The love life of an artist is always a bit troubled. By their very nature, successful artists, no matter the medium, don’t make for the best partners. And in the case of Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, that is most definitely the case. In the new documentary, which recently premiered at Sundance, “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love,” we learn how a love affair between a poet/songwriter and his muse can be a beautiful, but tragic, thing.
In the trailer for the documentary, we meet a young Leonard Cohen, struggling as a writer on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. However, things change when he meets the young single mother Marianne Ihlen. From there, the two were intertwined for most of the ’60s, as Cohen became a world-renowned singer/songwriter/poet. However, as with most rock star lives, Cohen’s love affair with his muse eventually came to an end, and it wasn’t until later in life that the real connection between the two partners was truly recognized.
The new doc is directed by Nick Broomfield, who is an award-winning British documentary filmmaker. His recent film, “Whitney: Can I Be Me” premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. He’s also the man behind other music docs like “Biggie & Tupac” and “Kurt & Courtney.”
“Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love” will hit theaters on July 5.
Here’s the synopsis:
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is renowned filmmaker Nick Broomfield’s most personal and romantic film of his storied career. The documentary starts on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960, where Leonard Cohen, then a struggling and unknown fiction writer, and Marianne Ihlen, a single mother with a young son, became part of community of expat artists, writers and musicians. Never-before-seen footage shot by Broomfield and legendary documentarian D.A. Pennebaker make for a unique portrait of an idyllic 1960’s bohemia. It was a time that left a lasting imprint on both Marianne and Leonard, whose friendship would last another fifty years before their deaths in 2016.
