Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Leonard Cohen was widely considered to be the greatest living poet.
He was a cult icon to famous musicians and adoring fans worldwide.
But by 1980’s MTV had transformed the music industry as pop stars like Madonna and Prince introduced a colorful new era of synthesizers and scale.
Against this backdrop a middle-aged folk hero at the rock bottom of his commercial career attempted re-invention with the help of an ambitious young producer.
Together they would create the most successful failure in music history.
BEAUTIFUL LOSER is a compressed biopic about the creation of a single pivotal song in the career of a music legend.
Told over the course of just two months, the intimate story follows the faded folk singer while first recording his now-iconic track “Hallelujah” — But our film will step outside the perspective of its supposed subject and be seen through the eyes of Leonard’s young producer, John Lissauer, the man whose life the infamous song would ultimately destroy.
Anchored by the complicated friendship between these two men, our movie follows a collaboration strained by past betrayal, demanding record producers, addictions, and ambitions as John is pulled back into the orbit of his idol and sacrifices everything in pursuit of an illusive dream.
Tragically, the resulting album would be so despised by executives that Columbia initially refused to even release it, cut John Lissauer out of all future royalties, and blacklisted him from the major labels forever. Facts made all the more poignant by the arc of history when years later Hallelujah would become one of the most recognizable and beloved songs ever recorded – featured across a multitude of iconic films and covered by over 300 artists including Bob Dylan, John Cale, Paul McCartney, and of course Jeff Buckley.
A folk hero fighting for relevance.
A young producer searching for purpose.
And the struggle to be something greater than ourselves.
This is the story of Hallelujah.