Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man Review

"Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man" reviews

Movie

Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-11-17 16:00:46

Provider

Review

Long before Morrissey there was 'Laughing' Leonard Cohen, the master of that droll strain of melancholy. Now 71, he's approaching the age when younger stars are queuing up to pay their respects.

Part concert film and part biography, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man salutes four decades of songwriting output and reveals Cohen to be a poet of the first order (in fact, he was a poet proper before he turned to song). Around a show recorded in Sydney, in 2005, and named after one of the great man's songs (Came So Far For Beauty), the director intercuts footage of Cohen reflecting on his career. He talks about his Jewish childhood in Montreal and early years as a poet; his move to New York and time spent at the Chelsea Hotel; his introduction to Zen Buddhism; and his ideas about life and beauty.

So much talking does he do in fact, that he only performs one song, The Tower of Song, and that's the closing tune. For the most part his songs are left to other acts: from Nick Cave to Antony Hegarty via Bono and Rufus Wainwright, who relays an especially lovely story of the first time he met Cohen.

Perhaps the final word, should go to Prince Charles, who describes Cohen as "remarkable. The orchestration is fantastic, and the words, the lyrics, and everything."