‘On the Phone’ plays beautiful loser Leonard Cohen – Danger Room –

Poet award-winning, unexpected rock star, voluptuous Don Juan, incurable romantic, sinful and hypocritical… When Leonard Cohen left the world of the living at the age of 82, he had already compressed many lives and contradictions to the noble life.I. All these lives have been duly recorded and documented in long and meticulous biographies, but we will never know what went through his mind on that damned December 7, 2016, when he accidentally fell into death. Just a few months ago, he suffered from leukemia and after dying in his own way on the glorious album do you want darker, Cohen joked with a lifespan of up to 120 years. Genius and figure.

It is these last moments that are believed to be believed to remember the most important moments of one’s life in the form of a figure. flash backThe material that Canadian Phillipe Girard also used as a weapon?This is the kind of non-biography film that reconstructs some of the most important moments in Cohen’s life and artistic career in flashes.† From his days as an amateur baby in the 1940s, marked by fire from loneliness and the absence of his father, Girard has left nothing in the pipeline. Lying on the floor, longing for one last cigarette, Cohen recalls his teenage approach to Lorca and flamenco, his stay on the idyllic Greek island of Hydra, his flirtation with the rock aristocracy of the time, and his lavish flirtation with his inseparable Marianne. and flirting with the stars of the moment like Joni Mitchell or Janis Joplin – there’s, of course, a legendary phrase dedicated to Cohen by the author of Piece of My Heart: “You’re ugly, but we have music”.

on its pages Leonard Cohen: on the wirePublished in Spain by Norma Editorial, she also recreates some of the most theatrical moments of her life and her legendary return to the stage at the age of seventy, whose money is run out by millionaire scams by her lover and accountant, Kelley Lynch. Biography such as a retreat to a Buddhist monastery, a short cameo on Miami Vice, or the controversial recording of the album Death of a woman’s husband, by eccentric producer Phil Spector and his collection of various firearms, antidepressants and alcohol bottles. Girard, author Tuer Velasquez or public danger† He does not avoid the most controversial and lyrical moments of his biography, such as the accusations of Zionism as a result of his – quite innocent – performance against Jewish troops in the Yom Kippur War.† In this context, the work collects Cohen’s spirituality and his unremitting quest for connection with the sublime that caused him to oscillate between Judaism, Catholicism, Buddhism and agnosticism.

While Girard respects the official chronology, he voluntarily eschews realism in describing vital encounters and key points in Cohen’s biography. His months of immersion in published works about the Canadian artist provided him with ample information. thought-provoking metatextual play in the work: fragments of songs and poems, headlines that Cohen gave to the press in a different context and with different intentions, and countless easter eggs for the joy of the fans, such as the presence of that elegant blue trench coat that he immortalized in the song famous blue raincoat or the Chelsea Hotel, where he composed songs for hours. Yes, a game that can be confusing for a Cohen listener looking for a concise guide to his life and wonders – Girard dramatic personality for there is no narrative thread here between the various vital episodes that support temporal leaps and the logic of Cohen’s vital and artistic decisions. With an imagination as dazzling as that of Canadians, it is sometimes overlooked that no precedent is taken from Reinhard Keist’s path in the brutal biography of Nick Cave. have mercy on memanages to more accurately capture the essence of the musician through a unique interaction between reality and fictional material.

Given the meditative nature of Leonard Cohen and the bleakness of his reflections on the human condition and impulse, which he reflects in works such as the following. nice beat, the type of animation used by Girard is surprising, it is closer to children’s illustration rather than a realistic approach to the characters, so much so that it is difficult to distinguish traits of personalities such as Judy Collins, Rebecca de Mornay, Rufus Mainwright. or John’s recognition of Kale. However, such friendly and funny jokes help draw the drama out of Cohen’s salient features and reinforce, with illustration, the sarcastic aspect he’s always developed – despite his addiction to antidepressants, Cohen has always ironed out of his misery and was the best. ruthless critic, but also the most adept.

Sometimes closer to humor than to the lives of saints, Cohen’s incessant chatter alternates with close-ups of pure buffoonery – while Girard closes the book with real grace, the work takes on a more somber tone in the final pages. she rides her bike, paying him a heartfelt homage. Although it requires effort and prior knowledge of the trajectory of the character, on the wire The perfect balm for any fan who has a hard time imagining a world without Leonard Cohen.

Bonus track: List of Leonard Cohen songs quoted or referenced in the book: