“Hallelujah”: a film that tells the life journey of Leonard Cohen between the sacred and the century | Sunday newspaper

Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” touches the hearts of many people. A new feature film that traces the magic of global success and the moving life of Canadian lyricist Leonard Cohen: “Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen. Journey. Song.” The film has already won awards at three festivals. Now it can also be seen in German cinemas. Cohen biographer and author of The Sunday Times, Uwe Bernstein, took a look at it.

Prayer, supplication filled with discord and confidence

December 23, 2013, Auckland, New Zealand: An old man in fancy clothes sings “Hallelujah” in front of a large audience. A noble hat on his head, a simple bracelet with Christian images on his wrist. An old men’s band plays in the background, and three female singers breathe hallelujah into microphones with low-key enthusiasm. Singer Leonard Cohen gets down on his knees—the song turns into an insistent prayer, an plea filled with conflict and confidence.

The new film about Leonard Cohen’s life begins with this historically memorable moment: the poet, singer-songwriter’s final concert. He was 79 years old and gave 379 performances in the largest halls and stadiums in the world in the past five years. The audience celebrated it. Cohen has always been visibly moved and accepted applause without arrogance. The “modern minstrel”, as his friend Adrian Clarkson described him, reaped the harvest of his life. He owed it not only to himself, who told people about it, but to the heavenly powers. This can be heard and felt in “Hallelujah” and many other spiritual songs. Cohen’s entire life has been a spiritual journey of imaginative descents and journeys that few others experience. He passed away on November 7, 2016. World grief.

“Between the healthy and the horny”

American director duo Dina Goldfein and Daniel Geller are also convinced Cohen’s life was a good fit for the film. They depicted his life using a combination of rare archive footage and interviews with Cohen’s comrades and friends. The film’s “Hallelujah” is like a red thread – the song in which Cohen’s life themes of faith and sexuality are fused in a poetically profound way – so perfectly that it still touches people to this day. “Between sanctity and remorse,” one newspaper said, and it wasn’t all wrong.

“Hallelujah” evokes great emotion without being superficial.

“It speaks to some of the most primitive human desires and connects them to something many of us struggle with: spirituality,”

says singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, 45 years younger than Cohen; The song helped her “be young and a believer”.

Smart and mysterious

It’s topical interviews like these that make “Hallelujah” so irresistible. Judy Collins also has his say: The folk singer persuaded Cohen to go on stage with her at a concert in 1967. After the verse “Susan” he left the stage in a panic, but then returned and sang it in a duet with Collins. People were excited about the sad man with the sonorous voice.

“He was smart, mysterious and dangerous,” Judy Collins recalls in the film, insisting she had never been in a relationship with him. Preceded by a reputation as a womanizer, love and obsession played a major part in his life—and entered into an unfortunate alliance with his fame. The result was severe depression and alcoholism. Without the foundation of his faith, Cohen would have found it difficult to get on with his life.

From a wealthy Jewish family

The film returns to his childhood home in the upscale Westmount neighborhood of Montreal, where he was born in 1934 into a wealthy Jewish family. The father died early, and his grandfather Lazarus taught Leonard in the world of Torah and Jewish mysticism. The rituals of the synagogue, especially the liturgical words and prayers, amazed Leonard Cohen. In his texts he later tried to find similar “holy” words to describe the sacred.

“There is a crack in everything, this is how the light enters,”

“There is a crack in everything through which light enters the world”: This famous line from Cohen’s song “The Song” reflects the mystical motifs of Jewish “Kabbalah.” Cohen put endless energy into the song “Hallelujah.” He once told fellow musician Bob Dylan that he had worked on the song for seven years – “I was ashamed to tell him how long it really took me,” Cohen can be heard in the film grinning.

In the end there were more than 150 clips. He combines them with the biblical love story of King David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) with his own experiences of love and dependence. “My songs take a long time to complete,” Cohen says in the film. “Every song is a gift, Grace, it doesn’t belong to you.”

What does the rabbi have to do with it

This has to do with Bath Cool, explains Mordecai Finley, rabbi of the Los Angeles synagogue to which Cohen is affiliated. “Bath Call” is “God’s female voice that resonates in people. When you’re ready, you write down what you say, and away you go.” Cohen opened up on “Bath Cool”; In the first stanza of “Hallelujah” there is this experience: Musical King David is amazed to have found the secret chord. King David and Leonard Cohen: Two devout beat-wire composers who have mastered the art of sound music.

After struggling to finish “Hallelujah”, Cohen recorded the song and others. The record company rejects the final production, saying it is terrible. Something like that will not sell. An angry Cohen responded sarcastically:

“I feel like I have a great career ahead of me after I die.”

The LP appears on a small label and threatens to fall into oblivion. Bob Dylan discovers “Hallelujah” and plays it several times in concert. Then rock musician John Cale picks it up and turns it into a piano ballad. 22-year-old guitarist Jeff Buckley listens to them. He transfers them to his electric guitar and sings them like a student. In this version, the song becomes world famous – and very few people know at first that it comes from Leonard Cohen.

Meanwhile, Cohen fell into a deep life crisis. He sought and found healing at Zen Monastery in the mountains outside Los Angeles. The film shows him as a monk meditating and going out. Five years later, he returns to everyday life and discovers that his assistant has absconded with all his fortune.

An impressive life journey

Cohen was forced to revive the concerts again. People heard Hallelujah and his other old songs translated with new depth. Cohen made a memorable comeback. And the song “Hallelujah” can’t stop. Used as the music for the Hollywood family film “Shrek,” it rose to prominence, earning double platinum status in Rufus Wainwright’s version.

Since then it has been played in countless versions, often on TV talent shows, at weddings, in churches, and by stars like Bono. In light of the record company’s initial rejection, he felt “a touch of satisfaction,” Cohen admits with a smile.

In 2013, after his last concert, Cohen withdrew from the audience. He contacts Nancy Bacall, his girlfriend from his school days, in the movie she reads some humorous text messages he wrote to her.

Cohen’s life, says Judy Collins, “is so profound and touching on one’s spiritual journey that one benefits from one’s own journey,” which is the highest compliment for a poet or songwriter. The new film depicts this life’s journey poignantly and without any pretense of sensationalism: it’s a spiritual masterpiece for the big screen. .

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen. a trip. USA 2021 song. 118 min. Theatrical performance in Germany: November 17