New documentary examines Leonard Cohen’s life through his best-known song
by Luke Taylor
July 21, 2022
“I think it’s insulting in a way to ask someone to explain their art,” says music producer John Lissauer in the film Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song. “It has to explain itself.”
The new documentary from co-directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine is an in-depth look at the life and work of Leonard Cohen through his most popular — and, arguably, most profound — song. And while Cohen’s person and process are explored with great care, there’s never an attempt to explain or precisely define his music.
Hallelujah tracks Cohen’s origins in a wealthy Montreal family and his aspirations as a poet and novelist. His shift to folk music and songwriting in the late 1960s was first met with skepticism. Was he merely a rich dilettante? After Judy Collins landed a hit with her cover of his song “Suzanne,” Cohen was committed to the art form for the rest of his life. Likewise, Hallelujah commits to telling that story.
In their approach to Hallelujah, Geller and Goldfine follow the general style of expository documentaries. Where it technically stands apart from the work of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, for example, is the authoritative voiceover in Hallelujah comes from archival audio of Cohen himself. The depth of archival photos, video, and audio used to tell Cohen’s story is astounding, and the result is captivating.
Augmenting the archival footage are insights from people very close to the late singer-songwriter. Music producer Lissauer met Cohen in the early 1970s and produced “Hallelujah” in 1984. Other voices filling in details include Rolling Stone writer Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Adrienne Clarkson — journalist and author and the former Governor General of Canada — and Cohen’s lifelong friend Nancy Bacal.
A deep roster of musicians sharing their thoughts include Collins, Brandi Carlile, Glen Hansard, John Cale, Myles Kennedy, Rufus Wainwright, Eric Church, and Regina Spektor, as well record mogul Clive Davis and the late music producer Hal Willner (who was the film’s music producer and to whom the film is dedicated).
The film tells the story of how Columbia Records refused to release the 1984 album by Cohen that contained “Hallelujah,” Various Positions, in the United States. Significant time is also spent tracing the rise of the cover of “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley, or takes by Cale and Rufus Wainwright tied to the movie Shrek. Geller and Goldfine stack up a number of clips — from Carlile, Clarkson, Kennedy and from Cohen’s ex-partner Dominique Isserman — all owning up to their first hearing of “Hallelujah” being Buckley’s version.
Very little is said of Cohen’s romantic relationships. Instead, we are given insights into Cohen’s personality and intellect: how he remained steadfastly Canadian, despite living for so much time in New York, Los Angeles, and Greece; how he remained a lifelong spiritual seeker and steadfastly Jewish; how, in his 70s, Cohen enjoyed a creative and performative boom, continuing to write albums and to connect with his live audiences in what he called “the third act” of life. “How he thanked everybody … It was like an instruction manual on how to be in the world,” Spektor observes. “It’s like, you can be this good. You really can!”
The heart of the film details the years upon years Cohen spent writing and re-writing the titular song’s lyrics. “I love that he worked for those words,” Hansard says.
The film’s greatest strength is describing Cohen and simultaneously handing his most celebrated work over for us to interpret. The myriad musicians, journalists, producers, and others each share different takes on what “Hallelujah” means to them. “‘Hallelujah’ really beat the odds in that it’s its own thing now,” Carlile says. “It’s its own person, and it has its own life.”
If there is a common thread, it’s that the song “Hallelujah” puts to music a shared sense of humanity and the universal struggle that is life. In watching Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, we’re spectators to Cohen’s journey … until we realize we’re fellow passengers. “You’re getting things that are so deep and so resonant in your own spiritual journey, that you are benefitting from his,” Collins says. “And that’s, of course, the highest compliment to a poet or a songwriter.”
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song releases in theaters on Friday, July 22.
External Link
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song - official site