Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire | Telescope Film
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire

Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire

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  • United Kingdom
  • 2010
  • · 106m

Director Tony Palmer
Cast Leonard Cohen, Ron Cornelius, Bob Johnston, Udo Jürgens, Doris Kunstmann, Peter Marshal
Genre Music, Documentary

"Bird on a Wire" follows Leonard Cohen on his 1972 European tour.

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What are critics saying?

90

Village Voice by April Wolfe

Nowhere has Cohen's inner turmoil been better illuminated than in Tony Palmer's lost-and-found 1974 documentary Bird on a Wire.

80

The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

The movie is a worthy time capsule and a must for Cohen devotees. Its occasional meanderings into artiness, which take the form of interpolation of outside footage (war atrocities and home movies, mainly) are emblematic of the time it was made and mercifully brief.

75

RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams

"Bird on a Wire" is a time capsule of a specific period in Cohen's career. But it also neatly illustrates the singer's personality in an accessible and compelling way. It's that rare concert doc that isn't for established fans only.

75

Slant Magazine by Carson Lund

Cohen here is ever the model of grace and dignity around his peers, if not exactly entirely at peace with himself.