‘Love Actually’ and a heap more of Nick Cave’s favourite movies
The Red Hand Files is the gift that keeps on giving for Nick Cave fans.
Previously, the wild and violent punk, there was no chance of getting straight answers or any serious insights from him. But now, as the wise old sage, he’ll more than happily share everything from religious beliefs to a film watchlist.
Each week, Cave talks directly to his fans and followers. “The Red Hand Files have changed me hugely, for better or worse, I don’t know,” the artist said about his own project, where he responds to questions and letters with no middleman. “It’s placed me in a strange position. It’s weird. I go out, and people come to me for advice all the time,” he added as suddenly Cave no longer feels like the scary, unapproachable punk, but feels to many like a kind of agony aunt at worst, or even a sort of friend at best.
Sometimes the weekly send-out involves a lengthy essay from Cave about grief, love, or the role spirituality or politics plays in his life. Sometimes he talks about his music and the process of making it, or he merely sends back a one-word, sarcastic response. In this one instance, music was out of the window, and suddenly, Cave was a film critic as a fan in Texas wrote to him, “Just for fun, I have a few questions about movies that I would love to hear your answers to”.
They range from the expected to the unexpected. The psychological thriller Wake in Fright, being declared his favourite film of all time, seems to make a lot of sense given his penchant for darkness. It’s the same for the old and somewhat eerie 1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame, being a childhood favourite of his, suggesting that love for darkness started early. His love for Scarface makes sense too, declaring it as a film he feels he must know off by heart by this point.
In unexpected turns, though, Cave admitted to absolutely hating Dr Strangelove but provides no reasoning for the Stanley Kubrick slander. But he does admit to loving Love Actually as a true guilty pleasure. More call-outs point towards the classic Disney movie Bambi as one that can always make him cry, and 1995’s Living in Oblivion as one that can always make him laugh.
So what can we learn here? We can tell that Cave’s humour is always dark, preferring his comedies dark and satirical, and even his all-time favourite films with a dark and sinister edge. However, there’s also a lightness: who would’ve guessed that the old punk would cry at an animated deer? Or find himself feeling warm-hearted watching Hugh Grant pretend to be the prime minister, dancing around Downing Street?
It even gives an insight into his relationship as he shares that his wife’s taste is dark too, picking out the French erotic thriller One Deadly Summer as her own all-time favourite.
Nick Cave’s movie recommendations:
- Favourite movie of all time: Wake In Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971)
- Childhood favourite movie: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle, 1939)
- A movie that makes him laugh: Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCilli, 1995)
- A movie that makes him cry: Bambi (David D Hand, 1942)
- A movie he could quote by heart: Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
- His favourite documentary: Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
- His guilty pleasure: Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)
