Leonard Cohen: Dance Me to the End of Love (1995) User Reviews

Marriage IS the end of Love

[forest-86932 · 7/10 · 22 December 2017]

My take away is that Tarantino views marriage as the end of love. The song is sad and it IS Leonard Cohen, so what would one expect? I mean, really.

Student film-type of of project: good for what it is

[athenacurrier · 8/10 · 30 January 2006]

My rating is what it is given that this is very much a student quality film. It's a beginner's short, and for that, I think it's good. The cinematography was interesting, though I wondered if there was a shortage of footage (some repetition seemed mainly just to fill out the length of the 6-minute song). I really did like the use of color, and a few editing choices. And of course I'm extremely biased given that Tarantino's in it. The various settings (cuts between the hotel room and the mirror scenes) felt a bit disjointed. But the choppy, home-video feeling to the cuts was good: it worked well for this setting. And unlike the previous reviewer, I did like the song. It was mellow, but there was definitely a humorous edge to it too, especially within the lyrics. The statue--again, it was a little overused--was still a nice--and fun--little symbol. And the silhouette shots of the kids with the kite at the beginning and end were fitting. Overall, a good short. I'd recommend checking it out, especially if you're a huge Tarantino buff (the kind bent on seeing everything this man has ever had anything at all to do with. cough.).

Music makes the movie

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 7 November 2015]

"Dance Me to the End of Love" is a pretty famous song by Leonard Cohen and this is also the one we hear from start to finish during this 6-minute short film. It was a recording from a concert they used here, so we also hear the audience applauding at the beginning and end. The star here (apart from Cohen) is neither writer and director Aaron A. Goffman nor actress Sylvia Binsfeld, it is of course Quentin Tarantino who plays the central male character. And he was already a big star when this was made 20 years ago as "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" had already happened. People are sometimes critical about his acting, but I thought he was okay in this little movie and it is occasionally an artistic watch. But still, it is all about the song we hear in terms of my liking as I am a huge Leonard Cohen fan and have seen him a couple times live. Highly recommend to my fellow Cohen lovers. The rest can watch it too, but does not have to.