I'm Your Man

Synopsis: A record of a 2005 concert was held at the Sydney Opera House celebrating the music of Leonard Cohen, who was at the time celebrating his 70th birthday back in Canada. 

The acts of this concert were largely from the Land of the Maple Leaf and included the likes of Martha and Rufus Wainwright and Kate and Anna McGarrigle as well as Cohen devotees such as Linda Thompson and of course, our own diva of the religiously referential dirge, Nick Cave. Australian Lian Lunson, sometime actress (she appeared in Richard Lowenstein's Dogs In Space) is director of this spin-off film which mixes footage of the concert with a range of archival material, Cohen talking about his life and music, and reflections by the performers on the work of the master of musical melancholy.

As a concert film I'm Your Man is at best a diligent record of the event and whether the performances appeal will depend on your musical preferences. Certainly there are no radical interpretations of Cohen's songs, most acts staying faithful to the originals, more or less successfully. Thus Cave's Las Vegas interpretation of the title song I would put in the less successful category, but his version of Suzanne is one of the better moments of the occasion, along with Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla's interpretation of Anthem. Overall however, most of the performances, and Cohen's rendition of Tower of Song at the end of the film amply confirms this, suggest that the man and his music are inseparable and there is no substitute for the authentic experience of Cohen's lugubriously ironic expression of his exquisitely crafted creations.

Whilst the film quietly sparkles when Cohen talks about his life and music in his charmingly self-deprecating way, it drags even more so when the performers are given the opportunity to hold forth. Very much in "homage" mode, the flow of gushing tributes reaches the limits of tolerability with the appearance of the egregiously awful Bono who compares the work of Cohen to that of Shelley, Byron and Yeats (poets who, he would have us believe, he read whilst in short pants and provided the inspiration for his own artistic ascent). Whilst this comparison would no doubt have the constitutively circumspect Cohen wincing, Bono's vocal contribution to Tower of Song amply demonstrates that this film would have been much improved had all footage in which he opens his mouth been left on the cutting room floor.

For fans at least, I'm Your Man has moments that shine but as a testament to the work of one of the most distinctive stylists of modern popular music, both Cohen and his unique songs deserve better than this.

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