Werner Herzog's 'Fata Morgana'

I found it boring — and I loved it.

Does that sound messed up?

I can't explain how the two conflated themselves into a wonderful viewing (on DVD) and listening experience and I wouldn't recommend this movie.

So I'm breaking my pretty much absolute rule for the past few years here of never saying anything bad about stuff but instead simply ignoring it.

Because one wonderful thing came from my contact with this film: about halfway through, Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" came on the soundtrack, as the camera panned across the endless lower Sahara Desert where the film was shot.

My only experience of this song is having heard Judy Collins's and James Taylor's renditions, back in the day.

The one used in the movie sounded nothing like those, rather, it was kind of scratchy and wry in tone, exuding a sense of wonderful hopelessness.

Who's singing that, I wondered?

A little research online was in order since the next morning when I looked for the DVD I couldn't find it, even after a really intense hunt.

Must've fallen into anesthesia hyperspace, even though I was at home.

Maybe I carry a bit of it with me wherever I go.

No matter, I woke up my crack research team and told 'em to get on it.

A few hours later they reported that the version on the movie soundtrack was Leonard Cohen's, from his album "The Essential Leonard Cohen."

Nice work, team.

I went to Amazon to order the CD ($14.99) and I noticed that along with letting you listen to a bit of the song free (right here) the site offers the songs as MP3 files for 99 cents, download instantly with 1-Click.

That sounded too easy but what the heck, I'm up for anything so I clicked on the little button and voila — in about two seconds the song started downloading and in about 15 more seconds there was the MP3 file on my desktop, where it sits now on endless replay.

Is technology great or what?

I can even send it to people as an email attachment.

Way cool.

Back in the day everyone loved Leonard Cohen but I don't believe I'd ever heard him sing anything until I watched Herzog's film.

I'd actually read about "Lessons of Darkness" and ordered it and only learned of "Fata Morgana" when I saw, on the front of the box (top), that it was included as a "Bonus DVD."

Lessons of Darkness, now that's something to conjure with.

Highly recommended.