Nick Cave played Music Hall in September 2021 as part of his and Warren Ellis’ Carnage tour. I’m not sure if there are superlatives for how magical it was. To see an artist who I have loved for nearly 25 years, standing on a stage I could never have imagined him upon, in Aberdeen, was truly special.  

It was the first performance I had taken in since before the pandemic. The music from Ghosteen and Carnage is full of tender moments of beauty, and pain. The songs are naked. Nick Cave stood roguish and thin, tall and striking. I sat, in post lockdown awe, suddenly aware of what we lose when performance and art is taken from us.  

Borne from the same music, sessions and tour we now have THIS MUCH I KNOW TO BE TRUE. I have seen some of the film and it captures the essence of Nick and Warren’s performance perfectly. Andrew Dominik, who made one of the best films of the 21st Century in The Assassination of Jesse James, can often be a frustrating director. Here, he is as magnificent as his subjects. Don’t miss it on May 11th. 

Between May 6th and May 26th, Belmont Filmhouse is showing 36 films. It would be remiss of me to only recommend one, but it would be a challenge to mention them all here. Many of them will have it in their power to suggest to you the importance of art, performance and cinema, much like Nick Cave did for me in September. 

I’ll draw special attention to the Italian Film Festival and our Ennio Morricone season, with 14 films between them, contemporary and classic. Deaf Awareness Week celebrates films which made effort in inclusivity to sensitively feature deaf performers and to be accessible to deaf audiences, including Best Picture winner CODA. 

We’ve also got our hands on a BFI remaster of Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, a film I saw for the first time only recently, and on TV - it deserves a big screen. A24s new horror X, The Quiet Girl and Compartment No. 6 all look superb. Thrilling, contemplative and challenging cinema. There’s another stacked Filmhouse Junior with Onward, Treasure Planet and Robert Rodriguez hugely underrated Spy Kids. And lastly reissues of Cabaret and Verhoeven’s Robocop – as the man says, ‘I’d buy that for a dollar!’.  

Colin 

Head of Cinema Operations