March 30, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Leonard Cohen

I just watched this Canadian 1965 Leonard Cohen documentary, which predates his music career, from the library. While sitting in a bathtub at the end, he scrawls "Caveat Emptor" on the wall with a marker, suggesting that he has been trying to fool the cameras and the audience the entire time, similar to his contemporary, Bob Dylan. However, at the same time, the camera doesn't lie, and you do get a sense of an young artist filled with his portent (saving his manuscripts for posterity) while not wanting to appear pretentious (shunning the attentions of the social elite to hang out with students at a party). The movie gets somewhat meta when Cohen watches documentary footage of himself and comments that he didn't realize he came off that way to people. I thought this Cohen observation about women left something for thought:

I think most of the women that my friends love are very attractive, sexual people. That is something for which we be happy for and which we must bend on our knees all the time. Sexuality is general, and although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warm. That's the great generosity of women and the great generosity of the creator who worked it out that way. There are no unilateral agreements of sexuality.

Posted by timothompson at 01:38 PM