DVDTalk review:
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
Lions Gate Entertainment // PG-13 // $27.98 // November 14, 2006
Review by Preston Jones | posted November 11, 2006
The Movie
So many of Leonard Cohen's slavish admirers speak so reverently of him that when he first appears in director Lian Lunson's documentary/concert film hybrid Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, you expect the 71-year-old singer/poet/author to have no less than the answer to life itself. And while some of his acolytes -- Bono, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright or Hal Willner -- might claim that the mysteries of our existence are salved by Cohen's works, much of what the aging cult icon has to say is downright impenetrable, much like his ornate, downcast catalog of songs. While this is not a revelation to those who admire Cohen and his prodigious output, those expecting to have the curtain pulled back on this counter-culture hero may come away from Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man a little frustrated.
It's more the music, than the man, that should attract the curious to Lunson's hagiographic portrait of Cohen -- the loose biography of Cohen, tracing from his youth to more recent times, is often blessedly interrupted by footage from the January 2005 concert titled "Came So Far For Beauty" and held at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, a gathering which attracted some top-flight talent: the aforementioned Rufus Wainwright and Nick Cave, as well as neo-folkies Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright and Beth Orton, Brit rock god Jarvis Cocker, avant garde vocalist Antony Hegarty, long time Cohen back-up vocalists Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, The Handsome Family and Teddy's mother, Linda Thompson. While a few of those names may pop out, most of the performers are not immediately known to those who ingest heavy amounts of Fergie or Blue October on a regular basis, but after viewing this film, perhaps some will be encouraged to seek them out.
Those who are turned off by Cohen's music often cite his detached, almost monotone delivery, an approach which can obscure the vivid emotion lying within the lyrics -- thanks to the often sterling performances by the above mentioned musicians, those on the fence may view these songs in an entirely new light. Of particular note are the works rendered anew by Hegarty (whose "If It Be Your Will" is a poignant showstopper), Rufus Wainwright (whose hat trick of "Everybody Knows," "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" and Cohen's signature "Hallelujah" is astounding), Cave (a reading of the film's title inspiration is appropriately jazzy) and Teddy Thompson (an aching take on "Tonight Will Be Fine). Bono and the Edge, both of whom pop up in interview segments throughout the film, join their U2 bandmates and Cohen for a low-key rendition of "Tower of Song," replete with some quite beautiful guitar work.
What's most maddening about Lunson's film is that she can't hold on either Cohen or the concert -- drifting between the two subjects, she intercuts flashes of a shimmering, beaded curtain (it's the backdrop for the U2 performance)atop Super 8 footage of Cohen and artifacts from his past, while drowning out the musicians performing the man's work. Restlessly moving from one to another without really giving more than a handful of songs a proper airing, Lunson can't seem to decide if she wants Cohen to hold forth, dropping mystical bon mots or to afford the clutch of musicians paying homage more screen time. Her inability to favor one aspect of her dual narrative more fully, leaves both feeling somewhat half-hearted. There's a terrific biography and a dynamite concert film lurking within Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man but its director couldn't quite find either one.
The DVD
The Video:
Shot on digital video and transferred to 35 mm, the 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man is plagued by the many fleeting defects that continue to mar those films which rely upon the more flexible creative tool of DV -- faint smearing, the odd bit of softness and instances of barely visible video noise. A lot of the visual quirks in Lunson's film -- the heavy grain, hazy focus and treated archival footage -- are intentional, but a lot of the concert footage occasionally exhibits defects that are not. Solid, if unremarkable.
The Audio:
Curiously, for a film so heavily concentrated on live performance, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is underwhelming -- the musicians are largely relegated to the front channels, with only the audience's applause filling in the rear. Most of the songs have no real oomph to them and lack weight; that said, every single song is crystal clear and easily understood, as is Cohen's distinctive baritone, but I'd wished that the track were a little more dynamic. A Dolby 2.0 stereo track and optional English and Spanish subtitles are also on board.
The Extras:
An earnest, if slightly adulatory, commentary track with Lunson leads things off, as she allows that she's never done a commentary before, but she quickly settles into a groove, expanding upon behind-the-scenes information and production tidbits about the concert and the film itself. A three minute, 57 second "conversation" with Cohen is included as is a quartet of additional musical performances -- Martha Wainwright's "Tower of Song," Perla Batalla's "Bird on a Wire," The Handsome Family's "Famous Blue Raincoat" and Teddy Thompson's "Tonight Will Be Fine" -- with trailers for The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Grizzly Man, Girl with the Pearl Earring, A Good Woman and The Cooler completing the disc.
Final Thoughts:
There's a terrific biography and a dynamite concert film lurking within Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man but director Lian Lunson couldn't quite find either one. See the film for its exceptional musical performances and feel free to skip past much of Cohen's rambled musings. The supplements, much like the visuals, are solid, if unremarkable. Recommended.
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~ have you never seen a Cohen interview before 
~ so go figure 
. Reminds me of those 'anecdotal' things about not leaving your fine china in the cupboards or your silk gloves in the drawer. The finer things are to be used for while we live, not to be retrieved [and, perhaps, even disposed of 
] after we're dead.