\u201cAnother music documentary?\u201d you might well sigh, and rightfully so. We\u2019re stuffed to the brim, Christmas turkey-style, with endless and often hastily thrown-together projects promising \u201cthe most in-depth\u201d of looks at our favourite artists, or indeed our most controversial. The problem with many of them is their endeavour to present the whole picture, too often with broad brush strokes and leaving viewers with the feeling that, actually, they haven\u2019t learnt anything new. <\/p>\n
Not so the case with Veiled World, which homes in on Cave\u2019s songwriting process \u2013 how he conjures up these dark, mysterious worlds, and what drives him to do so in the first place. It helps that Emmy-nominated director Mike Christie has assembled some of the musician\u2019s closest friends, collaborators and admirers \u2013 Warren Ellis, Florence Welch, Colin Greenwood \u2013 to offer their own thoughts on his work and why we\u2019re so drawn to it. <\/p>\n
The documentary is divided into chapters, opening with \u201cThe Outlaw\u201d, which examines the characters Cave has introduced us to<\/a>. As Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 bassist Flea points out, his songs are \u201cfull of the most divine, beautiful characters. And then, you know, there\u2019s the most pathetic of victims, the most ruthless of evil-doers, and just the worst of humanity.\u201d Men like the narrator in \u201cThe Mercy Seat\u201d, from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds\u2019 1988 album Tender Prey, are not necessarily ones you\u2019d want to find next to you at the bar. <\/p>\n But, as Scottish author Irvine Welsh puts it: \u201cThe great thing about anti-heroes is they give us permission to transgress without actually transgressing.\u201d Cave, as the documentary deftly lays out, has a unique way of positioning himself in some truly troubling perspectives: the man on Death Row in \u201cThe Mercy Seat\u201d, for instance, or the killer in \u201cStagger Lee\u201d<\/a>. In the case of the latter, filmmaker and Cave collaborator Andrew Dominik recalls attending one of Cave\u2019s early performances of the song, which follows with graphic detail the exploits of its foul-mouthed murderer. \u201cYou could feel the absolute shock\u2026 there\u2019s 50,000 people that just felt like they\u2019d been slapped,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n By the second chapter (\u201cThe Shadow\u201d), we\u2019re already presented with evidence of how Cave\u2019s songwriting and ideas just keep evolving. It touches on his past issues with heroin addiction, respectfully, to note how he had feared that without drugs he would not be able to plumb those same depths. Obviously, his concerns were misguided; just listen to 2004\u2019s Abattoir Blues\/The Lyre of Orpheus, or 2016\u2019s Skeleton Tree,<\/a> released not long after the death of Cave\u2019s teenage son, Arthur.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n \u2018That idea that art trounces everything, it just doesn\u2019t apply to me any more\u2019 (Sky)<\/p>\n One of the most moving scenes comes from longtime Bad Seed member Thomas Wydler, who recalls hearing that Arthur had died in a fall near the family home in Brighton. \u201cThe worst thing,\u201d he answers, wiping tears from his eyes. \u201cIt was the worst thing I\u2019ve ever heard. And I\u2019ve never forgotten it.\u201d <\/p>\n How did it affect Cave, not just as a man, but as an artist? \u201cThat kind of grief is a form of madness,\u201d says Se\u00e1n O’Hagan, the Irish journalist and critic with whom Cave co-wrote the 2022 book Faith, Hope and Carnage. \u201cIt brings you pretty close to going under.\u201d<\/p>\n Cave\u2019s stance on art had already shifted by this point: \u201cFor most of my life, I was sort of just in awe of my own genius,\u201d he says in a voiceover excerpt <\/a>from an ABC interview, with a self-deprecating snort. \u201cI had an office, and I would sit there and write every day\u2026 whatever else happened in my life was peripheral, even annoyances, because I was involved in this \u2018great work\u2019. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd this just collapsed completely, and I saw the folly of that, the disgraceful self-indulgence of the whole thing. My priorities changed\u2026 that idea that art trounces everything, it just doesn\u2019t apply to me any more. I\u2019m a father, and I\u2019m a husband, and a person of the world. These things are much more important to me than the concept of being an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\u2018That](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/01_NickCavesVeiledWorld.jpg\")
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