The minute you learn there’s a film about Leonard Cohen, you wonder why no one was smart enough to make one before. Representing four decades worth of music and fascinating personal history, the Montreal poet would seem ideally suited as the anchor for a documentary portrait. He is, however, an enigmatic entity, happy to retreat behind Buddhism and his reputation as a legend. When you’re exalted through reputation and meditation, why bother with the mortals.
Well done, director Lian Lunson, for coaxing him in front of a camera. This loving salute marries footage from Hall Willner’s Came So Far For Beauty tribute concert with interviews, artwork and appearances from ardent admirers (Bono and Co.) who simply wish to touch the hem in whatever way they can.
It hardly needs to be said that your enjoyment of the concert footage, presented here in nice and unfidgety chunks, depends on your musical tastes. Antony plays a stormer, Cave displays a predictable aptitude for the material and Beth Orton lets you forget that ‘Sisters Of Mercy’ could be a sad, bawdy hymnal to pioneering hookers.
Cohen himself meanwhile, is a deeply moving presence. Though Ms Lunson’s biography is by no means complete, her deliberately dreamy take marries well with Cohen’s haphazard poetic recollections. Roll on the comeback tour.