THE TRUTH ABOUT MICHAEL HUTCHENCE
An intimate new film explores the man behind the rock-star myth
New documentary reveals all
Acamera snakes through the lavish carriages of the often romanticised Orient Express before settling on its intended subject: Kylie Minogue, sans clothes. We don’t see him, but we know the man behind the camera is Minogue’s then beau, famed rock star Michael Hutchence. It feels like we’ve stumbled on to someone’s private home movies. Which, of course, is true. “You’re literally watching her through Michael’s eyes because he’s grabbed her camera and wandered down the train,” filmmaker Richard Lowenstein – one of Hutchence’s longtime friends – tells WHO. “You’re seeing what he saw in that relationship.”
Minogue, whose naked bum is there for the world to ogle, offered the surprising footage to Lowenstein for his incredible film, Mystify: Michael Hutchence (in cinemas on July 4). Lowenstein has pieced together intimate, raw footage from Hutchence’s friends and family – including his daughter Tiger Lily Hutchence
– to create what can only be described as the definitive portrait of the artist. “There’s so much footage and such a big story to tell,” Lowenstein, who directed Hutchence in the cult film
Dogs in Space, and helmed a number of INXS’ most famous music videos, says.
“It’s a like a Greek tragedy, really.”
The unlikely romance between Hutchence and Minogue, which lasted from 1989 to 1991, is in full bloom in the film. “Kylie has got this sweet, innocent image – what the hell is she doing with me? And vice versa,” Hutchence says in the film. Minogue acknowledges Hutchence “awakened my desire for other things in my world”.
Lowenstein says Minogue handed over the footage, along with a folder full of faded faxes Hutchence had sent her while they were dating. The two would use secret names for each other – Minogue was Gabby Jones and Hutchence was Swordfish. The faxes are full of Hutchence’s handwritten love notes to the singer and are, according to Lowenstein, full of phrases such as “my gorgeous love” and “good morning princess” and “I’ll spank you”.
A labour of love for Lowenstein, the film would not be what it is without the help of Hutchence’s daughter Tiger Lily. Initially, Lowenstein did not have access to INXS’ music, so he sought help from Tiger Lily, who was sceptical. “She said, ‘I don’t know if it’s going to help because no-one acknowledges who I am or my part in the music or the legacy at all,’” Lowenstein recalls. “I’ve just been ignored by Michael’s estate and anyone else involved with his music.” But she sent an email to INXS band members and the band’s management essentially pleading with them to let Lowenstein use INXS’ songs in the film. Within 24 hours, the filmmaker was the given the green light for nine songs. Much is made in the film of Hutchence’s charisma – and indeed the effect he had on women. “He could look you in the eye and make you feel like you’re the only person in the room,” Hutchence’s personal manager Martha Troup says in the film. Lowenstein recalls being at a Melbourne nightclub with Hutchence and the rocker’s then girlfriend Michelle Bennett. He was talking to two women, while another was rubbing up against him from behind,” he says. “I said to Michelle, ‘How does he do it?’ In that moment, Michael was truly interested in finding out about the people he was talking to.”
Later, Hutchence’s life began to unravel as
“By the end of his life, he wasn’t sure who he was” —Lowenstein
his mental health deteriorated and the singer tragically committed suicide in a hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay in 1997.
His decline has been attributed, in part, to a vicious assault on the singer in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1992, when, on a night out with then girlfriend Helena Christensen, Hutchence was punched by a taxi driver and fell to the ground, hitting his head, and losing his sense of taste and smell. Lowenstein believes the brain injury affected his “cognitive ability” to handle his “complicated relationship” with Paula Yates years later.
The title of the film, Mystify is, of course, the name of one of the band’s most-loved songs, and Hutchence certainly had a mystifying quality about him. A naturally shy boy, Hutchence grew up to be one of the great rock showmen, surrounded by adoring fans. Yet in spite of – or because of – his success, there is an air of loneliness about Hutchence in the film. “By the end of his life, I wasn’t quite sure who he was,” Lowenstein says of the singer. “And I don’t think by the end of his life he was quite sure who he was, either.”
By Stephen Downie