![]() ![]() This is part of the film’s problem, it’s hooked on Hallelujah and gets carried away by it to such a degree that Cohen feels left on the sidelines for a chunk of the film. And, it’s to be hoped that you, at the very least feel agnostic towards Hallelujah going into this documentary, because this is not a film for non-believers and you will have heard it, well, 180 times, comes to mind, by the end. Still, that there were many versions of Hallelujah is a fact you can take to the bank, with Ratso, when asked for the number, saying, “180 comes to mind”. It’s all sweat.” although just how seriously he means this is hard to know given how slyly twinkly he was in interviews. ![]() ![]() As he put it himself: “There hardly is a first thought. Cohen was a writer who really worked at his craft. Talking to those who actually knew him, particularly author Larry “Ratso” Sloman, who befriended and interviewed Cohen down the years, offers some solid background as the film’s second theme, Hallelujah, itself is introduced through various iterations in notebooks. Things start well, with a decent potted history of how Cohen came to move from the written word to the sung and how his Jewish roots influenced his approach to songwriting which, as has been noted down the years, has hovered between holiness and hedonism. The end result could do with less tangent and more of the gent himself. Now it’s the turn of Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine, whose previous films include Ballets Russes, and who approach the musician largely from the perspective of his most famous song, Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, did have an extensive interview but was intercut it with a tribute concert while Marianne & Me: Words Of Love came at Cohen via his love for his Swedish muse Marianne Ihlen, with Nick Broomfield shoehorning himself into the film for good measure. There’s something about Canadian writer/poet/singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen that seems to shine so brightly that people always want to approach his life from an angle and never succeed in getting very close. ![]()
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