Recommendations of the editorial team
Nick Cave gave an insight into his cinematic preferences on his blog “The Red Hand Files”. You can find out what can be found on your top watch list here.
A film for laughing, one for crying and a “Guilty Pleasure”
At the top of his list is “Wake in Fright”, a dark Australian drama of Ted Kotcheff from 1971. The film describes the psychological breakage of a teacher in a rough outback-Kleinstadt in Australia-a uncomfortable film that is still shocked today, not least because of a brutal scene in which a kangaroo hunt is presented in a rustic reality.
However, his earliest film love was based on William Dieterles film adaptation of the classic “The Glöckner of Notre Dame” (1939) with Charles Laighton. The tragic outsider Quasimodo embodies loneliness and inner tornness – topics that can also be found in Caves work.
Cave probably brings the most laughter to “Living in Oblivion” (1995)-a bitter-evil independent comedy about the pitfalls of filmmaking with Steve Buscemi.
On the other hand, a classic in film history: Disney’s “Bambi” (1942). His “Guilty Pleasure” strikes a completely different tone. Because he calls the British, but also festive, kitschy Christmas Rom-Com “actually … love” (2003).
The film that Nick Cave knows by heart …
Brian de Palma’s bloody gangster epic “Scarface” (1983) is the film that Cave claims to be by heart.
Cave names “Shoah” (1985) by Claude Lanzmann as a documentary masterpiece – a profound, profound examination of the Holocaust, tells without archive material, only by the voices of the survivors and contemporary witnesses.
The most surprising, however, is perhaps the mention of a film that Cave really hates – and the “irrational”, as he himself admits: Stanley Kubricks celebrated satire “Dr. Strange or: how I learned to love the bomb” (1964). It leaves open why this cult film arouses its aversion.
In addition to his music, Cave himself already wrote scripts, novels and film music – including John Hillcoat’s post -apocalyptic drama “The Road” (2009) and for the western “The Proposition” (2005). His still up -to -date album is Wild God (2024) with the Bad Seeds.