Watch the Heartbreaking Animated Video for Leonard Cohen’s ‘Leaving the Table’

Image Source: YouTube

On Monday night, the Polaris Prize was presented in a ceremony at the Carlu in Toronto. It honours a single album by a native Canadian musician recorded between the 1st of June 2016 and the 31st of May 2017. Think of it kind of like the Canadian Mercury Prize. This year, it went to Lido Pimienta for her debut album, La Papessa. It’s a well deserved win for the half Columbian, half Canadian electro-pop artist, especially considering she was up against competition like BadBadNotGood, Feist, Tanya Tagaq and, in particular, Leonard Cohen.

Were he still with us, Cohen would have probably approved of the award going to an emerging artist. He was honoured in his own special way, though, as a new animated video for one of his last songs was premiered. The track, Leaving the Table, is one of the strongest entries on his brilliant final release, You Want it Darker. Lyrically, it deals with the idea of leaving a world you don’t belong in anymore, but it could just as easily be referencing death. Cohen was 82 when he died, only a few months after the album released, and he’d been in very bad health for a long time previous. It’s fairly self-evident that he knew what was coming, and it comes through in the track, and many others on the album.

The video itself is a beautiful blend of traditional animation styles, and it incorporates photographs of the man himself. We see Cohen drifting through various modes of urban bustle, slung around like a puppet on a bungee chord. Every once in a while, his outline splits from his body like a liberated soul. It’s gorgeous, and powerful, especially in the final shot, which I won’t ruin, but seriously, brace yourself.

The video was made especially for the ceremony, and director Christopher Mills was drafted to make it. Mills has directed videos for a range of different bands, including Metric, Interpol, Modest Mouse, Tegan and Sara, Morning Parade and Breaking Benjamin. His approach of blending live action, 3D and 2D together has been present almost since the beginning of his career (check out his video for Interpol’s 2002 single, PDA). Using said style, Mills almost perfectly reflects the kind of melancholic, almost cavalier attitude to death that the song discusses. It’s not fearful, or even sad, necessarily, it’s just about moving on to the next thing.

It’s approaching a year since Cohen’s death now, and a large scale tribute is set to take place in Montreal to commemorate him. The line-up is, as you’d hope, stacked, with standout names including Philip Glass, Elvis Costello, Feist, Sting, Lana Del Rey, Damien Rice and Cohen’s own son, Adam, who helped him finish the final album. As if that wasn’t enticing enough, Game of Thrones and Lost directing veteran Jack Bender will be on hand to film the event and turn it into a TV special. The show is set to take place on November 6th.

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