PODCAST | Steve Hargrave interviews Richard Lowenstein,director of the film Mystify: Michael Hutchence.
Director Richard Lowenstein talks about his expansive new documentary examining the life of the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence who died in 1997. Lowenstein discusses the involvement of Hutchence’s famous muse Kylie Minogue, plus the difficulties in telling a truthful story of a man so often caricatured as a wildman rocker in the tabloids.
Mystify: Michael Hutchence: Respected clinical psychologist Nicoline is at the top of her game. Promptly after starting a new job at a penal institution, she commences sessions with Idris, an inmate found guilty of multiple violent sex crimes. While her colleagues are confident that the disarmingly alluring convict is well on the road to rehabilitation, Nicoline remains unconvinced, passionately advocating that Idris be denied release. As the simmering tensions between the pair steadily escalate, Nicoline finds herself overpoweringly drawn to her subject, and soon the boundaries between doctor and patient begin to blur. Shot with cool, probing precision, director Halina Reijn’s stimulating examination of power and abuse features an impressively nuanced central performance from Carice van Houten. A film of bold intricacy that’s unafraid to pose challenging questions and venture into uncomfortable territory.