Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

2019
R
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

2.3K

YOUR RATING

Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen in Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019)

Play trailer2:38

7 Videos

12 Photos

Biography Documentary Music Romance

An in-depth look at the relationship between the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen.An in-depth look at the relationship between the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen.An in-depth look at the relationship between the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen.

Director
- Nick Broomfield
Writers
- Nick Broomfield
- Marc Hoeferlin
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

2.3K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Nick Broomfield
Writers
- Nick Broomfield
- Marc Hoeferlin
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 4 nominations total

Self
(archive footage)

Marianne Ihlen

Self
(archive footage)

Axel Joachim Jensen

Self
(archive footage)

Nancy Bacal

Self - Childhood Friend
(voice)

Jan Christian Mollestad

Self - Friend of Marianne

Jeffrey Brown

Self - Axel's Childhood Friend
(voice)

Helle Goldman

Self - Marianne's Friend and Biographer

Rick Vick

Self - Writer and Poet
(as Richard Vick)

Irving Layton

Self
(archive footage)

Aviva Layton

Self - 'Married' to Irving Layton for 20 Years

Masha Cohen

Self
(archive footage)

Judy Collins

Self

Julie Felix

Self

John Simon

Self - Produced 'Songs of Leonard Cohen'

Ron Cornelius

Self - Guitarist

Billy Donovan

Self - Road Manager

George Johnston

Self
(archive footage)

Director
- Nick Broomfield
Writers
- Nick Broomfield
- Marc Hoeferlin
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
A lot of the footage of the couple was shot by D.A. Pennebaker who had also stayed on the island of Hydra.

Quotes
Self - 'Married' to Irving Layton for 20 Years: Poets do not make great husbands. Do they? Do you know a poet whose ever made an absolutely splendid husband? Or, a filmmaker? Or, an artist? No. You can't own them. You can't even own a bit of them. They're just allusive creatures - who are married to their muse. That sounds so pretentious to say that, but it's true. But, the irony is a man like that - is a man that every woman wants to have - and can't have.

Connections
Edited from Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen (1965)

Soundtracks
Passing Through
Written by Richard Blakeslee
Published by Princess Music Publishing Corp.

User reviews23

Review

Featured review

7/10

Life in the Stoned Age

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.