Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

Marianne Ihlen was a Norwegian woman living in the Greek Island of Hydra in the 1960s. There, she met Canadian poet Leonard Cohen and became his lover and muse. This documentary covers their early years together, Cohen's rise to fame, and how their lives and relationship evolved over the years that followed.

This film is rich in material and covers many fascinating topics including Cohen's career. It's fascinating to learn of his life and work before becoming a legendary singer/songwriter. And events surrounding his first stage appearance are very surprising considering the great career that followed. In addition, the film is often blunt about Cohen's struggles with depression.

"Marianne & Leonard" is beautifully expressed in the first half with a very poetic flow. It is blessed with amazing footage especially of Hydra in the early 60s. The film also joins many recent films in its depiction of the hedonism of the 60s and 70s ("Echo in the Canyon", "Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind", "Rocketman", "Bohemian Rhapsody"). At first, the drug scene and open marriage are exposed for their fun indulgence but the serious and devastating consequences are made very clear in the second half.

Some editing might have improved in the film's second half which occasionally meanders. Also, while it genuinely expresses the consequences of the earlier indulgences (especially for how children were affected), there are insertions of inappropriate drunkalogues ("Man, we were SO stoned that night, ya just wouldn't BELIEVE it").

While much of the second half negates the beauty of the earlier half, it is saved by an emotional conclusion that is so deeply moving, it could make a stone weep - a perfect conclusion for film that is sometimes mixed but overall quite good. - dbamateurcritic

This is about a very special relationship over many years, and will certainly appeal to aficionados of Leonard Cohen. The story is well told and you will probably shed a tear at the end. If you enjoy the music and verse of Leonard Cohen then this is a film for you.

A lightweight, breezy documentary about one of the many relationships Leonard Cohen had with several beautiful women. As correctly described in the documentary, Cohen was not an easy person and wasn't after a "normal life" of getting married and spending life with the same woman.

The titular Marianne was a complex personality in her own right, already married with a child when she met Cohen and lived with him on an off for several years in what was an open relationship on both sides.

Some complained about Marianne not having been fleshed out because Cohen was a famous poet and songwriter, hence more important. From my point of view, whatever artistic aspirations Marianne might have had, it never developed into any worthy works. Not because anybody prevented her from "creating", but because of her own free will she went back to Norway at the end of the story and worked in an office for the rest of her life.

It's certainly not up to the audience to judge what sort of relationship Marianne and Leonard should have had. For sure, it was something that lasted until the end of their lives (very moving message sent by Cohen to the dying Marianne) and who's to say that it wasn't perhaps the most perfect relationship ever?

In some ways this film can be seen as an extended victim impact report. It is about Marianne who clearly contributed much to Cohens life on more than one level.

It also leaves a great deal unsaid and hazy. The assumption is that the cultural moments of the day ( and the copious drugs) have blurred the stories in many many ways. Despite all of that it somehow brings the back story of Marianne and Leonard into focus in a very sweet way towards the end of the film.

A number of the interviewees are just plain great. Watch out forAviva Layton who seems to be uncredited but she deserves better.

In many ways this film could have been much better if we had got past the headlines. Archival footage is used but the viewpoint most of the time is very much the male point of view.

This much thoughtless behaviour seems highly paradoxical. The myth of the unreachable poet seems to have attracted considerable numbers of women to the Cohen fan club. They felt like they were being understood. But seems to me; if that were really true - the story would have turned out quite differently.

What lifts this film is the redemption towards the end when we see the famous letter from Leonard to Marianne. In his dying moments Leonard recognised the value of his connection with Marianne. Coverage of the 5 or 6 years in a Buddhist monastery definitely hints at a rebalancing of Cohens' personal life and perspectives.

All in all this is a rather gentle sideways look at a significant relationship but understandably it is overbalanced by the the celebrity aspects of the story.

Marianne herself is present in the story but mostly in a back handed compliment kind of way.

I love Leonard Cohen, cherish his music, and enjoy watching films about him - four so far this year. I had high expectations for the Nick Broomfield documentary about Leonard and the love of his life, Marianne Ihlen, a beautiful woman from Norway he met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960, which was at the time a creative, counterculture hub.

Leonard and Marianne spent almost a decade together on Hydra where Leonard wrote poetry, books, and songs and eventually left to pursue his career as a musician in the world beyond the isolation of the island. Leonard asked Marianne to join him in his life in Toronto, where things were never the same between them, and Leonard's appetite for women moved him out of Marianne's orbit, and she suffered for it, though their love remained.

I have mixed feelings about the film. Marianne was the inspiration behind "So Long, Marianne," "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," "Bird on the Wire," and "Moving On" from Thanks for the Dance, Cohen's posthumous 2019 album. I guess I hoped this movie might offer more insight into Marianne herself - who by all accounts was a kind and nurturing person, creative in her own right who sang, had aspired to be an actress, and was a painter later in her life; rather, it put Marianne into the uncomfortable, limiting box of "MUSE" for Leonard and others.

It seems her son Axel didn't fare well in this unstructured, free love environment, and Marianne was also affected as her love Leonard flew away to Toronto, New York, and the world stage. It's not a bad film, it just left me feeling sad for Marianne and Axel, whose life stories feel incomplete, and whose potential felt sadly squandered.

At the end of the film a documentary maker read a good-bye letter from Leonard to Marianne in hospital before she died of leukemia. It said, "Well Marianne, it's come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine. And you know that I've always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don't need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road. Love and gratitude, Leonard."

My first young love was a musician and artist who I love to this day with all of my being, though circumstance drew us apart at the height of our romance. We are still connected, but we leave the past in a glass case on a high shelf so as to not to disturb those portraits of perfection we drew together. A letter from him in my last days would be a most cherished moment to sum up this depth of love from my tenure on this earth. Marianne radiated and glowed as Leonard's letter was read to her. It is a tremendously moving moment, and was worth the whole film to me.