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.
