Post by Capo on Jan 2, 2007 22:22:57 GMT
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
Lian Lunson 2005 USA
A tribute concert to Leonard Cohen, with renditions of his songs from Nick Cave, The Handsome Family, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Beth Orton, Antony, Jarvis Cocker and others, juxtaposed with an interview with Cohen himself.
Interesting both as a recollection for fans and introduction for novices, which unfolds as a kind of nostalgic collection of memories from Cohen himself, helped along by the live performances which connect him to the contemporary music scene and beyond. It is helped immensely by the appearance of Cohen himself, shot in close-up and speaking with open, measured control, and by the fact that the live performances are not only very good, but captured for the most part in a very intimate way: the highlights are Martha Wainwright's rendition of "Tower of Song" and Antony's "If It Be Your Will", both shot with the camera zooming in from a distance. Lunson doesn't always play it straight, however, and the film suffers from unnecessary tinkering with visuals and transitions, as if trying too hard to lend a poetry or gravity to a subject whose natural persona already outweighs any attempt at an artistic aesthetic; it keeps cutting, for instance, to an empty shot of a glittery red curtain and overlaying a blurred image of it over certain scenes, and the sound is often cluttered too much with the performances and Cohen's voice intruding upon one another, which isn't helped by an irritating echo effect added in post-production. There is nothing to be gained, either, by the inclusion of Bono and Edge from U2, whose insights seem to be there only to make the film more commercial or accessible; their final performance with Cohen, performed before the same red curtain from before, seems slightly and oddly hilarious, and Cohen's humble presence is undercut by a popular rock group who probably take themselves too seriously - tellingly, in one of the closing talking heads, Bono begins his final tribute with, "To talk seriously for a second..." and you can't help but hear alarm bells over all that he has said prior to that.
Lian Lunson 2005 USA
A tribute concert to Leonard Cohen, with renditions of his songs from Nick Cave, The Handsome Family, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Beth Orton, Antony, Jarvis Cocker and others, juxtaposed with an interview with Cohen himself.
Interesting both as a recollection for fans and introduction for novices, which unfolds as a kind of nostalgic collection of memories from Cohen himself, helped along by the live performances which connect him to the contemporary music scene and beyond. It is helped immensely by the appearance of Cohen himself, shot in close-up and speaking with open, measured control, and by the fact that the live performances are not only very good, but captured for the most part in a very intimate way: the highlights are Martha Wainwright's rendition of "Tower of Song" and Antony's "If It Be Your Will", both shot with the camera zooming in from a distance. Lunson doesn't always play it straight, however, and the film suffers from unnecessary tinkering with visuals and transitions, as if trying too hard to lend a poetry or gravity to a subject whose natural persona already outweighs any attempt at an artistic aesthetic; it keeps cutting, for instance, to an empty shot of a glittery red curtain and overlaying a blurred image of it over certain scenes, and the sound is often cluttered too much with the performances and Cohen's voice intruding upon one another, which isn't helped by an irritating echo effect added in post-production. There is nothing to be gained, either, by the inclusion of Bono and Edge from U2, whose insights seem to be there only to make the film more commercial or accessible; their final performance with Cohen, performed before the same red curtain from before, seems slightly and oddly hilarious, and Cohen's humble presence is undercut by a popular rock group who probably take themselves too seriously - tellingly, in one of the closing talking heads, Bono begins his final tribute with, "To talk seriously for a second..." and you can't help but hear alarm bells over all that he has said prior to that.