Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song Explores What Everybody Knows, and Much We Don’t
By Kim Hughes
Rating: A
The profound loss of Leonard Cohen as both artist and exalted human being is acutely felt in the documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song which seeks to understand Cohen’s life — more specifically, his search for the meaning of life — through his best known, most covered song, the iconic and heart-rending “Hallelujah.”
An absolute treasure trove of trivia, the film was approved for production by Cohen before his death in 2016 at age 82. It includes never-before-seen archival materials from the sprawling Cohen Trust, including journals showing the ever-changing lyrics of “Hallelujah” plus photographs, performance footage, and rare audio recordings and interviews notably with onetime journalist-cum-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and Rolling Stone writer Larry “Ratso” Sloman. There is also ample talking-head commentary from admiring musicians.
We learn, for instance, that Cohen first used language in “a sacramental way” following the death of his father when nine-year-old Leonard buried a letter to his dad along with one of his neckties in the garden. It was the first in a lifelong series of instances when Cohen would explore faith and the human condition in verse.
We learn also that, for all his musings about lust and longing, Cohen didn’t really fall in love until 1982 when, on the cusp of 50, he met fashion photographer Dominique Issermann on the Greek island of Hydra. Also, that “Hallelujah” was an agonizing, shapeshifting, years-long process for the songwriter, a point conveyed to Sloman, who describes himself here as “patient zero in this virus that became ‘Hallelujah.’”
Indeed, the song’s many marquee interpreters, from John Cale to Bob Dylan to Brandi Carlile to Rufus Wainwright to the late Jeff Buckley, serve as a testament to the song’s universality and ability to map that esoteric no-man’s-land between the secular and spiritual that Cohen, forever the seeker, never fully transcended, and maybe never wanted to.
Surrounding this core story is the story of Cohen’s unparalleled, stranger-than-fiction career: his transition from poet to performer in his 30s. His unlikely (and ultimately disappointing) collaboration with producer Phil Spector. His equally unlikely (but wildly successful) collaboration with producer John Lissauer — with whom he captured the original version of “Hallelujah.”
And his final tour which began as a last-ditch way of topping the coffers drained by a crooked business manager but ended with Cohen cementing his legacy via ecstatically received concerts staged worldwide.
There is also the now infamous story of how Columbia records honcho Walter Yetnikoff punitively opted not to release 1984’s Various Positions stateside… even though the album contained the song, “Hallelujah” which was meant to be a crowd-pleasing pop hit.
Filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, inspired by Alan Light’s book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah, leave almost no stone unturned in their quest to examine the enduring appeal of “Hallelujah” across the years and mediums.
Its use in the hit film Shrek and in particular, Buckley’s cover of the song, undisputedly its most affecting in part because of his tragic accidental drowning death at age 30, are thoughtfully explored.
The film opens on December 21, 2013, as Cohen, then 79, plaintively performs the song in his last-ever concert. The film then segues to a music video from 1984 as the singer, at his peak, shimmies on a set, both ends of a performance career spectrum surveyed and documented.
So, it’s odd then, that k.d. lang — whose 2004 cover of “Hallelujah” on Hymns of the 49th Parallel seared it into the mainstream consciousness — is shown at film’s end performing the song at a 2017 tribute concert to Cohen. Yet the context for her being there, at such a seminal event and playing such a seminal role, is unexplained.
The omission is a disservice to viewers unfamiliar with lang’s recording who may wish to explore the whole of the song’s interpretive journey. Still, it’s a rare gaffe in an otherwise glorious, meticulous, and heartfelt homage to a singular artist who left the world immeasurably better than he found it.
CLICK HERE for Bonnie Laufer’s video interview with Hallelujah directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine.
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Song, A Journey. Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine. With Leonard Cohen, John Lissauer, Sharon Robinson, Judy Collins, Brandi Carlile, Rufus Wainwright, Dominique Issermann, Adrienne Clarkson and Larry “Ratso” Sloman. Opens July 15 in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal and in other cities throughout the summer.