SELECTIVE RETROSPECTIVE 
"I was asked to make this film in 1971 by Marty Machat, Cohen’s long-time manager right up until his death in 1988. It was essentially his initiative, at least in part because he feared Leonard might never tour again after his proposed European tour in 1972, plus there was the distinct possibility (said Machat) that his record company were not going to renew his contract for the simple reason that in the States at least his records did not sell.
Mercifully this did not turn out to be the case, but given that at the time Cohen had frequently asserted:
a) he did not enjoy touring, saying it exhausted him for no good purpose;
b) he hated having to repeat the same old songs night after night, claiming he was rendering them meaningless by endless repetition;
and c) he believed he was a poor performer on stage, crippled by an ‘indifferent voice’.
He was however resigned to a film being made about this ‘last tour’, because maybe he hoped this might just bring him to a wider audience. I say ‘resigned’ because he was less than enthusiastic when I said a condition of my becoming involved was that I would require total access to whatever I thought was necessary for a stimulating, and I hoped positive, film. Very reluctantly he agreed, and Machat said he would pay for the film himself so that Leonard would not be burdened with the expense.
With a budget of around £35,000, and a crew of only four, the filming schedule went ahead as planned in the Spring of 1972 and, as I am my own editor, the rough-cut of the film was delivered about a month after the tour finished. The BBC asked to see the rough-cut and bought the film on the spot. Machat would have recouped three-quarters of his investment in one go. Alas, Cohen told me he thought the film was “too confrontational”, and worried that he often appeared “exhausted, even wasted”. While the latter is undoubtedly true, about the former I believed he was wrong.
However, my regard for him as a poet, a performer and as a man had grown hugely during the film, so I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Machat asked me to make available all the raw material (the ‘rushes’ or ‘dailies’), and “they would see what they could do”. Eighteen months later, and hundreds of thousands of dollars later (now of Cohen’s money), a second version of the film was ready. I was told it was shown to the BBC, who turned it down flat saying “it was a mess”. I was also told by Machat that he had refused to pay for the re-editing, thinking that this was now Cohen’s responsibility. Version 2 had a brief theatrical outing and was shown for one night only at the Rainbow Theatre in north London, July 5th, 1974, almost two years after I had delivered the original version. As is well known, after that, the film then apparently disappeared.
Then, in 2009, almost 40 years later, 294 rolls of film were discovered in a warehouse in Hollywood, many in rusted up cans that sometimes had to be hammered open and returned to me. The cans did not contain the original negative (still lost), however; some of the prints were in black & white; and much of it had been cut to pieces and/or scratched beyond use. I believed at first that nothing could be salvaged. But when I opened one particular box and found most of my original sound dubbing tracks, I knew we had a hope of putting the jigsaw back together.
So, taking full advantage of the latest digital technology, this is what we did, piece by piece, slowly and painstakingly, putting together almost 3,000 fragments. It took months and months and probably cost more than the original filming. Although it’s by no means perfect, it’s very close now to the original.
So maybe what is valuable about the film today is not only that it contains 17 of Cohen’s greatest songs performed by him in his prime (and it’s nonsense – of him – to say he has no voice), but it has a real feel for the rough and tumble and difficulties of life on the road. I know of few other films where the backstage confusion comes so vividly to life, with Cohen apparently taking no notice whatsoever of the camera. Today we would not be allowed such access."
- Tony Palmer
Tickets £8
17th May Day Pass (6 Films): £25 Only - applied automatically when you book all 6 films.
