The past couple of weeks have proved so frightening a turn of events that it can be easy to forget what would’ve otherwise been a momentous occasion: following a career in music, literature, and poetry that distinguished itself continually over half a century — up to the release of his final album, You Want it Darker, last month — Leonard Cohen died at 82. His is an oeuvre that will be considered and examined for decades to come, and one of the first post-death tributes has me optimistic that we’re in for many discoveries.
For their latest project, Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin have paired Cohen’s 1979 song “The Guests” with Stanley Kubrick‘s Eyes Wide Shut, using juxtaposition to find those points between lyrics and images where there exists a “mythic, almost cosmic aura.” A tangible atmosphere thus arises; if nothing else, you can imagine the song appearing on the film’s soundtrack at some point or another. While I wouldn’t say this, alone, has me convinced one takes right from the other, these commonalities — “doors, corridors, guests, gardens, an orgiastic feast, weeping” — nevertheless prove persuasive in stressing how artworks, however unconnected, find ways to co-exist.
Watch the piece and hear Cohen’s original song below: