WEBVTT

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EMCEE: Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Leonard Cohen.

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[applause]

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-The other time I was in
corridors such as these

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was in the Verdun mental
hospital, in Montreal.

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I was visiting.

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I was visiting a friend.

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He was on the top floor.

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And I asked him,
for he was still

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lucid, where can I get a coffee?

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He said, downstairs.

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That was one of those
famous last words.

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I commenced the descent of similar stone corridors

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and I found myself
in a kind of arena

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which was surrounded
by closed doors.

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It had been a hot
afternoon and I

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had removed my jacket,
as I am wont to do.

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I had left it with my friend who, though mentally ill,

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was no thief.

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I suspect he wasn\'t
even mentally ill.

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He was doing this
instead of college.

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I stood watching the
four or five doors,

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wondering about all
the possibilities,

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except the one that occurred.

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The door opened and two large men in white uniforms

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walked out.

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And they said, where are
you supposed to be now?

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I said, in the cafeteria.

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They nodded to each other.

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They said, where are
you supposed to be now?

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in the cafeteria.

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Well, you see, as their
questions continued,

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my answers, which had
started innocent enough,

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began to sound like I
was protesting too much.

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In fact, after being interrogated three or four

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more times, I was shouting,
pushing them aside,

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causing them to run after
me down the corridor.

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It was only when a
guard identified me

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that I was able to
go back to my friend.

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Who had eaten my jacket.

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[music playing]

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Lot of the crowds of Montreal has come a singular talent

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with four books under his belt and a growing reputation.

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He is not primarily a stand-up comic but a novelist, a poet,

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and a very confident young man.

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LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):
In my journey,

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I know I am somewhere beyond the traveling pack of poets.

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I will remain here until I am sure what I am leaving.

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During the day I laugh and during the night I sleep.

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My favorite cooks
prepare my meals,

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my body cleans and
repairs itself,

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and all my work goes well.

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NARRATOR: Cohen gets around.

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He lives in Greece and comes to Canada once or twice a year

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to renew, as he says, his
neurotic affiliations.

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He picks up a prize or
pushes a book or travels

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to public appearances withother poets, like Irving Layton.

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He was not born into this life.

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He was born into a well-to-do
Jewish family dedicated

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to the clothing business.

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Only a grandfather was a writer.

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LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): Iknew him in the last year or so

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of his life.

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He lived at our house.

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I had the feeling that
he was especially happy

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that I had become a writer.

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We were both
writing at the time.

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He was becoming senile.

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But in his senility, there were great lapses of poetry.

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For instance, he\'s encounter me in the hallway,

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not recognize me, and
then-- and then said,

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oh, you\'re the writer.

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You know, as if he had
found some guarantee

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of the extension
of his own soul.

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LEONARD COHEN: His blood on my arm is warm as a bird.

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His heart in my hand
is heavy as lead.

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His eyes through my eyes shine brighter than love.

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O send out the raven
ahead of the dove.

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His life in my mouth
is less than a man.

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His death on my breast
is harder than stone.

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His eyes through my eyes shine brighter than love.

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O send out the raven
ahead of the dove.

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O send out the raven
ahead of the dove.

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O sing from chains where you\'re chained in a cave.

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Your eyes through my eyes shine brighter than love.

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Your blood in my ballad
collapses the grave.

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O break from your branches
a green branch of love

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after the raven has
died for the dove.

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WOMAN (OVER PA): Monsieur Cohen?

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[speaking french]

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-Merci.

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NARRATOR: When in Montreal, Cohen holes up in a $3-a-night

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hotel room on the Tenderloin.

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LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):
Well, you always

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have a feeling in a hotel room that you\'re on the lam

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and it\'s one of the safe
moments in the escape.

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It\'s that breathing spot.

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The hotel room is the
oasis of the downtown.

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It\'s a kind of temple of refuge.

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It\'s sanctuary.

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Sanctuary of a temporary
kind, therefore

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all the more delicious.

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But whenever I come
into a hotel room

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and there\'s a moment after the door is shut, and the lights

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you haven\'t turned on illumine a very comfortable, anonymous,

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subtly hostile environment.

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And you know that you\'ve found the little place in the grass

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and the hounds are going to go by for three more hours.

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You\'re going to have a drink, light a cigarette,

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and take a long time shaving.

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-More.

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-More?

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You like that, do you?

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There.

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Now don\'t you look beautiful?

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-I look better than
when I started.

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-Mm-hm.

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-Can you do something
about my body?

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NARRATOR: A lady
journalist in Winnipeg

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once described him
as having \"the stoop

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of an aged crop-picker and the face of a curious little boy.\"

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His talent has been saluted by the international press.

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Canadian critics have
called him the finest

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poet of his generation.

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He himself says he
has chosen a path that

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is infinitely wide
and without direction.

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This, he says, is a very
good path for someone

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who moves in the funny
way that he does.

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PIERRE BERTON: All right,
we\'ve got your concern.

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Your concern is Irving Layton and his survival, even

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more the survival of the mas--

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-And Cohen\'s concern
is my renunciation

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of the Canadian public.

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PIERRE BERTON: Is this true,or have you some other concern,

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Mr. Cohen, that you\'d like to get off your chest right now?

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-I, uh, I haven\'t
a single concern.

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PIERRE BERTON: Oh, come on, now,what do you care about, really?

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Don\'t you care about anything?

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How can you be a good poet and not care about something?

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LEONARD COHEN: No, no, I do the poetry, you do the commentary.

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-No, but I\'m-- let\'s
get this straight.

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Are you saying that
you have-- that there\'s

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nothing that worries you, nothing that bothers you?

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How can you write
poetry if you\'re not

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bothered by something?

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Are you--

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LEONARD COHEN: Well,
I-- I\'m bothered

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when I get up in the morning.

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My real concern is to
discover whether or not

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I\'m in a state of grace.

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And if I make that investigation and I discover that if I\'m not

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in a state of grace,
I try to go to bed.

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-What do you mean
by a state of grace?

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It\'s a phrase I\'ve
never understood.

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-That\'s a kind--
a state of grace

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is that kind of
balance with which you

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ride the chaos that
you find around you.

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It\'s not a matter of
resolving the chaos,

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because there\'s something
arrogant and warlike

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about putting the
world in order.

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But having that kind of-- like an escaped ski,

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down over a hill, just going through the contours of--

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PIERRE BERTON: Oh,
you have lost me.

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IRVING LAYTON: What Cohen is trying to do right now

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is to preserve the self.

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That\'s his real concern.

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I think that is the
concern for every poet,

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to preserve the self in a world that is rapidly steamrollering

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the selves out of existence and establishing a uniform world.

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-How\'d you make out
with Pierre Berton?

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-Well, uh, he really wanted
me to cut my con out.

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He really implied that, OK, Leonard Cohen, we know.

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We know the party line.

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You know, we know
what you\'ve got to do.

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Now really tell us the
business about poetry.

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What\'s the true story?

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You know, is wrestling
really fixed?

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PRODUCER: Leonard Cohen,\"Spice-Box of Earth,\" take one.

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OK, Leonard, we\'re starting on \"The Spice-Box,\" and any place

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you come across a dirty word, we have to delete it.

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-Yeah, well, there are
no dirty word, ever.

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PRODUCER: Leonard, just try toremember this is a performance.

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NARRATOR: The
University of Toronto

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has bought his manuscripts.

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His work is put on
phonograph records.

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LEONARD COHEN: I\'ll try to do something with them.

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I know they\'re kind of flat.

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\"Spice-Box of Earth.\" \"A Kite is a Victim,\" page one.

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\"A kite is a victim
you are sure of.

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You love it because it pulls gentle enough to call you

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master, strong enough
to call you fool.

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Because it lives like a
desperate trained falcon

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in the high sweet air,
and you can always

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haul it down to tame
it in your drawer.

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A kite is a contract of glorythat must be made with the sun.

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So you make friends with thefield, the river, and the wind.

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And you pray the
whole cold night

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before under the
traveling cordless moon

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to make you worthy
and lyric and pure.\"

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Cut.

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[chatter]

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NARRATOR: Leonard Cohen
wants to be heard.

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He\'s been known
to leave his mark

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on the wall of a
favorite hangout.

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LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): Il Bistro\'s

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like an irresponsible sanctuary.

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You aren\'t sure whether the hounds are waiting inside

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or whether you\'ve
just left them.

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-Double cognac.

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LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): There\'s a very particular glow

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that a hostile crowd
emits, when they\'re

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a crowd that is interested
in consuming you in it.

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But sometimes, on
the other hand,

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it\'s composed of some
sort of fixative that

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is sprayed on you as
soon as you walk in,

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and you become very,
very much yourself,

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and everybody is
very much himself.

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-Graham, you suffer
as much as I do.

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I like to see that.

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GRAHAM: I\'m no longer allowed in-- I\'m no longer--

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WOMAN: He said to
me one night, you

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don\'t want that man in here
molesting you. [laughs]

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-Yeah, sure, sure.

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So he cuts me off.

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Don\'t come in here.

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I\'ll, uh, hit you over
the head with a bottle.

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-Last time he called the cops.

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GRAHAM: Yeah.

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WOMAN: Yeah, but you\'re not a respectable customer.

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GRAHAM: The hell I\'m not.

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I\'m quiet and drunk.

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-He is one of the most
respectable customers

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I\'ve ever met.

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-No, he doesn\'t have a nicewhite shirt and a business suit

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and everything.

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-Who the hell does?

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How many shirts are
around here now?

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-Yeah, but this is a store.

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GRAHAM: No, it\'s a bistro.

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A la bistro.

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NARRATOR: Cohen has been
in films since 1937.

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LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): Here is

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a movie filled with the
bodies of his family.

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His father aims the camera at his uncles, tall and serious,

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boutonnieres in their dark lapels, who walk too close

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and enter into blurdom.

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Now the boy and his cousinsplay small, gentlemanly battles.

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The girls curtsy.

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All the children are invited
to leap, one at a time,

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across the flagstone path.

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A battalion of wives
is squeezed abreast,

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is decimated by the
edge of the screen.

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His mother is one
of the first to go.

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NARRATOR: Much of his
early life and much

00:13:45.583 --> 00:13:48.500
of his writing centers
on the Montreal park

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where he played as a child.

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LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): The park

00:13:55.625 --> 00:13:59.834
nourished all the sleepers in the surrounding houses.

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It was the green heart.

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It gave the children dangerous bushes and heroic landscapes

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so they could imagine bravery.

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It gave the nurses
and maids winding

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walks so they could
imagine beauty.

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NARRATOR: It gave Cohen
a place to meet girls

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so he could imagine love.

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LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): He wanted

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to know everything about her.

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Was she allowed to
listen to the shadow?

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Could she get gangbusters?

00:14:25.166 --> 00:14:27.875
Had she ever been
called a dirty Jew?

00:14:27.875 --> 00:14:32.208
They fell silent, and the nurses and their blonde babies

00:14:32.208 --> 00:14:34.834
reasserted their
control of the universe.

00:14:34.834 --> 00:14:39.792
They squeezed hands, kissed once when the light was low enough,

00:14:39.792 --> 00:14:42.166
coming golden through
the prickly bushes,

00:14:42.166 --> 00:14:46.333
and they walked slowly home, not holding hands but bumping

00:14:46.333 --> 00:14:47.583
against each other.

00:14:47.583 --> 00:14:51.208
Breavman sat at the table
trying to understand

00:14:51.208 --> 00:14:52.709
why he wasn\'t hungry.

00:14:52.709 --> 00:14:56.625
His mother extolled
the lamb chops.

00:14:56.625 --> 00:14:59.959
NARRATOR: His mother still lives in the house of his childhood

00:14:59.959 --> 00:15:02.083
and he pays her periodic visits.

00:15:02.083 --> 00:15:05.583
It has been claimed that
he lives off his family.

00:15:05.583 --> 00:15:09.667
He has an inheritance
of $750 a year.

00:15:11.333 --> 00:15:15.625
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): I amsorry that the rich man must go

00:15:15.625 --> 00:15:17.583
and his house become a hospital.

00:15:17.583 --> 00:15:21.959
I loved his wine, his
contemptuous servants,

00:15:21.959 --> 00:15:24.041
his 10-year-old ceremonies.

00:15:24.041 --> 00:15:28.999
I loved his car, which he wore like a snail shell everywhere.

00:15:28.999 --> 00:15:30.875
And I loved his
wife, the hours she

00:15:30.875 --> 00:15:36.500
put into her skin, the milk, the lust, the industries that

00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:38.583
served her complexion.

00:15:38.583 --> 00:15:40.834
I loved his son,
who looked British

00:15:40.834 --> 00:15:45.625
but had American ambitions and let the word aristocrat

00:15:45.625 --> 00:15:50.417
comfort him like a reprieve
while Kennedy reigned.

00:15:50.417 --> 00:15:51.583
I love the rich man.

00:15:51.583 --> 00:15:55.542
I hate to see his season ticket for the opera fall

00:15:55.542 --> 00:15:57.959
into a pool for opera lovers.

00:16:01.333 --> 00:16:05.375
Just beyond the green
rose the large stone

00:16:05.375 --> 00:16:07.625
houses of Westmount Avenue.

00:16:07.625 --> 00:16:11.125
In them the baseball players were growing their bodies

00:16:11.125 --> 00:16:14.291
with sleep, resting
their voices.

00:16:14.291 --> 00:16:16.583
He imagined that
he could see them

00:16:16.583 --> 00:16:19.667
dimly through the walls
of the upper stories,

00:16:19.667 --> 00:16:21.417
or rather the sheets
they were wrapped

00:16:21.417 --> 00:16:25.625
in, floating row upon
row over the street

00:16:25.625 --> 00:16:29.834
like a colony of cocoons
in a moonlit tree.

00:16:29.834 --> 00:16:34.500
The young men of his age, Christian and blond,

00:16:34.500 --> 00:16:38.709
dreaming of Jewish
sex and bank careers.

00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.333
NARRATOR: Cohen has broken
with family tradition,

00:16:50.333 --> 00:16:51.959
but not with
individual relatives.

00:16:51.959 --> 00:16:54.542
It may be a chance meeting with a wealthy cousin now living

00:16:54.542 --> 00:16:58.583
in Rio and in town for a visit, or lunch at the Ritz

00:16:58.583 --> 00:16:59.417
with an uncle.

00:16:59.417 --> 00:17:02.750
His wanderings are punctuated
by chance encounters.

00:17:02.750 --> 00:17:04.250
He is generous
with his friendship

00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:06.625
and with any money
he happens to have.

00:17:06.625 --> 00:17:09.125
At the moment, he
is very well-heeled.

00:17:14.458 --> 00:17:17.417
One of his books of poetry was a runaway best-seller.

00:17:17.417 --> 00:17:20.542
His only novel had an advance paperback printing

00:17:20.542 --> 00:17:22.583
of 120,000 copies.

00:17:22.583 --> 00:17:26.709
1964 was a very good year, with prizes and other fringe

00:17:26.709 --> 00:17:29.583
benefits, he earned $17,000.

00:17:29.583 --> 00:17:31.834
Before that he earned
next to nothing.

00:17:31.834 --> 00:17:35.375
And a return to poverty will have no noticeable effect

00:17:35.375 --> 00:17:38.375
on his way of life.

00:17:38.375 --> 00:17:39.917
[buzz]

00:17:39.917 --> 00:17:41.375
WOMAN (OVER PA): Oui?

00:17:41.375 --> 00:17:43.875
-[speaking french]

00:17:43.875 --> 00:17:46.458
WOMAN (OVER PA):
[speaking french]

00:17:46.458 --> 00:17:50.417
-[speaking french]

00:17:50.417 --> 00:17:52.458
WOMAN (OVER PA):
[speaking french]

00:17:52.458 --> 00:17:53.000
-Oui.

00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:54.875
WOMAN (OVER PA):
[speaking french]

00:17:54.875 --> 00:17:55.583
-Merci.

00:17:58.792 --> 00:18:02.208
NARRATOR: Cohen finds nourishment both in the crowds

00:18:02.208 --> 00:18:03.417
and in solitude.

00:18:03.417 --> 00:18:05.667
He finds it, too, in
an ancient Chinese book

00:18:05.667 --> 00:18:08.208
of oracles called \"The I Ching.\"

00:18:08.208 --> 00:18:09.458
ROBERT HIRSCHHORN:
Do you really feel

00:18:09.458 --> 00:18:12.834
like staking your participation
in the future on advice

00:18:12.834 --> 00:18:14.083
from \"The I Ching\"
of this moment?

00:18:14.083 --> 00:18:17.375
-Well, I\'m willing to take
guidance from the book.

00:18:19.709 --> 00:18:22.041
-All right.

00:18:22.041 --> 00:18:24.333
-OK, right, right.

00:18:24.333 --> 00:18:27.625
[coins rattling]

00:18:27.625 --> 00:18:28.959
Well, we might have to--

00:18:28.959 --> 00:18:29.500
-Nine.

00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:31.000
NARRATOR: \"The I Ching\"
dates back to Confucius

00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.542
but was discovered
by the Western world

00:18:33.542 --> 00:18:34.959
barely 50 years ago.

00:18:34.959 --> 00:18:38.959
Although it bears a superficial resemblance to a Ouija board,

00:18:38.959 --> 00:18:42.458
the great psychiatrist Carl Jung extolled \"The I Ching\"

00:18:42.458 --> 00:18:44.583
as a valuable tool
to self-examination

00:18:44.583 --> 00:18:48.208
and to achieving insight into one\'s true personality.

00:18:56.750 --> 00:19:00.625
LEONARD COHEN: \"Approach
means supreme success.

00:19:00.625 --> 00:19:01.875
Perseverance furthers.

00:19:01.875 --> 00:19:06.250
When the eighth month comes, there will be misfortune.\"

00:19:06.250 --> 00:19:07.917
DEREK MAY: What month is this?

00:19:07.917 --> 00:19:08.542
[laughter]

00:19:08.542 --> 00:19:10.709
-It\'s the 11th
month, so we\'re OK.

00:19:10.709 --> 00:19:14.375
-\"The hexagram as a whole points to time of joyous,

00:19:14.375 --> 00:19:15.417
hopeful progress.

00:19:15.417 --> 00:19:17.041
Spring is approaching.

00:19:17.041 --> 00:19:17.959
Join forbearance.

00:19:17.959 --> 00:19:21.208
Bring high and
low near together.

00:19:21.208 --> 00:19:22.291
Join forbearance.

00:19:22.291 --> 00:19:23.917
Success is certain.

00:19:23.917 --> 00:19:26.542
But we must work
with determination

00:19:26.542 --> 00:19:28.959
and perseverance
to make full use

00:19:28.959 --> 00:19:31.000
of the propitiousness
of the time.

00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.792
And one thing more-- spring
does not last forever.\"

00:19:34.792 --> 00:19:38.500
[laughter]

00:19:38.500 --> 00:19:40.667
NARRATOR: In Greece,
Cohen loves and lives

00:19:40.667 --> 00:19:42.667
with a girl named Marianne.

00:19:42.667 --> 00:19:44.417
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):
Beneath my hands

00:19:44.417 --> 00:19:47.750
your small breasts are
the upturned bellies

00:19:47.750 --> 00:19:50.500
of breathing fallen sparrows.

00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:54.542
Wherever you move I hear the sounds of closing wings,

00:19:54.542 --> 00:19:56.375
of falling wings.

00:19:56.375 --> 00:19:59.333
I am speechless because you have fallen beside me,

00:19:59.333 --> 00:20:04.625
because your eyelashes are thespines of tiny fragile animals.

00:20:04.625 --> 00:20:10.458
I dread the time when yourmouth begins to call me hunter.

00:20:10.458 --> 00:20:11.625
NARRATOR: Marianne
waits for Cohen

00:20:11.625 --> 00:20:14.333
in a white house on the
Greek island of Hydra.

00:20:14.333 --> 00:20:19.834
He moved to Greece in 1961 after a miserable winter in England.

00:20:19.834 --> 00:20:21.166
-One day I was walking
down Bank Street.

00:20:21.166 --> 00:20:25.917
I\'d had a tooth out and it was raining and I had a cold.

00:20:25.917 --> 00:20:31.041
And I saw the Bank of
Greece etched in marble.

00:20:31.041 --> 00:20:35.208
And I went in there and there was a man wearing sunglasses

00:20:35.208 --> 00:20:36.041
behind the counter.

00:20:36.041 --> 00:20:41.792
And I thought that was-- that was really splendid.

00:20:41.792 --> 00:20:43.750
That was the most
eloquent protest

00:20:43.750 --> 00:20:47.250
against the entire landscape
that I\'d seen, you know?

00:20:47.250 --> 00:20:48.750
He was wearing
sunglasses in the bank,

00:20:48.750 --> 00:20:52.041
and it only had moderate
fluorescent lighting.

00:20:52.041 --> 00:20:58.917
[speaking greek]

00:20:58.917 --> 00:21:01.792
NARRATOR: In Greece, he has picked up a strong working

00:21:01.792 --> 00:21:02.750
knowledge of the language.

00:21:02.750 --> 00:21:06.375
He is fascinated by the violence of the Mediterranean

00:21:06.375 --> 00:21:10.000
but has developed a pronounced distaste for meat.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:11.417
This shows in his writing.

00:21:11.417 --> 00:21:14.125
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):Great torsos of meadow animals,

00:21:14.125 --> 00:21:17.542
strung and glistening,
flayed exhibitions.

00:21:17.542 --> 00:21:21.208
Heads piled in pyramids
like park cannonballs,

00:21:21.208 --> 00:21:24.000
some of them cruelly
facing a sausage

00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.667
display of their
missing extremities.

00:21:26.667 --> 00:21:30.542
And further down the corridor,
no recognizable animal

00:21:30.542 --> 00:21:32.417
shapes but chunks
of their bodies,

00:21:32.417 --> 00:21:37.999
shaped not by hide or muscle
but by cleaver, knife,

00:21:37.999 --> 00:21:38.709
and appetite.

00:21:38.709 --> 00:21:39.959
I think humanity--
well, it\'s true

00:21:39.959 --> 00:21:41.291
that since I
stopped eating meat,

00:21:41.291 --> 00:21:44.000
I feel a lot better
among animals.

00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:47.834
I feel I can be much more
honest when I pat a dog.

00:21:57.625 --> 00:21:58.917
NARRATOR: Cohen
collects his letters

00:21:58.917 --> 00:22:01.625
and makes certain he is
heavily photographed.

00:22:01.625 --> 00:22:03.542
He does this simply
because he feels

00:22:03.542 --> 00:22:05.250
he\'s becoming an
important writer

00:22:05.250 --> 00:22:08.583
and that such material will someday be of value.

00:22:08.583 --> 00:22:11.583
And yet he is totally
devoid of arrogance

00:22:11.583 --> 00:22:15.667
and is deeply concerned with the style of his soul.

00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.000
LEONARD COHEN: Hold me hard light, soft light hold me,

00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.875
moonlight in your mountains fold me, sunlight in you\'re

00:22:26.875 --> 00:22:33.375
tall waves scold me, ironlight
in your wires shield me,

00:22:33.375 --> 00:22:37.166
deathlight in your
darkness wield me.

00:22:37.166 --> 00:22:41.500
In burlap bags the bankers
sew me, in countries

00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:46.208
far the merchants
sell me, in icy caves

00:22:46.208 --> 00:22:49.750
the princes throw
me, in golden rooms

00:22:49.750 --> 00:22:53.792
the doctors geld
me, in battlefields

00:22:53.792 --> 00:22:56.625
the hunters rule me.

00:22:56.625 --> 00:23:00.125
I will starve till
prophets find me,

00:23:00.125 --> 00:23:03.750
I will bleed till
angels bind me,

00:23:03.750 --> 00:23:08.291
still I sing till
churches blind me,

00:23:08.291 --> 00:23:13.291
still I love till
cog-wheels wind me.

00:23:13.291 --> 00:23:16.583
(SINGING) Well, hold me hard light, soft light hold me,

00:23:16.583 --> 00:23:22.625
moonlight in your mountains foldme, sunlight in your tall waves

00:23:22.625 --> 00:23:24.542
scold me, ironlight
in your wires

00:23:24.542 --> 00:23:36.333
shield me, deathlight in your darkness, darkness, wield me.

00:23:36.333 --> 00:23:37.458
FRIEND: That\'s yours.

00:23:37.458 --> 00:23:38.834
LEONARD COHEN: That\'s Alan\'s.

00:23:38.834 --> 00:23:40.333
FRIEND: Is that yours?

00:23:40.333 --> 00:23:43.041
-Cohen\'s circle of
real friends is small.

00:23:43.041 --> 00:23:44.583
One who stayed in
the clothing business

00:23:44.583 --> 00:23:47.750
and makes a great deal of money is Robert Hirschhorn.

00:23:47.750 --> 00:23:48.999
LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): Hirschhorn

00:23:48.999 --> 00:23:52.792
is one of the great tightrope
acrobats of our century.

00:23:52.792 --> 00:23:58.875
He flirts with cliches, he dances with prototypes,

00:23:58.875 --> 00:24:00.458
but he escapes them all.

00:24:00.458 --> 00:24:02.125
He just dances between them.

00:24:02.125 --> 00:24:06.000
NARRATOR: Another is a sculptor, Mort Rosengarten.

00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:07.208
LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): Mort is

00:24:07.208 --> 00:24:13.250
one of the great gentlemen, that anybody who knows him knows.

00:24:13.250 --> 00:24:14.375
He\'s organically a gentleman.

00:24:14.375 --> 00:24:16.959
He\'s one of my oldest
and dearest friends.

00:24:16.959 --> 00:24:19.333
When you only have
four or five friends,

00:24:19.333 --> 00:24:21.417
and lucky if you have that many.

00:24:21.417 --> 00:24:23.000
NARRATOR: Then there\'s
the painter, Derek May.

00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:25.542
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): He is the most irreverent person

00:24:25.542 --> 00:24:31.208
that I know, and his humor is based on the idea of upset.

00:24:31.208 --> 00:24:32.291
That\'s what he does with ideas.

00:24:32.291 --> 00:24:34.875
He rocks them like
those toys, those boxing

00:24:34.875 --> 00:24:37.166
toys that never fall over.

00:24:37.166 --> 00:24:39.375
[laughter]

00:24:39.375 --> 00:24:44.959
[playing harmonica]

00:24:44.959 --> 00:24:45.875
-[inaudible].

00:24:55.500 --> 00:24:58.917
FRIEND: The slave of all things.

00:24:58.917 --> 00:24:59.583
[laughter]

00:24:59.583 --> 00:25:01.291
LEONARD COHEN: Having fun!

00:25:01.291 --> 00:25:02.709
Look at it!

00:25:02.709 --> 00:25:03.417
We\'re winning!

00:25:03.417 --> 00:25:06.250
We\'re winning, we\'re winning the eternal battle.

00:25:06.250 --> 00:25:07.917
We\'re keeping the party going!

00:25:07.917 --> 00:25:09.208
[laughter]

00:25:09.208 --> 00:25:10.000
[plays harmonica]

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:11.750
(SINGING) We\'re keeping
the party going.

00:25:11.750 --> 00:25:15.542
[plays harmonica]

00:25:15.542 --> 00:25:16.375
-Listen, listen.

00:25:16.375 --> 00:25:17.250
No, listen, seriously.

00:25:17.250 --> 00:25:18.834
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): I think most of the women

00:25:18.834 --> 00:25:24.625
that my friends love are very attractive sexual people.

00:25:24.625 --> 00:25:27.875
That is something which
happily, and for which

00:25:27.875 --> 00:25:33.041
we must bend our knees all the time-- sexuality is general.

00:25:33.041 --> 00:25:35.083
And although only one
man may be receiving

00:25:35.083 --> 00:25:39.709
the favors of a woman, all in her presence are warm.

00:25:39.709 --> 00:25:40.917
That\'s the great
generosity of women,

00:25:40.917 --> 00:25:43.291
and the great generosity of the creator who worked it

00:25:43.291 --> 00:25:47.667
out that way, is that there are no unilateral agreements

00:25:47.667 --> 00:25:48.959
of sexuality.

00:25:48.959 --> 00:25:53.500
-And the world starts moving like clockload-- clockwork.

00:25:53.500 --> 00:25:55.792
[laughter]

00:25:55.792 --> 00:25:58.917
[plays harmonica]

00:25:58.917 --> 00:26:00.166
[laughter]

00:26:00.166 --> 00:26:04.792
LEONARD COHEN: [howls]

00:26:04.792 --> 00:26:06.250
-Come on.

00:26:06.250 --> 00:26:09.250
[all howling]

00:26:09.250 --> 00:26:15.709
[dog howls]

00:26:15.709 --> 00:26:19.458
[laughter]

00:26:23.250 --> 00:26:26.875
[playing harmonica softly]

00:26:31.417 --> 00:26:32.959
LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): As the mist

00:26:32.959 --> 00:26:35.834
leaves no scar on
the dark green hill,

00:26:35.834 --> 00:26:40.792
so my body leaves no scar
on you, nor ever will.

00:26:40.792 --> 00:26:45.000
When wind and hawk encounter,
what remains to keep?

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:50.375
So you and I encounter, then turn, then fall to sleep.

00:26:53.083 --> 00:26:54.792
-Because what he
sets up, really,

00:26:54.792 --> 00:26:57.792
are certain-- I think they\'re beautiful standards,

00:26:57.792 --> 00:27:00.375
but they\'re very definite standards of English humor.

00:27:00.375 --> 00:27:03.417
-Well, I was going to say, if William Wordsworth had stepped

00:27:03.417 --> 00:27:06.875
on immediately
after, or Swinburne,

00:27:06.875 --> 00:27:09.667
it would have gone
in beautifully.

00:27:09.667 --> 00:27:11.458
-Well, this was--

00:27:11.458 --> 00:27:14.333
-And he was behind me all
the time of the reading,

00:27:14.333 --> 00:27:16.250
and I know that he\'s with it.

00:27:16.250 --> 00:27:20.041
NARRATOR: Cohen\'s interest in young people is genuine.

00:27:20.041 --> 00:27:21.500
He has a rapport with youth.

00:27:21.500 --> 00:27:24.041
He feels that he is a voice of this generation.

00:27:24.041 --> 00:27:24.959
-I love that line about--

00:27:24.959 --> 00:27:28.000
NARRATOR: And he listens
to what it has to say.

00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:29.625
-Quite amusing.

00:27:29.625 --> 00:27:30.166
-Why?

00:27:30.166 --> 00:27:31.250
-Well, it\'s just--

00:27:31.250 --> 00:27:34.417
MAN: The man didn\'t
flub one single syllable

00:27:34.417 --> 00:27:37.834
or blur or slur a single word.

00:27:37.834 --> 00:27:39.709
NARRATOR: Cohen once wrote
of academic gatherings

00:27:39.709 --> 00:27:43.583
as providing the poet withlittle more of than opportunity

00:27:43.583 --> 00:27:45.500
for sexual conquest.

00:27:45.500 --> 00:27:49.500
But now he says he is anxiousto preserve all of the species.

00:27:49.500 --> 00:27:52.125
He now moves easily
in these surroundings.

00:27:52.125 --> 00:27:54.375
Still, he despises
literary pretense

00:27:54.375 --> 00:27:59.291
and insists that poetry is not an occupation but a verdict.

00:27:59.291 --> 00:28:01.083
MAN: Almost a lunatic asylum.

00:28:01.083 --> 00:28:01.625
I mean--

00:28:01.625 --> 00:28:03.041
[laughter]

00:28:03.041 --> 00:28:05.417
MAN: The right thing happens.

00:28:05.417 --> 00:28:06.041
[laughter]

00:28:06.041 --> 00:28:10.250
-I read your book, I\'m ashamed
to say about a year ago,

00:28:10.250 --> 00:28:12.000
and I don\'t remember
too much about it.

00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:13.875
NARRATOR: He spent three years at McGill University

00:28:13.875 --> 00:28:19.583
as an average art student andone inglorious semester in law.

00:28:19.583 --> 00:28:21.417
He entered eagerly
into the affairs

00:28:21.417 --> 00:28:24.000
of the student establishment.

00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.083
His career as a big
man on the campus

00:28:26.083 --> 00:28:27.875
was typically unorthodox.

00:28:27.875 --> 00:28:31.291
He won election as president
of the debating union

00:28:31.291 --> 00:28:34.500
and then refused
to call debates.

00:28:34.500 --> 00:28:36.667
He hated the concept
of fraternities

00:28:36.667 --> 00:28:39.709
but won election as president of a fraternity,

00:28:39.709 --> 00:28:44.041
and then fought to retain its exclusive Jewish character.

00:28:44.041 --> 00:28:48.875
--[laughs] I don\'t like the way the evidence is building up.

00:28:48.875 --> 00:28:52.542
[laughter]

00:28:52.542 --> 00:28:53.792
I\'m at the Westmount.

00:28:53.792 --> 00:28:55.375
I\'ve got Westmount.

00:28:55.375 --> 00:28:58.375
I\'ve got-- I\'ve
got the chauffeur.

00:28:58.375 --> 00:28:59.166
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

00:28:59.166 --> 00:29:00.458
-I\'ve got the fraternity.

00:29:00.458 --> 00:29:03.709
I\'ve got-- I\'ve
got the politics.

00:29:03.709 --> 00:29:04.500
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

00:29:04.500 --> 00:29:06.250
Well, you got rid of
the debating union.

00:29:06.250 --> 00:29:07.375
-Uh, you know, all I have to--

00:29:07.375 --> 00:29:09.458
-Didn\'t you almost get rid
of the fraternity, too?

00:29:09.458 --> 00:29:11.959
-All I have to tell you--
all I have to tell you

00:29:11.959 --> 00:29:13.875
now is that I was
good in sports.

00:29:13.875 --> 00:29:14.500
[laughter]

00:29:14.500 --> 00:29:18.166
-And I\'ve completely ruinedthe cliche of the poet forever.

00:29:18.166 --> 00:29:21.792
INTERVIEWER: But that wasn\'t really-- you played hockey.

00:29:23.542 --> 00:29:27.875
-I played a little
hockey in public school.

00:29:27.875 --> 00:29:33.959
Up to the age of 12, I wasabout the ninth-best defenseman

00:29:33.959 --> 00:29:34.834
in the class.

00:29:34.834 --> 00:29:36.583
[laughter]

00:29:43.375 --> 00:29:45.875
NARRATOR: He is a
constant wanderer.

00:29:45.875 --> 00:29:47.834
Little black
notebooks are stuffed

00:29:47.834 --> 00:29:49.875
with pertinent observations.

00:29:49.875 --> 00:29:53.333
These, he mixes with
his considerable talent

00:29:53.333 --> 00:29:54.917
to produce his art.

00:29:54.917 --> 00:29:57.583
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): For you I will be a ghetto Jew

00:29:57.583 --> 00:30:01.834
and dance and put white stockings on my twisted limbs

00:30:01.834 --> 00:30:05.083
and poison wells
across the town.

00:30:05.083 --> 00:30:07.917
For you, I will be a
banker Jew and bring

00:30:07.917 --> 00:30:13.542
to ruin a proud old hunting
king and end his line.

00:30:13.542 --> 00:30:17.792
For you I will be a Broadway
Jew and cry in theatres

00:30:17.792 --> 00:30:22.709
for my mother and sell bargain goods beneath the counter.

00:30:22.709 --> 00:30:27.542
For you I will be a Dachau
Jew and lie down in lime

00:30:27.542 --> 00:30:34.333
with twisted limbs and bloated pain no mind can understand.

00:30:38.125 --> 00:30:41.125
NARRATOR: Cohen is not self-consciously cultured.

00:30:41.125 --> 00:30:43.208
He has not read extensively.

00:30:43.208 --> 00:30:46.083
He listens largely to pop music.

00:30:46.083 --> 00:30:49.291
He has, however,
a hypersensitivity

00:30:49.291 --> 00:30:51.458
and an enormous curiosity.

00:30:51.458 --> 00:30:52.709
LEONARD COHEN: I\'m
very concerned.

00:30:52.709 --> 00:30:56.041
I was looking at the
back-- I was looking

00:30:56.041 --> 00:30:59.417
at the back of \"True
Story\" this afternoon.

00:31:01.625 --> 00:31:07.500
And I saw-- I saw
about, um, about 20

00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:10.709
ads about unwanted hair.

00:31:13.917 --> 00:31:17.959
The hair was, uh--
a lot of people

00:31:17.959 --> 00:31:20.083
were offering to
get rid of hair.

00:31:22.709 --> 00:31:29.959
They were offering to sandpaperit away, shave it away, pull it

00:31:29.959 --> 00:31:40.458
out, cut it, dissolve it with cream, electrocute it.

00:31:46.291 --> 00:31:50.250
I mean, you\'re very concerned
with unwanted babies,

00:31:50.250 --> 00:31:53.583
but nobody cares
for unwanted hair.

00:31:55.792 --> 00:32:00.000
I think there should be a place for unwanted hair

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:01.792
in this society.

00:32:03.125 --> 00:32:07.875
I think at the very least, there should be a hair museum.

00:32:09.999 --> 00:32:14.083
I mean, there should be somewhere-- a hair asylum.

00:32:15.875 --> 00:32:22.333
There should be somewhere where, um, middle-aged ladies\'

00:32:22.333 --> 00:32:24.250
mustaches can reside.

00:32:27.834 --> 00:32:31.250
College beards
abandoned for careers.

00:32:36.458 --> 00:32:39.291
I mean, a man-- a man should
be able to go into one

00:32:39.291 --> 00:32:45.333
of these hair asylums and, you know, review his whole life.

00:32:51.417 --> 00:32:52.667
LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): Montreal

00:32:52.667 --> 00:32:59.458
is still small enough to have one or two centers, one

00:32:59.458 --> 00:33:01.125
or two late night centers.

00:33:01.125 --> 00:33:03.291
And into this funnel
is drawn everyone

00:33:03.291 --> 00:33:07.458
who happens to be up that night, or at least a representation

00:33:07.458 --> 00:33:10.375
of the various groups
operating in the night.

00:33:10.375 --> 00:33:11.959
And groups operating
in the night

00:33:11.959 --> 00:33:14.083
always have a special
kind of interest

00:33:14.083 --> 00:33:19.125
and a special kind of
ritualistic atmosphere.

00:33:19.125 --> 00:33:21.041
-And women?

00:33:21.041 --> 00:33:22.333
-Not Greek women.

00:33:22.333 --> 00:33:23.250
-No?

00:33:23.250 --> 00:33:24.500
Why not?

00:33:24.500 --> 00:33:26.917
-Because, uh, Greek--
Greek brothers

00:33:26.917 --> 00:33:29.458
feel very covetous
of their sisters.

00:33:29.458 --> 00:33:30.083
-Oh, yeah?

00:33:30.083 --> 00:33:30.875
Shotgun weddings.

00:33:30.875 --> 00:33:33.625
-Not shotgun weddings,
knife murders.

00:33:33.625 --> 00:33:34.583
-Knife murders.

00:33:34.583 --> 00:33:35.291
Great, great.

00:33:35.291 --> 00:33:36.125
That\'s the all we need.

00:33:36.125 --> 00:33:38.250
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):
And into these places,

00:33:38.250 --> 00:33:40.875
these special places in
the city-- and Ben\'s is

00:33:40.875 --> 00:33:45.250
one of them-- is drawn this very urgent cross-section of people

00:33:45.250 --> 00:33:49.250
who have somehow committed
the first rebellious act

00:33:49.250 --> 00:33:53.291
that a man can perform--
refusing to sleep.

00:33:53.291 --> 00:33:55.625
That\'s the real
rebellion against life

00:33:55.625 --> 00:33:56.834
and the generative process.

00:33:56.834 --> 00:33:58.458
That\'s the real human idea.

00:33:58.458 --> 00:33:59.375
I refuse to sleep.

00:33:59.375 --> 00:34:04.333
I\'m going to-- I\'m going to protest the idea of sleep

00:34:04.333 --> 00:34:06.417
by turning night into day.

00:34:06.417 --> 00:34:08.917
I\'m going to revel and drink
and womanize all night.

00:34:08.917 --> 00:34:13.166
In this way, I show time, death, the natural process

00:34:13.166 --> 00:34:15.417
of destruction, decay,
and regeneration--

00:34:15.417 --> 00:34:21.083
I show it all that with my mind and my will I, man, triumph.

00:34:21.083 --> 00:34:22.000
So they come to Ben\'s.

00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:23.834
-Maybe you\'re reading
the wrong books.

00:34:23.834 --> 00:34:25.250
-Yeah, I think you\'re right.

00:34:25.250 --> 00:34:27.542
-Stop reading
poetry. [inaudible].

00:34:27.542 --> 00:34:28.875
-I don\'t read poetry, Al.

00:34:28.875 --> 00:34:29.750
-Oh, you only write it.

00:34:29.750 --> 00:34:32.500
-I don\'t-- I hardly
write it, even.

00:34:32.500 --> 00:34:36.834
[music playing]

00:34:45.583 --> 00:34:46.875
NARRATOR: With
the popular sounds

00:34:46.875 --> 00:34:49.417
of the day ringing
in his ear, Cohen

00:34:49.417 --> 00:34:51.333
works his talent very hard.

00:34:51.333 --> 00:34:56.291
He writes and rewrites for
about five hours a day.

00:34:56.291 --> 00:34:58.125
He writes of himself.

00:34:58.125 --> 00:35:00.250
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):
I am with the hunters,

00:35:00.250 --> 00:35:05.291
hungry and shrewd, and
I am with the hunted,

00:35:05.291 --> 00:35:08.709
quick and soft and nude.

00:35:11.041 --> 00:35:12.500
NARRATOR: He writes
of the night.

00:35:12.500 --> 00:35:13.792
LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): From a hill

00:35:13.792 --> 00:35:17.542
I watched the apple blossoms
breathe the silver out

00:35:17.542 --> 00:35:22.083
of the night like fish eating the spheres of air

00:35:22.083 --> 00:35:23.250
out of the river.

00:35:39.500 --> 00:35:42.834
NARRATOR: He writes of the drug addict and his needle.

00:35:42.834 --> 00:35:44.709
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER):
Under hard lights

00:35:44.709 --> 00:35:47.500
with doctors\' instruments
you are at work

00:35:47.500 --> 00:35:51.625
in the bathrooms of the
city, changing the law.

00:35:51.625 --> 00:35:56.333
The spike hunts,
constant as a compass.

00:35:56.333 --> 00:35:58.583
NARRATOR: He writes
of a Greek harbor.

00:35:58.583 --> 00:36:02.083
LEONARD COHEN (VOICEOVER): The stony path coiled around me

00:36:02.083 --> 00:36:03.792
and bound me to the night.

00:36:03.792 --> 00:36:09.125
A boat hunted the edge of the sea under a hissing light.

00:36:09.125 --> 00:36:14.041
Something soft involved a net and bled around a sphere.

00:36:17.709 --> 00:36:19.458
NARRATOR: In 1961,
he anticipated

00:36:19.458 --> 00:36:23.458
the Bay of Pigs Invasion
and went to Cuba.

00:36:23.458 --> 00:36:28.542
-The real reason was a deep interest in violence.

00:36:28.542 --> 00:36:30.458
I was very interested
in what it really

00:36:30.458 --> 00:36:34.792
meant for men to carry arms and to kill other men,

00:36:34.792 --> 00:36:40.083
and how attracted I was, exactly, to that process.

00:36:40.083 --> 00:36:42.959
That\'s-- that\'s getting
close to the truth.

00:36:42.959 --> 00:36:48.458
The real truth is that I wanted to kill or be killed.

00:36:48.458 --> 00:36:49.959
No, no, I don\'t want
to give the idea,

00:36:49.959 --> 00:36:52.125
as I\'ve been giving in the past 10 or 15 minutes,

00:36:52.125 --> 00:36:56.542
that I\'m completely obsessed
with the idea of danger.

00:36:56.542 --> 00:36:59.625
But I suppose I am,
so it\'s just as well

00:36:59.625 --> 00:37:01.417
that I gave the idea away.

00:37:01.417 --> 00:37:08.041
I was in Havana in 1961 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion,

00:37:08.041 --> 00:37:09.667
fighting on both sides.

00:37:12.291 --> 00:37:19.583
And I wrote this poem called \"The Only Tourist in Havana

00:37:19.583 --> 00:37:27.750
Turns His Thoughts Homeward.\"

00:37:27.750 --> 00:37:32.333
Come, my brothers,
let us govern Canada,

00:37:32.333 --> 00:37:37.041
let us find our serious heads, let us dump asbestos

00:37:37.041 --> 00:37:42.458
on the White House, let us make the French talk English, not

00:37:42.458 --> 00:37:45.500
only here but everywhere,

00:37:45.500 --> 00:37:49.667
Let us torture the
Senate individually

00:37:49.667 --> 00:37:52.250
until they confess.

00:37:52.250 --> 00:37:55.125
Let us purge the New Party.

00:37:55.125 --> 00:37:57.917
Let us encourage the
dark races so they\'ll

00:37:57.917 --> 00:38:00.166
be lenient when they take over.

00:38:02.500 --> 00:38:06.625
Let us make the
CBC talk English.

00:38:06.625 --> 00:38:11.083
Let us all lean in one
direction and float down

00:38:11.083 --> 00:38:13.208
to the coast of Florida.

00:38:13.208 --> 00:38:17.709
Let us have two Governor Generals at the same time.

00:38:17.709 --> 00:38:22.041
Let us have another
official language.

00:38:22.041 --> 00:38:24.375
Let us determine
what it will be.

00:38:26.500 --> 00:38:29.291
Let us give a Canada
Council fellowship

00:38:29.291 --> 00:38:31.333
to the most original suggestion.

00:38:33.083 --> 00:38:38.083
Let us teach sex in
the home to parents.

00:38:40.709 --> 00:38:44.834
Let us threaten to join
the USA and pull out

00:38:44.834 --> 00:38:46.125
at the last moment.

00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:51.083
My brothers, come.

00:38:51.083 --> 00:38:53.750
Our serious heads
are waiting for us

00:38:53.750 --> 00:39:00.625
somewhere like Gladstone bags abandoned after a coup d\'etat.

00:39:00.625 --> 00:39:02.583
Let us put them on very quickly.

00:39:02.583 --> 00:39:08.709
Let us maintain a stony silence on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

00:39:08.709 --> 00:39:15.041
[applause]

00:39:15.041 --> 00:39:18.375
[music playing]

00:39:25.667 --> 00:39:26.875
LEONARD COHEN
(VOICEOVER): I would

00:39:26.875 --> 00:39:31.875
like to remind the management that the drinks are watered

00:39:31.875 --> 00:39:34.834
and the hat check
girl has syphilis

00:39:34.834 --> 00:39:39.208
and the band is composed
of former SS monsters.

00:39:39.208 --> 00:39:44.125
However, since it is New Year\'s Eve and I have lip cancer,

00:39:44.125 --> 00:39:50.375
I will place my paper hat on my concussion and dance.

00:39:50.375 --> 00:39:53.125
[music playing]

00:39:58.917 --> 00:40:01.458
NARRATOR: At the completion of the shooting of this film,

00:40:01.458 --> 00:40:05.667
Cohen was invited to a screeningroom to take a look at himself.

00:40:08.083 --> 00:40:10.959
LEONARD COHEN: It\'s a
very privileged thing,

00:40:10.959 --> 00:40:13.542
to be able to see
yourself sleeping.

00:40:13.542 --> 00:40:19.000
I think it\'s an experience
very few people have.

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:20.417
INTERVIEWER: That\'s right.

00:40:20.417 --> 00:40:24.583
LEONARD COHEN: But of
course, the thought

00:40:24.583 --> 00:40:25.875
is that I\'m not really sleeping.

00:40:25.875 --> 00:40:27.750
INTERVIEWER: It\'s a
very privileged thing

00:40:27.750 --> 00:40:31.041
seeing yourself
pretending to sleep.

00:40:31.041 --> 00:40:33.291
-Yes, I think that\'s--
that\'s even more--

00:40:33.291 --> 00:40:37.834
that\'s a privilege of a higher
and more esoteric order.

00:40:37.834 --> 00:40:40.458
Because there are some who are very, very interested to

00:40:40.458 --> 00:40:43.291
know how they look when
they\'re pretending.

00:40:50.917 --> 00:40:53.333
I was always good with my hands.

00:40:53.333 --> 00:40:55.917
[laughter]

00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:00.458
This is a situation which,
for whatever the reason,

00:41:00.458 --> 00:41:06.625
a man has allowed a number of strangers into his bathroom.

00:41:06.625 --> 00:41:08.667
Now it\'s true we\'re making
a film about my life

00:41:08.667 --> 00:41:12.041
and the film purports to
examine my life closely

00:41:12.041 --> 00:41:14.709
and the bath is part of my life, but still, regardless

00:41:14.709 --> 00:41:18.166
of the reason, here,
1964, a man has

00:41:18.166 --> 00:41:26.667
invited a group of strangers to observe him cleaning his body.

00:41:27.959 --> 00:41:30.417
INTERVIEWER: But you must
find this interesting.

00:41:30.417 --> 00:41:32.250
-I find it very interesting.

00:41:33.875 --> 00:41:38.917
I find it-- I find it sinister.

00:41:38.917 --> 00:41:40.750
Of course, I find it flattering.

00:41:40.750 --> 00:41:46.458
Because there\'s a point where every man shares Aga Khan\'s

00:41:46.458 --> 00:41:50.417
delight at selling
his bath water--

00:41:52.083 --> 00:41:53.834
INTERVIEWER: What
do we mean by--

00:41:53.834 --> 00:41:54.625
-To the faithful.

00:41:54.625 --> 00:41:56.875
INTERVIEWER: What did you mean by that inscription?

00:41:56.875 --> 00:41:57.750
LEONARD COHEN: Caveat--

00:41:57.750 --> 00:41:59.166
INTERVIEWER: Is that a
message to the audience?

00:41:59.166 --> 00:42:00.375
LEONARD COHEN:
Yes, caveat emptor.

00:42:00.375 --> 00:42:01.458
Let the buyer beware.

00:42:01.458 --> 00:42:09.750
I think that I had to, for a moment, act as a double agent,

00:42:09.750 --> 00:42:12.542
for both the filmmakers
and the public.

00:42:12.542 --> 00:42:18.500
I had to warn the public that--it\'s like that little beep that

00:42:18.500 --> 00:42:21.041
goes through certain
recorded phone messages

00:42:21.041 --> 00:42:22.166
that you hear on the radio.

00:42:22.166 --> 00:42:23.542
I thought I would
make this little beep

00:42:23.542 --> 00:42:30.959
and let-- let the man watching
me know that this is not

00:42:30.959 --> 00:42:35.125
entirely devoid of the con.

00:42:35.125 --> 00:42:37.000
INTERVIEWER: C-O-N?

00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:37.709
-Right.

00:42:39.625 --> 00:42:42.250
I look much more like
a man than I thought.

00:42:42.250 --> 00:42:47.041
In fact, I think I\'ve had a very, very mistaken conception

00:42:47.041 --> 00:42:49.375
of what style of man I was.

00:42:49.375 --> 00:42:51.291
I think the whole
thing is changing now.

00:42:51.291 --> 00:42:54.291
INTERVIEWER: You mean just
looking at this movie?

00:42:54.291 --> 00:42:55.417
-Yeah.

00:42:55.417 --> 00:42:59.417
I think I\'m of a different style than I thought I was.

00:42:59.417 --> 00:43:01.750
INTERVIEWER: That may
affect your whole life.

00:43:01.750 --> 00:43:04.917
-Well, I hope it
affects my whole life.

00:43:08.417 --> 00:43:11.125
NARRATOR: And so it
is time to go, back

00:43:11.125 --> 00:43:14.291
to Greece and the
girl and the sun.

00:43:14.291 --> 00:43:19.083
And always back to the work, for as Leonard Cohen says,

00:43:19.083 --> 00:43:22.083
\"There are dreams
of glory whispering

00:43:22.083 --> 00:43:25.208
through the wires of his spine.\"

00:43:25.208 --> 00:43:25.208
[music playing]