Jornal da Mostra
Leonard Cohen
Nº 396 > 29ª Mostra > 13/02/2006
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Leon Cakoff, de Berlim, para o Jornal da Mostra
Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
Tribute to Leonard Cohen now on film
After 14 albums, all of them classics and always available in the good record stores in Europe and America, Leonard Cohen is now on film with the stirring documentary "Leonard Cohen I`m Your Man", directed by Australian Lian Lunson and presented in the Panorama section at the 56th Berlin Film Festival.Leonard is the great poet of popular song. In 1999, he received a tribute from several musical groups with the record "I`m Your Fan". Now, a film is also a new musical tribute, this time from Sidney, with respectful, devout Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Linda Thompson, Rufus, and Martha Wainwright. Poet Leonard Cohen himself has, as it were, opened a treasure chest of memories and is on film talking of his inspiration at moments in music that were milestones in his career.
Although he is Jewish, Cohen says he was much inspired by the Bible and by having been subject to a difficult period encloistered for five months in a Buddhist temple. "Feelings are timeless", says Hal Willner, musical producer who has been following along on Cohen`s career for some time and is responsible for the production of the concert in Australia.
Leonard Cohen was born in a Montreal suburb in 1934. In 1956, he published his first book of poems. After several journeys throughout Europe, he shut himself away on the Greek island of Hydra where he wrote several novels. Back in America, once more, he went to live in New York, in the mythical Chelsea Hotel in New York, also inspiration for one of his famous songs.
With the release of his first album "Songs of Leonard Cohen", his success was immediate. Leonard Cohen is even today identified as the singer with a bass voice who performs his own compositions with deep musicality and even deeper poetic inspiration. "You just have to take hold of some of his verses and ponder on them for some days..." Such is the genious Leonard Cohen, says Bono, the U2 vocalist who talks a good deal of the importance of Cohen in the panorama of popular music, and lends support at the end of the film, humbly, as vocalist to Leonard Cohen himself when he sings "Tower of Song", regarded as one of his many masterpieces. What was left of an American counterculture can be summarized in one single name: Leonard Cohen. Prior indirect tribute came from Wim Wenders who called his last film "Land of Planty" (selection for the 28th Mostra) with one of Cohen`s many political songs.
"Leonard Cohen I`m Your Man" is a delight not to be missed for anyone who follows the verses and the songs of this wonderful composer, romantic, political, and even erotic, as best befits him. A pity it is, he does not sing more in the first film to pay him tribute.
Translation into English: Clare Elizabeth Charity ( clarecharity@uol.com.br )
