Mystify: Michael Hutchence (2019)

Directed by: Richard Lowenstein | 108 minutes | documentary, music

What do we actually know about the 1997 death of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence? That it was officially suicide by hanging. A depressed rock star, something to do with sex addiction. Incomprehensible to the layman, someone who was described as ‘the sexiest man on earth’, and who seemed to enjoy it to the full in successive relationships with Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates. Suddenly he was dead.

Hutchence is dissected by many intimates in ‘MYSTIFY’, a documentary named after an INXS song that is somewhere between exposing and mystifying, because human memory simply obscures. There is talk of a fashion model as a mother, a divorce, changeable contacts with parents, brothers and sisters, but nobody really puts their finger on the sore spot.

Michael was a sensitive boy, who could be completely absorbed in things he loved. On stage he became a reptile, and his personality seemed to coincide with his image. A charismatic pleasure seeker who meant no harm. That’s what everyone surveyed says, from band members to family members and loved ones. Maker Richard Lowenstein has also directed many video clips for INXS, and can therefore also be regarded as intimate.

No psychoanalysis, no demystification, not even hero worship. Yet there is something that lifts this BBC documentary above the average: private footage, of which that with Minogue (circa 1990) is particularly impressive. We see sincerely in love people who have documented their amazement and zest for life. It is an endearing phase in the film, with a cheerful Minogue as a natural counterweight to Hutchence.

Hutchence broke her heart. Later it went downhill for him, from modeling parties to depression, to new love, doomed love with Paula Yates – Bob Geldof’s wife, also depressed by nature. Heroin entered Hutchence’s life, and a child. That girl, Tiger Lily, was eventually adopted by Geldof after Yates also died of an overdose. The why questions are not answered.