I I I - I. ment t„.,741/4 HE MOVIES He's Our Man Documentary on singer-songwriter reveals something of his Jewish soul. George Robinson Special to the Jewish News L eonard Cohen isn't always clear on when he began writing, but he is utterly certain when asked about the first poetry he remembers reading. About a third of the way into Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, a new documen- tary-cum-concert film, the estimable song- writer-poet-novelist says, "The first poetry that affected me was in the synagogue — the prayer book and the Bible. That would send shivers down my spine." In a film co-produced by Mel Gibson and directed by Lian Lunson, who collaborated with Gibson on Music Inspired by the Passion of the Christ, that admission might seem shocking, but Cohen has never shied from his Jewish upbringing and there are many moments in his music and in the film when one is forcibly and happily reminded of it. Cohen's music and poetry have been a touchstone for so many musicians and writ- ers of a certain generation that it's hard to imagine a time when he wasn't around and creating. It is also hard to imagine that he will be 68 years old in September; like his most obvious cohort Bob Dylan, he's not a young rebel anymore. Then again, as Cohen himself points out in the film, he was never your typical 1960s musician anyway, favoring suits and ties over jeans and T-shirts. That sartorial choice, which suited him well and still does (no pun intended), grew out of his father's unusual background; trained as an engi- neer, the elder Cohen ended up in the cloth- ing business. Cohen's father died when the boy was only 9, and that triggered the first writing he remembers, a message he enclosed in one of his father's bow ties and buried in the backyard. "It was some kind of a prayer, but I don't remember what I wrote,' he says in the film. The documentary had its origins in a tribute concert that the redoubtable Hal Willner produced in Sydney, Australia, Lunson's hometown. As he has done in his previous projects, ranging from collections of Thelonious Monk and Kurt Weill to a Disney song album, Willner chose inventive but occasionally unlikely musicians to per- form Cohen's music, and Lunson captured the event on film. She then sat down with Cohen and inter- viewed him at great length; he also gave her access to a large selection of his own artwork and photographs that trace his life from earliest childhood through his explo- sive emergence in the Montreal literary scene and rock world in the '60s. Structurally, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man is pretty straightforward, alternating concert footage with Cohen's disarmingly frank reminiscences, punctuated by enco- mia from the likes of Bono and the Edge, n, director Lian Lunson and Bono. Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave and Willner. Not surprisingly, the best moments in the film come from the filmed concert. Willner assembled a terrific "house" band that includes several New York City downtown denizens led by Steven Bernstein, including drummer Kenny Wollesen, keyboardist Rob Burger and a deftly flexible string section. Most of the cover versions of Cohen's songs are nothing short of remarkable. Rufus and Martha Wainwright provide several sterling moments, most memora- bly a gypsy-tango version of "Everybody Knows" and a country waltz rendition of "The Traitor" on which Martha channels Patsy Cline ably. Teddy Thompson (son of Richard and Linda Thompson, wearing a shirt that says "Like Father Like Son") turns "Tonight Will Be Fine" into an alt-country ballad-anthem, and Jarvis Cocker treats "Death of a Ladies Man" as a slightly snarky punk-lounge item, nicely catching the humor in Cohen's writing, one quality that most of the others overlook. The two most moving musical moments in the film, however, come from the two songs in the concert that are the most overtly religious in tone, and feature the most unlikely and the most obvious choice of performers. Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) gives an extraordinarily impas- sioned reading to "If It Be Your Will," his reedy, quasi-countertenor rising to impas- sioned heights befitting this most reveren- tial of Cohen songs. And sometime-backup singers for Cohen, Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla, give a stunning performance of "Anthem," definitely one of the high points of the film. To her credit, Lunson shoots the concert simply, with long takes and close-ups pre- dominating, and the performances make the film well worth watching. Unfortunately, the director doesn't accord the interview footage of Cohen the same simplicity, juggling different film stocks and chromatic choices, throwing in slow motion, arty over-exposures and jerky hand-held shots of Cohen's paintings and drawings. The result is more distraction than elucida- tion, but Cohen himself is perfectly lucid, unrelentingly witty and admirably candid and he, thankfully, is the heart of the film. Does the film's Mel Gibson connection matter? For the most part, no, but there is one deeply embarrassing moment in one of the songs when Lunson dissolves into a sil- houette of a crucifix, utterly gratuitous in its clumsy symbolism. It's mildly upsetting, not so much because she seems to be claiming Cohen for some other agenda as for the paucity of imagination it shows. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man opens Friday, July 14, at the Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield Township. (248) 263-2111. A Poet's Voice Stephen Hazan Arnoff JBooks.com A fter composing much of his new poetry collection, Book of Longing (Ecco, $24.95), while living in a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy in California, Leonard Cohen winks at those curious or con- fused about his religious wanderings: "Anyone who says I'm not a Jew is not a Jew/ I'm very sorry but this decision is final." Never one to deny Jewish influ- ences since his early days as scion of an esteemed Montreal family, Cohen persistently challenges mainstream Jewish culture. His eclectic, searching visions bal- ance odes of love and loss as sensual 42 July 13 a 2006 as any in popular music with impas- sioned religious seeking filtered through Jewish vocabulary, stories and ideas. With the May 2006 publica- tion of his first original collection of poetry since 1984, Cohen emerges now more than ever as a sensitive, engaged transformer of the Jewish canon, enliv- ening Jewish myths and themes in the shadows where secular and spiritual experience meet. Book of Longing contains obvious evidence of Cohen's Jewishness: God is written as "G-d" and there's a poem describing correspondence with a rabbi, signed "Your Jewish brother, Jikan Eliezer" (fusing Cohen's Zen and Hebrew names). In addition, the Shoah, the Sabbath and kabbalistic and biblical terminology are referenced often. Amidst the recurring original black, white, and gray prints and drawings illustrating the book, one image serves as a kind of royal stamp: Two inter- locking hearts curve to the shape of a Magen David, the Jewish star, a plump, rounded hexagram bordered by a circle and bounded by the words "Order of the Unified Heart." Like this floating image, the title and themes of Book of Longing place Leonard Cohen in the tradition of Jewish poets tracing national and personal journeys of exile between the harmony and heartbreak of theology, day-to-day life and love. As Cohen corresponds with tradition- al religion and secular love laced with spiritual meaning, his religious voice stays sane by mixing humor and humil- ity with reverence and daring: "I do not have the authority or understanding to speak of these matters/ I was just showing off/ Please forgive me," he writes. But his humor and self-deference cannot defy ambitions for revolution, hope, beauty and wisdom, often against the powers and trends of the main- stream. For those attuned or just tuning in to the sounds of the Jewish call for har- mony, wisdom and redemption, Leonard Cohen's words should sound very, very familiar. E This review is excerpted from an article in the June 16 issue of JBook Reports, a Web magazine.