Once labelled the 'most dangerous band' in the world, Mutiny in Heaven tells the story of The Birthday Party.
The reference point: the hellscapes of Hieronymus Bosch. The location: a garbage dump in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. The occasion: a music video for libidinally cacophonous ensemble The Birthday Party.
At the centre of it all was a wild-eyed stick insect of a man, cavorting his way through the squalid morass — the de-Boschery, if you will. The young Nick Cave appears naked except for a loin cloth, his pasty chest emblazoned with the words "PORCA DIO" — "God is a pig". Even more alarming is the fact he is unshod.
Director Ian White cedes the screen to the Nick the Stripper video for its full duration; it acts as a kind of unofficial header for the film's middle section, in which the band — comprised of Cave, guitarists Rowland S. Howard and Mick Harvey, bassist Tracey Pew and drummer Phill Calvert — hit their distinctive musical stride.
In its design, Mutiny in Heaven approaches, but doesn't quite achieve, the rigour and elegance of Todd Haynes's 2021 Velvet Underground documentary.
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