
Sound
Leonard Cohen
Born 1934-09-21 · Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet, novelist, and painter. His work mostly explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships.[2] Cohen was inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 2011, Cohen received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not launch a music career until 1967, at the age of 33. His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was followed by three more albums of folk music: Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974). His 1977 record Death of a Ladies' Man was co-written and produced by Phil Spector, which was a move away from Cohen's previous minimalist sound. In 1979 Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs, which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences. "Hallelujah" was first released on Cohen's studio album Various Positions in 1984. I'm Your Man in 1988 marked Cohen's turn to synthesized productions and remains his most popular album. In 1992 Cohen released its follow-up, The Future, which had dark lyrics and references to political and social unrest. Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of Ten New Songs, which was a major hit in Canada and Europe. His eleventh album, Dear Heather, followed in 2004. After a successful string of tours between 2008 and 2010, Cohen released three albums in the final four years of his life: Old Ideas (2012), Popular Problems (2014) and You Want It Darker (2016), the last of which was released three weeks before his death. Description above from the Wikipedia article Leonard Cohen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Acting credits
7.4This feature-length documentary explores the life of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as seen through the prism of his internationally renowned hymn, Hallelujah.
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
2022
6.4Poet, singer / songwriter and ladies man Leonard Cohen is interviewed in his home about his life and times. The interview is interspersed with archive photos and exuberant praise and live perfomances from an eclectic mix of musicians, including: Jarvis Cocker, Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Teddy Thompson, ANOHNI, The Handsome Family and U2's Bono and The Edge.
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
2006
NR"Proust Palimpsesto: Pastiches e Misturas" (2026) is a Brazilian film essay directed by Carlos Adriano. The film, which explores the impossibility of filming Marcel Proust's "In Search of Time That Flew", is presented as a collage of archival images and theories.
Proust Palimpsesto: Pastiches e Misturas
2026
6.3A story of enduring love between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse, Marianne Ihlen. The film follows their relationship from their early days in Greece, a time of "free love" and open marriage, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician.
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love
2019
6.3Documentary about the revolutionary flamenco-rock album "Omega", composed by maestro Enrique Morente and the Granada group Lagartija Nick in 1996. A groundbreaking album with great impact on the national and international music scene in which Morente adapted songs by the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and he put music to poems by Federico García-Lorca.
Omega
2016
7.5This short film features 4 readings of a prose poem from Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers. Read by Cohen himself, the poem produces a distinct emotional effect every time it is read, following the poet’s rendition and accompanying visuals.
Poen
1967
8.7Excerpts of Leonard Cohen's live performances in an itinerary that spans almost the whole world. Not only is this documentary a tribute to Cohen's artistic streak as a man of the stage, but also a tribute to his constant popularity worldwide.
Leonard Cohen: Songs from the Road
2010
10.0A star-studded musical celebration in tribute to Leonard Cohen—the Montreal-born writer, composer, performer and man of letters—that took place in November 2017 at the Bell Centre.
Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen
2018
8.0Willy DeVille live in concert.
Beautiful Losers
1997
10.0Delve into the career of poet, author, composer and musician Leonard Cohen, who has been called one of the premiere folk singers of the 1960s and '70s. This documentary relies on rare concert footage, archival photos and interviews with music critics to help explain the significance of Cohen's unique art. The film focuses on the five albums he released between 1967 and 1977, including "Death of a Ladies' Man," produced by Phil Spector.
Leonard Cohen: Under Review: 1934-1977
1977
6.8In August 1970, 600,000 fans flocked to the Isle of Wight to witness the third and final festival to be held on the island. Besides the music, they also got a look at the greed, cynicism and corruption that would plague the music industry for years to come. They also witnessed the final, drugged out performance of Jimi Hendrix in England just two weeks before he would meet a tragic death. When it all was over, the fans view of rock and roll was never the same.
Message to Love - The Isle of Wight Festival
1996
NRDocumentary tribute to what VH1 called “the single greatest rock omnibus program ever aired” and Brooklyn Vegan named “the most consistently weird and awesome thing on cable television in the ’80s.” This ‘Best Of’ episode features some of the most memorable moments of Night Flight's near-decade long run including restored interviews and segments from Kate Bush, New Wave Theatre, David Lynch, Prince, Wendy O Williams, Divine, Billy Idol, Johnny Rotten, and much more Night Flight treasures from the archive.
Night Flight: Born Again
2016
9.0Leonard Cohen: -Live in Dublin is an extraordinary full-length concert recording and film. Lensed and recorded at Dublin's O2 Arena on September 12, 2013, Leonard Cohen - Live in Dublin documents a peak performance from the musician's monumental sold out 2012-2013 world tour, introducing Cohen's then-latest release (2012's Old Ideas) within a major canonical on-stage retrospective.
Leonard Cohen - Live in Dublin
2014
7.6Forty summers ago on a windswept island just off England's southern coastline, a young Canadian folksinger-songwriter-poet-novelist named Leonard Cohen delivered the performance of a lifetime.
Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970
2009
6.6The Tibetan Book of the Dead remains an essential teaching in the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation
1994
After the Goldrush focuses specifically on the period between 1978 and his dramatic live comeback in 2008. With a mixture of performance footage, rare and classic recordings, and exclusive interviews, together with contributions from some of his closet confidantes, plus critical analysis from a host of esteemed experts, the film aims to provide the most comprehensive overview available of the maverick troubadour whilst at the very top of his game.
Leonard Cohen: After the Gold Rush
2012
5.0It’s time to Canuck n’ Roll as we celebrate Canada Day with a trip through the best of the BBC’s music archives, exploring some of that great nation’s finest music stars.
Canadian Hits at the BBC
2021
NR"Symphony of the Invisible" is a reflection on creation and how through art, poetry and images you can break the limits that have been imposed on language and life itself.
Symphony Of The Invisible
2020
5.6Celebrated filmmaker Tony Palmer follows Leonard Cohen on his 1972 European tour. The film, after extensive re-editing from its initial version, opened in London in 1974. It was shown on German television, but it disappeared for decades and was considered a lost film. Its original version, restored by the director, was released on DVD in 2010 and had its first theatrical release in 2017.
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire
2010
7.0Portrait of Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen, recorded in 1988. Featuring interviews, archive film and live performances from London, Paris, Athens and New York.
Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen
1988
NRThis documentary explores and celebrates the all-too-short, heartbreaking but triumphant life and unworldly talent of Lenny Breau, considered by many to have been the greatest guitar player of all time. Long before the term "fusion" was coined, Lenny was melting musical boundaries to produce original pieces that borrowed from styles as diverse as jazz, classical and flamenco. Through a combination of never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with family and colleagues, viewers are offered a close-up look at a sensitive, selfless but flawed musical genius who redefined what the guitar could do. - Telefilm Canada
The Genius of Lenny Breau
1999
5.4This fictional feature follows a twenty-something man who is struggling to define his position in the world in early adulthood. He has left their parents' home but still has not made an home of his own. Our protagonist’s alienation is palpable; for him life is a game, not because he chooses to make it so, but because he is unable to make anything more of it. But for those who befriend him and eventually turn him loose again, his game is not enough.
The Ernie Game
1968
6.3Narrated by Leonard Cohen, this two-part series explores ancient teachings on death and dying and boldly visualises the afterlife according to Tibetan philosophy. Tibetan Buddhists believe that after a person dies, they enter a state of "bardo" for 49 days until a rebirth. Program 1, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life documents the history of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, tracing the book's acceptance and use in Europe and North America. Program 2, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation observes an old Buddhist lama and a 13-year-old novice monk as they guide a deceased person into the afterlife.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life
1994
7.0John Hofsess’s The Palace of Pleasure emerged from the psychedelic haze of 1960s postmodern art. It was a blistering work that combined arresting abstract imagery with the wounded expressions of a young couple, edited into a collage of mass culture imagery and album and book jackets, all of it framed as a therapeutic treatment. Addressed to a generation coming up in an era of protest and social change, where many found themselves increasingly burdened with hopelessness, paranoia, and neurosis, The Palace of Pleasure was offered as a cleansing ritual, a post-Freudian expelling of dammed-up energies that anticipated The Primal Scream. In this video, Stephen Broomer discusses Hofsess’s therapeutic ambitions, how the film was composed of Hofsess’s earlier films, and the sensual spell of the work, the way in which it commands us to enter into a universal fellowship of touch that circulates, from us to us, through us, to strain the boundaries between the self and the other.
Palace of Pleasure
1967
Behind the camera
6.5Night Magic, a musical fantasy, is set on earth but it is also about the heavens. At the centre of it all is Michael, a music hall artist, who finds Judy, an angel that epitomizes the woman of his dreams at the System Theatre where he is about to open his new show. For Michael it is just another show along the road but once inside something happens. The night is full of possibilities- full of love and romance, jealousy and infidelity, music and dance, even good and evil. Most of all it is full of magic.
Night Magic
1985
8.0This short film brings together animated interpretations of four poems by great Canadian wordsmiths: "Riverdale Lion" by John Robert Colombo, "A Kite Is a Victim" by Leonard Cohen, "Klaxon" by James Reaney and George Johnston’s "The Bulge."
Poets on Film No. 1
1977