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LEONARD COHEN: I'M YOUR MAN
Directed by: Lian Lunson.
Produced by: Lian Lunson, Mel Gibson & Bruce Davey.
Director of Photography: Geoff Hall & John Pirozzi.
Edited by: Mike Cahill.
Music by: Leonard Cohen.
Released by: Lionsgate.
Country of Origin: Australia/USA. 104 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Nick Cave, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Antony, Linda Thompson, the Handsome Family, Beth Orton, Teddy Thompson, Jarvis Cocker, Perla Batalla, Julie Christensen, Joan Wasser & U2.

Organized by the Canadian Consulate, this musical tribute to Montreal-born singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen was filmed at the Sydney Opera House, June 2005. Interwoven between the concert numbers are interviews with musicians who literally sing Cohen’s praises, which won’t exactly be news to Cohen’s fan base.

His bio is told largely in his own words, but the only time the wry and articulate Cohen drops his guard is in his admission of ungentlemanly behavior; he once divulged to a journalist that the woman referred to in his autobiographical “Chelsea Hotel #2” was Janis Joplin (“I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, you were talking so brave and so sweet, giving me head on the unmade bed, while the limousines wait in the street”). That’s as personal as this film gets, besides singer Rufus Wainwright’s humorous recollection of his first meeting with Cohen, who was in his underwear.

But as the cliché goes, it’s the singer, not the song. Unlike Judy Collins or Joe Cocker, strong vocalists who can interpret a song in their own right, many of the performers here have a tendency to jazz up their versions of Cohen’s songs instead of letting the melody and lyrics take care of themselves. Since some weren’t even born when Cohen’s career took off in the ‘60’s, perhaps the main objective of the concert’s producer, Hal Willner, was to reach a younger and broader audience. However, given that Cohen’s works are lyric driven, Rufus Wainwright’s nasality, Beth Orton’s breathy delivery and Antony’s vibrato are even more prominent.

Antony (performing without his band the Johnsons) sings with his eyes closed, not connecting to the camera or the audience, enveloped in his own revelry, while the glib Nick Cave doesn’t have the vocal range or sensitivity for “Suzanne” (previously covered by both Collins and Nina Simone.) Not surprisingly, it is fellow folkies Kate and Anna McGarrigle who do the best with their material. Cohen only performs one song – the film’s closing number “Tower of Song,” accompanied by U2.

Left unmentioned in the documentary is Cohen’s off-stage turmoil: during this time, he sued his longtime manager and former lover Kelley Lynch for siphoning millions of dollars from his retirement fund. Cohen was awarded a $9.5 million court ruling against Lynch in February. Instead, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man is a lulling, reverential salute. Kent Turner
June 21, 2006