Hallelujah, the words of Leonard Cohen

The film by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, in theaters since October 19, retraces the key moments in the life and career of Leonard Cohen, where the lyrics of the eponymous song serve as a common thread. This documentary film involves those who have worked closely with the poet-singer and delivers many fascinating and moving details on the genesis of global success. Hallelujah.

by Marc Bittoun

“I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased The Lord (…)”.

The film opens with the song’s much-celebrated hit Hallelujah, on the occasion of the 1985 tour in Europe articulated around the release of the album Various Positions.

The hoarse and deep voice of Leonard Cohen already bewitches us. Our conviction is now established: the film proposes to walk through the career of the artist until leading him to compose Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Montreal. The young Leonard received a solid religious education and spent time with his grandfather, who, we guess, passed on to him his enthusiasm and the taste for the spiritual quest that would accompany him throughout his life.

The artist will begin by writing poems. His collections are published but do not meet with success. Leonard Cohen then turns to song and dresses his lyrics with simple and soft music, closer to the ballad than to the pop and rock played by his contemporaries.

The film is punctuated by talks and interviews with his relatives and those who worked with him. Larry Sloman and Roger Emerson appear multiple times. The first for the series of interviews he had with Leonard Cohen in New York, the second in his capacity as arranger of the song Hallelujah.

We discover in particular Marianne Ihlen who shared the time spent on the island of Hydra where Leonard Cohen had bought a house, Dominique Isserman, a French photographer who had an affair with the singer or Sharon Robinson, one of his choristers, who was the linchpin of the album Ten New Songs written in the early 2000s.

Rabbi Finley is also asked about the study of Jewish tradition and the quest for spirituality that has never left Leonard Cohen.

The film also helpfully recalls the seven-year period Leonard Cohen spent in a Buddhist monastery perched atop a Californian mountain. The artist evolved there alongside the Japanese Master Rochi who passed on to him lessons that would mark him deeply. According to Leonard Cohen, he has reached the end of the road and perfected his quest for light.

And what about the song Hallelujah?

She draws her soul from the Jewish tradition: the psalms of King David, her mad love for Betsheva, the almost erotic essence of Song of Songs.

However, Leonard Cohen will write another version, almost completely watered down, which he will say has allowed him to hide the spiritual sparks that the first version contained.

The two versions will coexist for some time until major artists of the pop-rock scene seize it through covers, some of which remain cult to this day.

First Bob Dylan, who confesses that this is The song he would have liked to compose.

Then comes the turn of Jeff Buckley, and John Cale, founder with Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground.

The film proposes the plans of the interpretation of John Cale during a concert given in Belgium. John Cale’s voice and the silence of the room seize us, he does not sing, he interprets and lives the song as if the words of the original version resonated in him and illuminated his soul.

The film in its documentary format is animated by an ultra-fast pace and you never get bored for a second.

The end is near and the film ends with Leonard Cohen’s last tour around the world after he was ruined by his manager. The last concert took place in Tel Aviv, and like King David, Leonard Cohen blessed the crowd in Hebrew so that one day soon peace would be sealed between Israelis and Palestinians.

Probably at peace with himself and with his soul, Leonard Cohen left this world in 2016; and leaves as a gift Hallelujah, for eternity.

Visual: Poster (c) Sony Pictures Classic

Hallelujah, the words of Leonard Cohen – Toutlaculture