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the filmmakers. Cohen is in fact a collaborator in this artificial process to the extent that the film ends with a sort of postscript, where Cohen has been invited to watch the film in a screening room alongside Don Owen. Cohen remarks on the fraud of the camera crew showing him pretend to sleep. Cohen then discusses how strange it is that he let them film him in the bathtub. In the footage they watch, a naked Cohen writes "CAVEAT EMPTOR," Latin for "buyer beware" on the wall next to the bathtub. Cohen says "I had to act as a double agent... let the know that this is not entirely devoid of the con." Earlier, following his TV appearance with Pierre Burton, Owen asks Cohen what Burton wanted from him and Cohen replied "He wanted me to cut my con out... What's the true story? Is wrestling really fixed?"
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The central themes of the documentary include fame, authorship, image, irony and artifice. Cohen himself comments multiple times on the artificial nature of documentary filmmaking and storytelling. Throughout the film Cohen is aware that he is on camera, and actively shaping his own image, along with
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Cohen is in on the con as a collaborator and co-conspirator. To this end, Cohen is allowed to manufacture irony, along with the directors throughout the film, including as he watches himself fumble with horizontal blinds in his hotel room and comments ironically, "I was always good with my hands."
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The documentary captures Cohen's career as a noted poet and novelist before he launched his career as a singer-songwriter in 1967. The original idea for the film had involved documenting a tour of
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1209:Blue Alert
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668:Live Songs
608:The Future
445:2 February
390:2009-08-31
366:References
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289:Hydra 1963
269:The Genius
152:is a 1965
125:44 minutes
82:Production
64:Paul Leach
43:Written by
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629:Old Ideas
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244:Disguises
204:and host
73:Edited by
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188:Contents
162:Don Owen
138:Language
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953:Suzanne
483:YouTube
473:website
469:on the
141:English
130:Country
107: (
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1204:Anjani
535:Awards
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305:Themes
133:Canada
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840:Songs
319:, by
447:2023
415:ISBN
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471:NFB
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