LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN [**] (Two stars)
IF you’re going to make a documentary about Leonard Cohen, the singer-songwriter, you should have him perform some of his better-known melodies, like “Suzanne.”
But we don’t get to hear his distinctive song stylings until the very end of “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man,” when he lip-synchs “Tower of Song,” with U2 backing him.
Until then, you have to settle for a 2005 tribute concert in Australia, at which fans such as Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton and Jarvis Crocker performed.
They do an enjoyable job – I especially liked Cave – but no matter how pleasant they are, you really want Cohen himself.
His musical absence is partly compensated for by director Lian Lunson’s interviews with Cohen, who talks about his early days in Montreal, his time at the Chelsea Hotel (“everybody was there”), his life at a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy in California, and the ill-advised album he made with Phil Spector.
U2’s Edge and Bono show up offstage to say nice things about 71-year-old Cohen. Bono even likens Cohen’s lyrics to poetry by Byron, Shelley and Keats.
That’s swell, but you really want to hear Cohen deliver those lyrics.
Running time: 104 minutes. Rated PG-13 (talk about sex). At the Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.