Film Review: Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

[da]

Now that I'm done cleaning up from dinner...

It's too bad that Leonard Cohen can't sing worth a damn. Fortunately, just about everyone else is happy to back him up- or, sing his songs without him. And the result is magic. Cohen's possibly my favourite songwriter, or at least in the top few.

I'm Your Man features 15 or so of Cohen's songs, sung by Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton, Antony, Nick Cave, plus others, and oh yeah, concluding with Tower of Song with U2 backing up on backup. Roughly 1/3 of the film is interviews with Cohen, which has some interesting biography about him becoming a Buddhist monk, family, and how he's really not that much of a lady's man. Er, yeah.

High-points of the movie for me were: Rufus Wainwright singing Everybody Knows and Antony singing If It Be Your Will (The latter is a clip on the movie website). Both of these were stunningly beautiful once they got going (Antony, who was dressed in a holey fishnet-like overshirt, was a bit visually distracting for the first part of his song, but wow he can sing.)

There were a few low-points: the production was a bit odd. A few times, they felt they needed to echo what Cohen had just said, which was distracting. The framing was too close. I really didn't need to be focused on Cohen's nose quite so often. Finally, while I like Nick Cave's music (especially his Cohen covers), for some reason this time he decided to jazz things up, which I didn't particulary care for.

This was worth seeing on the big screen.

Comments

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

I realise I'm in a small minority, but I think Leonard Cohen knows exactly what he's doing when he sings his own songs and I'm more often pleased than dissatisfied with the result. That said, there are some covers I like better than his own versions, or prefer in certain situations.

What kind of visuals made it worth seeing on the big screen in your opinion? Or is it more the audio or the timing?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I think Leonard Cohen knows exactly what he's doing when he sings his own songs and I'm more often pleased than dissatisfied with the result.

Oh, I agree whole-heartedly. I like listening to him; I just call it chanting, more than singing. I wouldn't even argue with anyone who said they like his singing. Leonard Cohen music is like that, I think.

About the big screen: Hm. I think it was the overall experience, more than particular visuals. The sound was about what I expected for the Princess (good, not super-sharp). I don't think I've ever seen a "concert movie" before, so I was trying to figure out whether it would've had the same presence and immediacy on the little screen. And I don't think it would've.

Plus, in the calculus of supporting the Princess, versus waiting n months for a video version to come out, I'm glad I sprung immediate gratification. :)