The documentary “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song” makes its Australian cinema debut in Sydney and Melbourne from July 14 and Perth from August 11.
The Quebec-born orthodox-raised poet had the sort of unorthodox music career which had a strong appeal for filmmakers.
He started out late at age 33, had a six-year retreat in a Zen monastery, was marketed as the new Bob Dylan because his record company didn’t know what to do with him, and had a towering reputation as a songwriter and poet despite minimal mainstream success.
But filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine analysed his work through the prism of his signature tune “Hallelujah.”
For the duo, seeing him in concert in California in 2009 was life-changing.
“From the get-go, we understood well that that was a spiritual experience — if you want to call it that — in the theatre listening to him sing,” Geller said.
“The song has all sorts of spiritual hooks in it — about searching, contradiction, carnal, holy and broken, all at once.”
In the movie, Cohen’s explanation was: “You look around and you see a world that cannot be made sense of. You either raise your fist or you say hallelujah.”
It made sense to filter through Jeff Buckley, John Cale, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Glen Hansard, Sharon Robinson and Rufus Wainwright whose covers gave the song its popularity with music fans.
Cohen gave the filmmakers his blessing before his 80th birthday in 2014, two years before he died in his sleep after a fall at his home.
Aside from the perspective of those who covered the song, “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song” also gets its depth from the poet’s personal notebooks, journals and photographs, performance footage, and extremely rare audio recordings and interviews.
Screenings of the Cohen doco open July 14 at Ritz Cinemas, Randwick, Lido Cinemas, Hawthorn, Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick, Cinema Nova, Carlton, August 4 at Dendy Newtown, Hayden Orpheum Cremorne and Dendy Canberra, and August 11 at Luna Cinemas, Leederville and Luna on SX.