Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019) User Reviews

A sideways glance at the life of Marianne

[conannz · 7/10 · 5 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.

So long, Marianne (& Leonard)

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 27 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.

A love lettter

[pennylane4 · 8/10 · 29 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.

As soulful a doc as Cohen's deeply moving and memorable work.

[JohnDeSando · 27 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.

Doc Too Laid Back & Surfacy

[larrys3 · 6/10 · 18 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.

Mostly good

[proud_luddite · 7/10 · 30 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

I felt badly for the creative Marianne, labeled as "Muse," and for her son

[Sasha_Lauren · 6/10 · 28 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.

A special relationship

[lordyrhodes · 9/10 · 16 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.

Life in the Stoned Age

[davidgee · 7/10 · 2 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.

Emotional documentary of a musical legend and his muse

[chrisjhugill · 9/10 · 27 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.

Trouble in paradise

[dierregi · 7/10 · 11 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?

I thought it might be a drag...

[bob998 · 8/10 · 28 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.

Wikipedia Page Documentary

[damiengoerke · 6/10 · 14 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.

I also have an Anecdotal Review

[Trey_BigTime_Film_Critic · 7/10 · 31 July 2019]

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.

The Gods are granted forgiveness

[paul2001sw-1 · 7/10 · 2 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.

Charming, but a snore unless you're a big fan of Cohen

[maclock · 30 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.

More focused but less insightful than "Hallelujah."

[steiner-sam · 7/10 · 26 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.

Creeps up on you and makes you weep

[Katz5 · 8/10 · 7 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.

Slow and Boring

[BelieveThis · 4/10 · 27 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.

One dimensional story telling

[qeter · 4/10 · 26 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.