Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
23 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
7/10
A sideways glance at the life of Marianne
conannz5 August 2019
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.
16 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
So long, Marianne (& Leonard)
paul-allaer27 July 2019
"Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love" (2019 release; 102 min.) is a documentary about the (in)famous relationship between singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. As the movie opens, we are "July 28, 2016" and the BBC informs us that Marianne has passed away. We then go to the "1970 Isle of Wright" festival, where Cohen asks the massive crowd "Marianne, are you there? Where are you, Marianne?" We then go to the early 60s in Hydra, Greece, where Marianne was living and Leonard, a struggling writer, has just arrived, and they meet by chance.... At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Nick Broomfield, best known for his "Kurt & Courtney" documentary in the late 90s. Here he delves into the long relationship between Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, who became Leonard's lover and muse. As a life-long fan of Leonard Cohen, I knew of Marianne vaguely (of course through the song "So Long, Marianne") and knew of their relationship but really nothing more than that. So this documentary was quite revealing in many ways. I was amazed at all of the archive footage that was unearthed from the 60s and 70s that paint such a vivid picture of that era (including footage from Broomfield himself and from D.A. Pennebaker, among others). We hear from Marianne (mostly through Norwegian interviews) and Leonard themselves extensively, but others comment as well (check out Judy Collins and, even better, the extensive comments from Ron Cornelius, Cohen's band mate who sounds remarkably like Bill Clinton). Please note: this is NOT a bio-documentary of Leonard Cohen. Hence, while there are some music and performance clips, they are clearly secondary only. The focus of the film is the long and complicated relationship/friendship between Marianne and Leonard. The last 10 min. of the film are a true emotional gut punch (as we know all along that these two passed away just months apart in 2016).

"Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love" opened out of the blue this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and I immediately just had to go see it. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was not attended well (exactly 5 people in total). I have no idea how an "average" viewer might watch this documentary, but as a life-long fan of Cohen, I thought this documentary was just lovely from start to finish. (I saw Cohen in concert only 1 time, at the 2009 Coachella music fest, and what an unforgettable set that was.) If you are a Leonard Cohen fan and always have been curious about that mysterious Marianne from "So Lone, Marianne", I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.
15 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
A love lettter
pennylane429 October 2019
Wonderfully made.Poetic and insightful .Gives you a good idea of what it was like to love Leonard Cohen and be loved by him.
7 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
As soulful a doc as Cohen's deeply moving and memorable work.
JohnDeSando27 July 2019
If you are familiar with Canadian Leonard Cohen's work, you'll recognize the deep voice singing lyrics of poetic joy and lamentations mostly about women in his life. Such is also the spirit of the informative and moving documentary Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love, both joyful like his megahit Halleluiah and woeful like his song of goodbye to his muse Marianne, a Norwegian beauty capable of inspiring transcendent music.

A woman in my theater row disclosed that the two concerts of Leonard she saw were a religious experience. Indeed, here was a poet and songster who exuded a prayerful love of life and inspirational muses like Marianne and Suzanne. That he spent six of his last years in a monastery is no surprise, nor that during that Buddhist time he lost his fortune to a "friend" who embezzled it all.

Love and loss fueled his '60's persona that with his poetic writing and dark good looks magnetized women to the extent that the endless supply of supplicants seemed to energize and inspire him rather than laying low ordinary men with the excess. This doc is about the beginning of his career with Judy Collins introducing him as a singer rather than just a composer who lived with Marianne on the idyllic Greek isle Hydra.

Although director and close Marianne friend Nick Broomfield stays out of the lovers' way, he loses some power in the multiple vignettes that sometimes feel isolated rather than fluid. Nor does the director allow more than just snippets from memorable songs such as Suzanne, Goodbye Marianne, Halleluiah, and Bird on a Wire, which are my favorites. In truth, this estimable doc is about Leonard's love life rather than his songs anyway.

I miss this unique troubadour, and you will too after hearing him again and living for a short while with his inspirations.
10 out of 13 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Doc Too Laid Back & Surfacy
larrys318 October 2019
Wish this documentary on the complicated life of Leonard Cohen and his lifelong relationship (in varying forms over the years) with Marianne Ihlen had delved a little deeper and wasn't so surfacy. I did get a sense of who Leonard Cohen was but not a sense of how he transferred his poetic genius from his mind into his music or poetry, and how exactly Ihlen inspired him for some of his most celebrated songs.

Overall, I did learn quite a lot about Cohen's life here, but felt the documentary was too laid back, even lackluster at times, and failed to bring the vividness of it all together cohesively.
6 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
I felt badly for the creative Marianne, labeled as "Muse," and for her son
Sasha_Lauren28 December 2019
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.
5 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Mostly good
proud_luddite30 September 2019
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
5 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
A special relationship
lordyrhodes16 July 2019
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.
20 out of 24 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Life in the Stoned Age
davidgee2 August 2019
Patched together from interviews and old home movies, this 100-minute documentary charts the 10-year romance between Leonard Cohen and the woman he called his 'Muse', Marianne Ihlen from Norway, whom he met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960.

There were other women - many of them, sometimes more than one a day. Free Love, fueled by drugs - acid, uppers, downers - was just an excuse for promiscuity, but promiscuity was mandatory in the 1960s. And not without casualties: suicides and deaths from overdoses. Marianne had a son by her first husband, Axel, whom we see as a happy child on the island. Like other children of that era, he ended in an institution.

Cohen has given us some great songs, and his dark gravelly voice is one of the iconic sounds of the last sixty years, but Nick Broomfield's unflinching documentary paints a portrait of an egotistical, self-destructive man who took up women and dropped them as casually as a Kleenex.

Three months before he died and knowing death was coming, he sent a love-letter to Marianne who was in her final days. So maybe, the man had a heart. His songs seem to say so, but his life rather less so.
7 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Emotional documentary of a musical legend and his muse
chrisjhugill27 July 2019
An incredibly moving documentary finishing with a film of Marianne's reaction on her death bed to Cohen's final message to her. It dragged a little in the mid section but that is far outweighed by the power of this emotional film.
12 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Trouble in paradise
dierregi11 June 2021
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?
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
I thought it might be a drag...
bob99828 July 2019
... but it turned out to be a very entertaining doc on a fascinating subject. The footage that Nick Broomfield selected was mostly new to me, so there wasn't the stale feeling you get when you watch something for the umpteenth time. The two best interviewees were Aviva Layton, who had some very funny and true things to say about living with a genius, and Ron Cornelius who was most interesting when talking about the concert tours in the 70's. He learned how to stay away from acid and Mandrax. I missed any words from Suzanne (tea and oranges) Verdal--although her name appears in the credits--and Jennifer Warnes, who can be seen briefly in concert footage.
4 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Wikipedia Page Documentary
damiengoerke14 December 2019
I'm a massive Leonard Cohen fan and this was so dull. It only needed to be about 10 minutes long. You could say it was "romantic" but really, if you're paying attention you'll realise it's a very sad and not particularly positive story. Not sure really sure why this documentary exists.
4 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Blah!
gmj-0001615 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
While some attribute the word "love" to the relationship, IMHO the documentary showed only a self-indulgent man and an obliging woman. While Cohen may have liked Marianne over many years, he liked other women and drugs just as much. She generally returned the favor. Viewers who are not hopeless romantics are likely to be bored by the telling of their story.
14 out of 38 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
I also have an Anecdotal Review
Having just seen the documentary Marianne & Leonard. I thought I might add my own anecdote vis a vis Leonard. I remember in 1980 - Leonard Cohen played the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne - an intimate venue and he was still dragging around that pseudo-minstrel looking guitar - an Ovation with its awkward rounded back and very easily dropped. Lo & behold in mid-poignant song he did just that. I yelled out "Get a Maton" an Australian brand of renown. Leonard never used an Ovation again - mostly flat backed Martins or possibly even Matons. Some might be asking what is his guitar got to do with the documentary - well his black Ovation is one of the items in the documentary - his psuedo-minstrel muse. So after having heard approximately 95% of Leonard's music and read possibly all his hard copy books from Flowers for Hitler and Beautiful Losers , to the Book of Longing - which will I am sure have to make a comeback. Well that's all folks and until next time -- maybe see you at La Belle Époque or even Miles Davis: The Birth of the Cool, or even in the Tower of Song: Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone I'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song. L.C. Which is a song from his real heyday period (though that is probably the most subjective thing you will read for many a year as Leonard's heyday was many periods). In retrospect this movie is a threading together of home movies, but very interesting home movies; but happy viewing, anyhows.
4 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
The Gods are granted forgiveness
paul2001sw-12 October 2019
In the 1960s, the Canadian writer (and later famous songwriter) Leonard Cohen hung out in a Bohemian community on the Greek island of Hydra. He formed a relationship with a woman, Marianne, who subsequently featured in some of his songs; in the way of the time, Marianne also had a brief fling with a young man called Nick Broomfield. Broomfield is now a celebrated maker of documentary films; and his latest, 'Marianne and Leonard', tells the story of the lifetime connection between his former lover and the artist she inspired, made after both of them recently died. What's interesting in the film is a tension that Broomfield seems to avoid addressing directly: that on one hand, Cohen comes across as a sensitive and profound thinker; on the other hand, also as a spoiled, pretentious individual who took whatever his talents enabled him to take without real regard for other people. A succession of acquaintances vouch for him, saying that you just couldn't expect Leonard to make the same commitments (and, where necessary, sacrifices) that you might of others. He may have maintained a lifelong friendship with Marianne (who eventually went home to Norway and adopted a suburban life), but only on his terms; for sure he liked her, but it's unclear that he ever actually did anything for her which in any way conflicted with his own interests, and it's strange to watch a film where everyone seems to pre-emptively forgive his behaviour. Broomfield's documentary is at its best when it tries to convey the wider milieu, of which Broomfield himself was part, than when it is genuflecting to St. Leonard and his muse, who by contrast appears to have been a genuinely lovely person, but perhaps not a particularly interesting one. Today, Broomfield says, Hydra is a millionaire's playground. But he paints an interesting picture of a time when it was something else.
2 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Charming, but a snore unless you're a big fan of Cohen
maclock30 July 2019
Are you stuck in the '60s? Were you at Woodstock? Are you a wanna-be hippie? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is not for you. I fell asleep for part of it. Not my scene, but it might be yours.
3 out of 23 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Mamma Mia Marianne
name99-92-54538910 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I'm not sure this idea for a third episode of Mamma Mia is exactly what the fans were waiting for... Using the music of Leonard Cohen rather than ABBA was a bold choice, but I think it works. Likewise the documentary format is an interesting way of telling the same story yet again, while not feeling like the same story.

But if you liked the first two, all your old favorites are here! Greek islands, that mythical time of "the sixties" when social conventions didn't exist, beautiful people (and their sidekicks) coupling ambiguously to a glorious soundtrack, the dream of eternal youth.

The second half veers, I have to admit, in a daring direction. We give up some of the 60s pretense of happiness and unicorns; and investigate the consequences of that lifestyle. Obviously the first Mamma Mia explored this lightly, with Sophie being a little unhappy at not knowing her father, but this time we go much deeper -- lives, minds, careers ruined, marriages destroyed, suicides and early deaths, a lot of broken and institutionalized children. Dark dark stuff, but it needed to be said to really ground the story in complete truth...

So what more could you hope for from yet another sequel?
1 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
I am a huge Leonard Cohen fan and I loved it for the most part
Horst_In_Translation30 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
"Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love" is an American mostly English-language documentary from 2019 and in the title you can already read that the focus here is mostly on Canadian singer Leonard Cohen. But first things first: The director is London-born Nick Broomfield and looking at his body of work and how it was appreciated here on imdb, it seems to me that well I do not want to say there is a circle of haters, but definitely a large group of people, who apparently are not too fond of his style and approach to filmmaking. i do not exactly know what their problem is. Or if I even second this idea because I just haven't seen enough from him. But I heard about the Whitney Houston documentary from not too long ago for sure. I think Broomfield has a tendency to be a part of his films more than other documentary filmmakers, sometimes only as narrator, sometimes even in front of the camera. Anyway, here we also hear him partially narrate and his voice has great recognition value and sticks out and you know it is him. Which may not be too perfect for the subject if it takes attention away there, but it is also not a bad voice by any means, so for me it wasn't a problem here, especially because we also have many other narrators. And this also includes audio recordings from the two in the title. Or just people who had a (close) connection to either Leonard or Marianne.

Now lets focus on the contents of the film. First, however, I want to say a few words about myself. I really adore Leonard Cohen's music and he is one of my top3 favorite musicians ever. Saw him live several times here in Berlin and I am so happy I got the chance to do so. So I was of course very curious about these approximately 100 minutes. And I would say they got better and better the longer they go. The first half/hour is okay, nothing too outstanding, but interesting nonetheless and easy to appreciate for a Cohen fan like myself. I also liked that I still learned many new things about him in here. For example I had no idea drugs (LSD) were such a common occurence for him that he permanently took them. Or also how much of a womanizer he was as we find out through the anecdote how the next woman was already waiting when one left his company. And a lot more than was new to me despite how much I know about him. For example the video where he is about to discontinue the concert because he wasn't feeling it and tells the audience I have seen on Youtube before too, but I did not know that he shaved his beard during the break he took before continuing. Now that was extraordinary. So much for Leonard right now. A few words on Marianne of course too. You hopefully know the song he recorded for her and if not, then you definitely should check it out. We find out a lot about the relationship between the two and how she impacted Cohen's life during his days on Hydra mostly. We hear about how she is joking that the song is not about her or we also hear how Hydra can be a really difficult place for many, which for example also includes her son who led a very troubling life altogether or this family of artists who all died quickly after leaving Hydra. Kinda shocking stuff. So the film is not only about the relationship between the two in the title, but all the rest we find out also has directly to do with them really.

So yeah at the end it is just super touching and personal for me and my eyes got wet pretty quickly when I heard him say at the microphone in London that he has not been there for a while. Or also when we find out how Marianne got tickets in the front row for Leonard's concert in Oslo. Or of course everything really about the letter. I will definitely not go into detail here because I really don't want to spoiler anything, but I found it incredibly moving and I also like how they lead us there by mentioning said letter at the very beginning of the documentary, so eventually the circle closes here. It is very tough for me to find anything I did not like about the film as I think it was competently executed from beginning to end and is really informative and also delivers in terms of heart how I explained earlier. I have to dig deep. Maybe one thing is how Suzanne is included, which I found a bit disrespectful the way they describe her, but maybe that is just me. I mean Leonard still has love for his agent who cost him millions of dollars, so I am sure he would not be too happy about the depreciatory way how we find out about Suzanne. Or actually find out almost nothing about her. This could have been handled better. Or just exclude her completely, but in the end, she is vaguely in the same spot like Marianne Ihlen, namely a woman who had a big enough impact on Cohen's life to write a song about her. Anyway, back to the agent I just mentioned. Even with what she did, I guess Leonard Cohen fans can be happy she lost him all that money because otherwise he never would have gone on tour again and it seemed as if he really liked it. I know he made me happy and otherwise I never would have seen him live, which would have been super sad for me. Oh yeah, another aspect: The monastery life for Cohen is also something I was not aware of. Or how really Leonard died only months after Marianne. May they rest in peace both of them and their legacy will be with me forever. Thank you for the music. A top movie for me, so I give it a perfect rating, but also for non-Cohen fans it is a good watch I think. Maybe the great use of music that still gets me goosebumps will turn them into fans, so maybe from a really neutral perspective 4 stars out of 5 is accurate. In any case, a huge recommendation from me here. Thanks for making this movie Mr. Broomfield and getting Mr. Cohen back into all our lives. His art makes me happy.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
More focused but less insightful than "Hallelujah."
steiner-sam26 July 2022
This documentary focuses on the relationship between Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, the Danish woman who was the inspiration for "So Long, Marianne" and "Bird on the Wire."

The film concentrates initially on their time together on Hydra, a Saronic Greek island located in the Aegean Sea that in the 1950s and 1960s attracted many writers and artists. Marianne was on the island because of her first husband, Axel Jensen, a writer. Their marriage was failing when Cohen came to the island to write in 1960. Their on-again, off-again relationship continued until the early 1970s.

The interviews especially feature Ron Cornelius, a musician who often worked with Cohen, Helle Goldman, a long-time friend of Marianne, John Lissauer who produced a number of Cohen's albums, and Richard Vick, a friend of Nick Broomfield's.

This documentary is more focused but less insightful than "Hallelujah." "Marianne & Leonard," says very little about Leonard Cohen's spiritual journey, focusing more on his relationships with women and drug use, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. It is more focused by using less rapid cuts and more extended interview clips. In my view, Leonard Cohen is a less attractive person in this documentary, though this is partly because Nick Broomfield had special sympathy and his own separate relationship with Marianne Ihlen. "Marianne & Leonard" gets a higher rating because of its greater coherence.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Creeps up on you and makes you weep
Katz57 February 2021
I was not prepared for the emotional wallop this documentary packs. It is the story of Leonard Cohen, who began his career as an author based on the picturesque Greek isle of Hydra, who meets his lifelong muse in the form of Norwegian Marianne Ihlen. She remains his muse through most of his life, even as the two drift apart, physically and otherwise. A lot of attention is given to Marianne's son Axel, who developed a mental illness as he got older. There are times when Cohen comes off as an egomaniac, uninterested in the pain he's caused Marianne and her son. But the finale of the film will unleash the tear ducts. It's best to not reveal it in the review, but it involves the eventual fates of both Marianne and Leonard. A wonderful documentary even if your not familiar with the music of Leonard Cohen.
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Slow and Boring
BelieveThis27 July 2019
I'm interested in the Sixties and Greek Islands, but I walked out of this movie. I'm aware of Leonard Cohen as the writer of "Hallelulah" and other songs. I wanted to like this movie, but it was just too boring. Several other people walked out too.

Watching it was like listening to people in real life who were kind of important in the sixties talk about it for two hours and show you photographs.

Ultimately, Cohen appears to be a commitment phobe who left a black hole where he should have been. Marianne must have had a few issues too. Some songs and astonishing letters came out of it, but they were probably better suited to a magazine article than a two hour twenty minute movie.

I didn't really feel that the golden light of that era showed through in this telling. The footage of the Greek island that I saw was faded and so so. The principals were wildly attractive to each other, but it's hard for us to see what they saw from these photos and film clips.
6 out of 28 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
One dimensional story telling
qeter26 October 2019
Seen at the Viennale 2019: Luckily, Cohen had such a strong personality. Even a mixed combination of pictures, film snippets and interviews is not too boring. The lengthy documentary tells a novice Cohen fan enough interesting stuff that overall a plus remains by watching this right straight forward told life of Cohen, with the excuse main theme of his eight year relationship with Marianne. At the end you know some new facts about Cohen. But it remains in the fog, what Marianne wanted from life, apart from wanting him as her partner for a conservative relationship that he was never ever to deliver.
2 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed