Review: New document digs deeper into Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”

Leonard Cohen was deeply involved in his career when he finally finished “Hallelujah”. Well, the first version of “Halelujah” — when everything is said and done, there will be many, many versions. He had been struggling with lyrics for seven years.But when he submitted the album Various positions In 1984, to his longtime record company Columbia Records, the company’s president Walter Yetnikoff decided not to release it in the United States. Cohen’s original national anthem was dead on arrival.

But in the new documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, Journey, SongSoon at the theater, directors Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, despite the odds, Bob Dylan, John Cale, Jeff Buckley, and Shrek.. yes, Shrek..

Forty years after its first recording, it’s truly ubiquitous and is regularly featured in film, television shows and song competitions around the world.

Read more: Leonard Cohen’s representative states that real estate has refused to use “Halelujah” at RNC.

This is an interestingly spliced ​​film that, of course, sings “Hallelujah” at the final performance of 2013, returning to the beginning of the songwriting career and tracing how he got there. In a way, it feels like two different movies. The first part is a standard biographical documentary, focusing on the resurrection of “Hallelujah” outside Cohen, and finally on the final tour of Cohen and his victory. As the title says, it’s a journey, it’s a long journey.

Filmmakers are obsessed with eloquent subjects, from Judy Collins and composer / arranger John Lissauer to their childhood friend Mordeci Finley.

One of the main voices is the journalist and writer Larry “Latso” Slot Maruman, who has interviewed Cohen many times over the past 30 years, and the tape of that interview is used to get Cohen to speak for himself. The footage of the archive is also very extraordinary and is elegantly combined with Cohen’s music throughout.

Read more: Canada Post announces Leonard Cohen’s commemorative stamp celebrating the singer’s birthday

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Much of the film devoted itself to recording Cohen’s own spiritual journey and his evolving relationship with Jewish beliefs, from his poetry to his later years at the Zen center on the summit of Mount Bardi. I am. Singer Regina Spektor marveled at his elegance at the 2009 Coachella performance and said Coach seemed to teach the audience a good way.

Still, for all the stories and praises about his quest, this is a movie that seems completely uninterested in the fact that he is the father of two children. During the unruly mention that his family broke up, we see their pictures as babies with their mothers. Reporters will mention the children later, but only in the context of revealing that their mother, Sae Yamamoto Elrod, was not really the woman he was singing in Sae Yamamoto.

There are many possible reasons for this, such as respecting the wishes of grown-up children and wanting to focus on their work. However, without approval, this attempt at Cohen’s deep overall portrait feels incomplete at best.There is more time spent explaining the aesthetics of Shrek More than a relationship with his children.

Read more: Leonard Cohen’s first posthumous album revealed: “Thank you for the dance”

Or maybe they weren’t part of the road to “Hallelujah”, but with his daughter Rufus Wainwright, who is responsible for one of the most famous covers of the highly successful song. I had a child. Shrek soundtrack.

Many credits will be given for the longevity of the song Shrek.. The movie soundtrack has diminished somewhat in cultural currencies, but the ability to hear great songs for the first time in a movie cannot be underestimated.

But it’s interesting that it seems that John Cale’s cover was the most influential. He removed the arrangements, played the piano, belted the lyrics, and turned “Hallelujah” into a melodic national anthem. Jeff Buckley even said that Cohen wrote the song, but he covered the kale version. From Brandi Carlile to Bono to Eric Church, no one seems to be singing Cohen’s version.

In one interview, after “Hallelujah” came in first (X factor Contestant Alexandra Burke), second in the UK in 2008 (Jeff Buckley), 36th (Cohen), said Cohen thought, “People should stop singing it for a while.” .. Slot Maruman believes it’s a joke, but it doesn’t really matter at this point. This song is bigger than Cohen and seems destined to live in culture for years to come.