“The story of a gambling man and a hustling lady and the empire they fashioned in the wilderness.”

Join us at the Rio Theatre on Monday, December 5 to celebrate the remarkable life and work of Canadian musician, poet, author, activist, icon and inspiration Leonard Cohen with a double bill honouring his incredible contributions. Documentary LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN features interviews with Cohen as well as commentary and music from those he influenced, and will be double-billed with Robert Altman‘s masterful 1971 “revisionist Western” McCABE & MRS MILLER (Warren Beatty, Julie Christie). Shot in and around West Vancouver, McCABE AND MRS MILLER features three songs from Leonard Cohen, perfectly underscoring its moody and atmospheric tone. “The film is unimaginable to me without the Cohen songs, which function as these mournful interstitials that unify the entire movie.” (Scott Tobias, Rolling Stone)

In a small American frontier village, a stranger named McCabe (Warren Beatty) builds a brothel with the help of experienced madame Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie, in her Oscar-nominated performance). The town soon prospers, and success brings the jealous — and potentially deadly — attentions of a wealthy mining company in this classic, idiosyncratic reworking of the Western genre. Also starring William Devane, Rene Auberjonois, and Shelley Duvall.

“Robert Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is McCabe & Mrs. Miller.” (Robert Ebert)

“One of the best of Altman’s early movies, using classic themes — the ill-fated love of gambler and whore, the gunman who dies by the gun, the contest between little man and big business — to produce a non-heroic Western.” (Time Out)

LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN (Lian Lunson, 2006 / 98 minutes / PG ) A documentary on the legendary singer-songwriter, with performances by those musicians he has influenced.

McCABE & MRS. MILLER (Robert Altman, 1971 / 120 mins / 18A) A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town, and their enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene.