One More Time with Feeling

I wouldn't call myself a Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds fanboy, more like a passer-by who appreciates what he has heard of their works especially Cave and Warren Ellis's works providing film scores over recent years, so perhaps One More Time with Feeling doesn't mean as much to me as it would to long serving fans that have been with the band since their inception.

This music documentary that centres almost entirely around Cave in the recording studio working on the Skeleton Tree album is directed by Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik and the Chopper and Assassination of Jesse James overcomes the disappointing reception of his last feature film Killing Them Softly to deliver a beautifully captured documentation of the album making process that also happens to touch upon the tragic loss of Cave's son Arthur that turned his world upside down.

There's nothing typical about Cave the musician and Cave the human and Dominik's film follows the mantra to a tee with Cave allowed to provide rambling voice overs and deep life pondering monologues on camera to fill in blanks but it would've been more effective for a watcher like myself had Dominik and Cave himself toned down the ponderous to instead talk more to the everyman as much of the diatribe or deep musings end up becoming a little too much to bare.

One thing that never gets hard to bare however is Dominik's directing style (unfortunately the version of the film I watched wasn't in the intended 3-D format) and the filmmaker uses his cinematic senses to great effect as the camera invades and wanders the recording studio. There is also little denying the power of some of Cave and his bands work here with members like the majestical Warren Ellis combining with Cave to deliver some heart-wrenching and soul searching songs born out of unimaginable loss and if nothing else, these musical moments make One More Time with Feeling worth the price of admission.

Final Say –

An absolute must for fans of Cave and his music, this anything but a by the numbers music doco is an intimate look into the bands creative sensibilities and a sometimes touching portrait of a man touched by grief. If however there was a little less airplay given to various and overlong ramblings, One More Time with Feeling would've been a film for everyone, not just those willing to nod in approval to every little word Cave speaks.

3 forgotten piano chords out of 5

I came late to Nick Cave, but the premise of this documentary piqued my interest soon after its release. Owing to the restriction of the initial 'one night only' showing, I wasn't able to catch it until now.

Having watched it on DVD, I can now honestly say I am glad I have done so. Nick Cave is a very interesting man, and he demands a certain respect which is evident in the way this documentary has been made.

The use of black and white cinematography is jarring at first, but it soon becomes apparent that this is the only way it could be.

The documentary feels intimate, but manages not to be voyeuristic - a triumph by Dominick and his team.

There is much here for the Cave fan, the casual viewer and the creative alike.

I'm not really a Nick Cave fan. I really liked Where the Wild Roses Grow (the hit from 1995) and have heard some other stuff that's nice, but I don't think I've ever listened to a full Nick Cave album. My girlfriend dragged me to this movie, and I'm glad she did.

I had totally forgotten what happened (read about it in the news last year), so it was a little bit confusing when he/they talked about the trauma in the first half of the movie. But it was soon apparent that he had lost someone close to him, which made everything make sense.

It is a depressing documentary. But if you only want to see happy things, go watch the Police Academy series or some other uncomplicated movie. This documentary will make you think, and fear losing people close to you (especially if you're a parent). Also, I'm not a movie buff, and don't know all the terms. But the cinematic whatever-it's- called (position and movement of the camera) was great. The director really managed to capture what Nick said, tried to say, and didn't say. I saw the 2D version of the movie, I can imagine that some scenes would have had even more of an impact in 3D, but this was more than good enough.

Finally, the music was great. Nothing like the upbeat and funny Nick Cave-songs I've heard before, but still great. If I didn't have the album on Spotify already, this would have been my first Nick Cave album.

To call One More Time With Feeling a great achievement and leave it at that would be to ignore just how unique it is in a vast sea of documentaries. Instead of being about the death of Nick Cave's son and treating that as the primary subject, the film revolves around Nick Cave's creative process and in the meantime how his personal loss affected that process. There are a lot of philosophical ideas going around, so even though the premise and structure of the film is simple, it's a very weight film to experience. Andrew Dominik can create an atmosphere like no other (for an example, see The Assassination of Jesse James) and here he's able to so perfectly capture the kind of thoughtful ideas and imagery that are associated with Cave's internal process. This is a great one and not to be missed.

3D is used here as an art form, a new experience for me. Also the black and white really adds to the vibe. We get to grieve with Nick about his son Arthur's death. We see him not as a rock star but as a human being dealing with loss. The songs used from his 16th album Skeleton Tree were just amazing. It feels like we're there in the recording studio with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Like we are a part of the music, and its brilliant.

I saw it in a packed cinema and everyone sat glued to their seats when the credits start rolling. It's that good.

Go see it in 3D while you still can. It will change you forever.