Year: 2019
Director: Richard Lowenstein
I was never much of a fan of INXS. When they were on the way up I was into different stuff, Hutchence was just a bit to Jaggerish and sexy for a pub rocking/prog fan and I’ll say it – they were from Sydney. Come back to Australia and they’re huge, doing Live Aid, Wembley, etc and I’m still not convinced. A band that formed in school always struck me as a bit funk lite, soul-lite, rock lite. But that Hutchence guy, he did Max Q with Ollie Olsen, acted in Dogs In Space directed by Richard Lowenstein also and there was no denying it. He was a ROCK STAR.
I moved to Sydney and was living there when he died. In fact, he died at the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay, not that far away from where I lived and his last meal (supper) was at an Indian restaurant in Edgecliffe up the road from me. The shock and grieving in their home town were palpable. Kylie flew back, Nick Cave performed at the funeral. I saw him the next night, he and Warren Ellis, I think, and he was totally morose. It was clear that this band and this man meant something for a lot of people. So when Mrs. Wells suggested we see the movie, I was keen to look further into the life of Michael Hutchence.
This was a preview to be followed by a Q and A with the Director. When the film was introduced the executive producer said whatever you may have thought Michael Hutchence was, you might change your opinion after seeing this film.
Well, he got that wrong. Michael Hutchence appears to have been exactly how I imagined and his life comes out of a chapter of a book of Rock Star Tragedies.
Shy out of place kid, dysfunctional family, bullied at school. Gets protected by a kid, hangs at his place with him and his brothers. They start a band, Michael sings and blossoms when performing. Reads books and poetry, sultry looks, intellectualish, thin, curly locks -a chick magnet. Get discovered, work themselves into the ground. Achieve success, reservations about fame. A succession of girlfriends, the solo album that upsets the band. Christ on a bike -this is rock n roll 101.
The story is constructed well – thanks to remarkable access to home movie footage, a lot of it grainy and shakey with twee ad-libbing) from family, Kylie, other girlfriends and other places. There are no interviews to the camera just for the film. Only excerpts from interviews that are relevant, frozen expressions are used very well to convey what they think was his feeling/ inner turmoil at the time. There’s not a lot about the music, the albums, etc although Chris Thomas the producer gets a lot of airtime. He really rated the band.
The standard rock n roll route to ruin deviates with his incident in Amsterdam and the resultant brain damage, loss of smell and taste and ongoing mood swings. The loss of smell was indeed ironic given his fascination with the book the Perfumer. You probably know the rest which is covered well. You could really feel the pain and turmoil combining with his inability to process stuff very well post brain damage. I hadn’t seen the footage where he presents an award to Oasis and Noel Gallagher says “has beens shouldn’t give awards to gonna be’s”. I have always liked Noel but what a c..t. “
So it ends with his death and the coroner’s report. There was a lot talk at the time as to whether he really suicided. This certainly puts paid to any doubts about that. He was all over the shop and miserable as fuck.
So at 37, we farewelled a gentle, sensitive man, longing for a happy family and family life while at the same time drawn to the big stage and the next glamorous woman. Were we robbed of a musical genius? Nope. But he was a great front man.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
INXS fans like the bloke next to us who had every record and those with a fascination for those who burn out rather than rust.
Junior Wells says
Moose the Mooche says
I wasn’t an INXS fan but MH was class, the real deal. I remember reading an interview with him in NME about Max Q and thinking that there was more to him than some guy who looked like he should be in a jeans advert.
Noel G. a c–t? You don’t say. What an ungracious little shitwipe.
Mousey says
Hmmm. Yep he had that rock star thing. Met him before he was famous, nice man. INXS couldn’t write a tune but they were a great funky band, perfect for the times. I won’t go and see the film cos I’m just not interested but curious to read about him for some reason. Suicide? Not sure about that. Experimenting with slightly dangerous sexual adventures? Yep, possibly. Certainly a sad loss, especially to a couple of friends of mine who knew him.
That’s all from me…
Junior Wells says
@Mousey Hmmm. I too had always assumed that auto-erotica misadventure was the real reason but it does seem that the brain damage from that incident in Amsterdam was a lot worse than just the loss of smell and taste and the phone calls prior to his death were increasingly distraught.
This will be on TV before too long. It doesn’t really justify cinema release.
Black Type says
It’s scheduled to be on BBC2 in the UK later in the year.
dai says
What incident in Amsterdam?
Moose the Mooche says
Copenhagen. And the autoerotica thing seems to come mainly from Paula Yates, who might have had good reason to want to think that he hadn’t intended to kill himself.
dai says
What incident in Copenhagen?
Tiggerlion says
In 1998 he was drunkenly walking Helena Christiansen home. He staggered in front of a taxi and refused to move out of the way. The taxi driver got out the cab and there was an altercation, culminating in Hutchence cracking his skull on the pavement. He didn’t seek medical assistance for several days.
dai says
Thank you
Moose the Mooche says
Look it up. It’s not very edifying.
Black Type says
I’ve read the book ‘Paula, Michael and Bob: Everything You Know Is Wrong’ by Gerry Agar, which reaches almost Shakespearean levels of tragedy in its account of that tangled web of fame and misfortune.
Junior Wells says
Copenhagen was it? Only just saw the movie and still had it in my mind it was Amsterdam. Funny how stubborn a flawed data entry can be.
In the movie it was said by Helena Christensen that he aggressively refused to stay in hospital and it was some months before he sought expert help. Apart from the loss of senses there were bouts of aggression never seen before, mood swings etc.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Always had respect for this lad; he was, as you say, the real deal as far as being a rock ‘n’ roll star is concerned. Sadly, though, he was also the real deal as far as being a rock ‘n’ roll casualty. I will look out for this fillum when the Beeb put it out, thanks for the heads-up.
As for that moron Gallagher, it isn’t possible for me to have a lower opinion of him than I already have, but this little award ceremony anecdote makes it even less likely that I’ll ever think of him as anything other than a low value, low brow, talentless little plagiarising twat who didn’t deserve to luck out as he did.
TrypF says
Pretty sure it was Liam who said that, though Noel didn’t go out of his way to be nice. They don’t call cocaine ‘powdered arsehole’ for nothing.
NG has a nice turn of phrase on occasion, but his interview with the wonderful Sodajerker podcast was one of their only ones where the subject comes across as particularly full of themselves.
Gary says
I watched the film about Liam (As You Were) last night. I used to find his bizarre off-the-wall comments funny. Now he’s grown up a bit he just comes across as a really boring (and talentless) thicko. But what was most annoying was his habit of ending every single sentence with “d’ya know what I mean?”.
Black Type says
I was convinced it was Liam, so I researched the incident (yes, I really am living my best life) and found that Noel was the guy with the witty repartee and Liam went for the less eloquent option of offering everyone out.
Junior Wells says
On the Oasis aspect, it seems like there was previous “tension”.
http://live4ever.proboards.com/thread/83733/michael-hutchence