Cave style, and the audience is allowed a glimpse into the Australian’s psyche (or at least as much as he wants us to see).

Among the contrived situations thrown up during this most revealing day, we see vignette mini-interviews between Cave and a cast of characters who have been integral to his personal and professional development- including Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone- drifting mysteriously in and out of the back of his black Jaguar. 

20,000 Days on Earth has been well received by critics and won two awards in the World Cinema Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

How much actual insight into the famously reticent and contrary Australian rockstar the film provides remains to be seen, but with rollicking musical passages, philosophical musings and lush cinematography the veracity of the content is secondary to the artifice of performance- and we’re sure Cave wouldn’t have it any other way.

The film and satellite Q&A will be shown simultaneously at Curzon cinemas in Soho, Victoria, Chelsea and Wimbledon