Fame on social networks is today a sign of success, but what remains of such popularity when virtual signs of recognition are no longer enough to give meaning to a life? This is the starting point of this short film by Kristina Wagenbauer, presented as a world premiere at the Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) in Montreal, in the national competition, which explores the existential crisis of a young musician, who became famous on TikTok. Behind the public image and digital validation lies a compelling quest: to find something true, far from view counters. To meet this need for authenticity, the character turns to a major literary and artistic figure in Canada: Leonard Cohen. The idea of highlighting the legacy of this Montreal polymath came to her while she was contemplating the metropolis from the viewpoint of Mount Royal, confided the filmmaker during the exchange with the public which followed the screening. His gaze then stopped on the monumental mural dedicated to the artist, which adorns the facade of the building at 1420, rue Crescent, in the Ville-Marie borough. Montreal then becomes much more than a setting, the city is transformed into a territory of research, a space where the traces left by the poet and musician allow us to reflect, create meaning and reconnect with the real things in life!
The filmmaker leads this exploration by returning to places of memory to make the past present and convey the spirit of Leonard Cohen through the evocation of his works. His childhood home in Westmount, the places he frequented in Plateau-Mont-Royal, the landscapes of the Old Port which inspired his famous song “Suzanne” and his monumental portrait on a downtown building make up the stages of this journey in search of meaning. This duty of remembrance is enriched by archive images taken from the documentary film Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen (1965), produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). These images are interspersed between the sequences of the story to make Leonard Cohen’s mind soar.
The choice of filming in 16 mm gives this fiction a particular identity. This film format, through its imperfect materiality and its warm touch, resonates with traces of the past, memory, and quite simply, things in their raw state. Faced with the immediacy of digital content, it invites us to slow down our gaze and give more space to authenticity.
Brought to the screen by Emilie Bierre and Jackson Kelly, Leo on the Wire offers, through Leonard Cohen’s Montreal, a reflection on the quest for oneself and viral celebrity generated by an algorithm. The meeting between a personality shaped by social networks and an artist whose work is built in poetry, writing and music is less about opposing two eras than it is about putting two ways of existing publicly into tension.
Sofiane Idir
