The opening scenes of Tony Palmer’s documentary, Bird on a Wire, about Leonard Cohen’s five-week European tour in 1972 — which began in Dublin — show security manhandling concertgoers in Tel Aviv. Cohen coos softly, in his Quebecker drawl, into a microphone: “I know you’re trying to do your job, but you don’t have to do it with your fists.”

NOT every life warrants a film of seven hours and 46 minutes, but not every life was as dramatic as Richard Wagner’s. The British film director, Tony Palmer, cast Richard Burton in the title role of the epic biopic, Wagner, which was shot over seven months and released in 1983. It will be screened, with two breaks, as part of this year’s Cork Film Festival.