Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen
| 16 February 1966 (USA)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen Trailers

A 1964 documentary portrait of Cohen in his pre-musician days as a poet and stand-up comedian.

Reviews
Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise
Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Vincent Dent A must for those who want to know more about the man, his personality and his early work.His poetry, read by himself is something you cant get from a book; something of a revelation. The laughter is an unexpected discovery, Cohen as a stand up comic is unexpected, as is the fact that he lived in Greece for some years.Someone called this DVD "pretentious". A complete irrelevancy, as pretentiousness is by definition, self promotion, which cant happen in a documentary by another.There is one special feature, a performance of I'm Your Man, with an animated background.A must for those who are genuinely interested in,_ Leonard Cohen, the Man, the Artist
karl_consiglio From what I gather in this documentary he was not even a renowned singer and musician yet by which the world knows him today and yet he was already a star. Here we got Cohen the novelist and poet and ever wanderer like a little boy, although he already had his share of admirers. I love this guy very much. He is a living genius. The soul can always relate to Cohen. He is fit enough to write an extension to the Bible. Cohen is my guardian angel and teacher, guru and mentor, there is something of an oracle in his voice. What makes him so great is his honesty. That is also what drives the ladies mad about him too. cohen's work however is not just simply romantic. It reaches certain depths which in the modern day love song is nowhere to be found.
Lechuguilla Produced in 1965, this 45-minute promo for the then youthful looking Leonard Cohen functions now as a faded cinematic snapshot of the man who, in the forty years since the promo was made, has evolved into Planet Earth's greatest living poet and songwriter.With a jazzy musical score, this B&W tape narrates a kind of "day in the life of" theme. It captures to some extent the man's personality which, surprisingly, exuded considerable humor, vis-a-vis the dire morbidity for which he has since become known. Of course, Western culture in the 1960s was friendlier to poets generally. In recent decades, particularly in the U.S., many people have become overtly hostile toward all things intellectual. In point of fact, Cohen's works have never been as popular in the U.S. as they have been in Europe and Canada. The U.S. aside, Cohen's worldwide popularity and longevity speak volumes about his talent, and remind me of the ongoing popularity of a similar 1960's talent: the Moody Blues.Some comments that Cohen makes in the film may raise eyebrows or seem contradictory. But that speaks as much to our current day obsession with logic, rigid analysis, and materialism as it does to Cohen's remarks. Trying to "analyze" poets or poetry is useless, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what poetry is all about.I believe that it was Benjamin Disraeli who said "the poet is the painter of the soul". In our current arid and more or less "soul-less" culture, Leonard Cohen gives to us a wonderfully unique way of seeing the world, a loftier point of view, based on truth, sensitivity, and intuition. This 45-minute "filmmette" is a must-see for people who are thus receptive to uncommon insight from an uncommon man.
lemmy caution Jazzy portrait of the artist as a young poet, it's fascinating to see this glimpse of the pre-pop singer Cohen. Whether he's self-effacing, full of himself, or both is up for debate, and we can't gather much of why he's in the poetry biz besides for the purpose of meeting girls. (There's a wonderful CanCon moment where, on some stereotypical CBC panel discussion program, Pierre Burton grills him on this point, and Cohen refuses to play along).While it is a nice time capsule of Montreal in the early '60s, whether or not you enjoy this depends on how you feel about L.C., and about the possibility of poetry embiggining the human spirit. Myself, I'm a bit of a sucker for it.Black and white, 44 minutes. Rating: 5 out of 10 (average).