GFF 2010: The Good Son

 

The sixth of fourteen, The Good Son is part of a series of alternative music documentaries by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Employed to create a short to accompany each Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' album, this screening was preceded by a series of the duo's other Nick Cave shorts, including trailers for Dig, Lazarus, Dig! in which the band experiment with Victorian séance parlour tricks, and excerpts from Cave's latest book. The documentary itself, fitting considering the directors' background, is more like art than film, with unnamed talking heads – some famous, others not – discussing the impact and impression songs from the album have had on them. This simple, minimalist film stays interesting, while the inclusion of the shorts at the beginning offers a glimpse of the undeniable genius (and probable madness) of the band. Forsyth and Pollard's aim is to create a portrait of Cave's work through his fans, and it seems to have succeeded.