Music documentary "Marianne & Leonard - Words Of Love": you secretary, he pop star

Leonard Cohen sends verses from the beyond: "I'm almost at home, no-one to follow and nothing to teach." This buzzes the Canadian singer with the legendary voice of the grave in "The Goal", a song by "Thanks For The Dance", the posthumously released new album announced for the end of November: I'm almost at home, I do not have to follow anyone, teach nothing.

Shortly before his death on 7 November 2016 Cohen had promised his old love Marianne Ihlen something else. "I'm just a little way behind you, so close I could touch your hand," Cohen wrote. "See you at the end of the road."

The two died at a distance of only three and a half months, finally reunited in death. At least that's the touching story of Cohen's farewell mail, which Ihlen reached on her deathbed. The documentary "Marianne & Leonard - Words Of Love" cites this last love letter twice.

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Cohen had once passed by Ihlen audience appeal, 50 years earlier. She is the Marianne from "So Long, Marianne", one of Cohen's best-known songs, released in 1967 on his first album. They had met a few years earlier on the Greek island of Hydra, a dropout paradise for people who were not averse to the sun, sex and drugs and had romantic ideas of an artist's life behind the typewriter. He had fled from Montreal as an unsuccessful writer, she was from Norway, had a first marriage and was a single parent.

"Open marriage, what's that supposed to be?"

Nick Broomfield, the British director of "Marianne & Leonard", also met Ihlen on Hydra. It was 1968 and Broomfield was just 20. The two loved each other for a few weeks, and Ihlen encouraged him to become a filmmaker after returning to England. Just as she had previously encouraged Cohen to write songs. The relationship between Ihlen and Cohen turned into an on-off long-distance relationship at the time and eventually broke up. He became a world-famous singer-songwriter, struggling with the consequences of her alternative life-style. Years later, she settled in Oslo, remarried and, as the saying goes, led a normal life.

"It was not a love story like the box of chocolates," says Broomfield, talking about Ihlen and Cohen's relationship. He emphasizes that he himself was emotionally involved and saw Ihlen as a special friend. Broomfield also travels back to the origin of his own way of life.

"Marianne & Leonard - Words Of Love"
USA 2019
Written and directed by Nick Broomfield
With: Leonard Cohen, Marianne Ihlen, Judy Collins, Bright Goldman
Production: BBC, Kew Media Group
Rental: Piece of Magic Entertainment
Length: 119 minutes
Start: 7th November 2019

Nevertheless, "Marianne & Leonard" is phased out as seen from other people's photo albums. Back then, Broomfield did not shoot on Hydra itself, and for the time being mainly uses DA Pennebaker archival material. The documentary filmmaker who died in August 2019 had accompanied Ihlen and her son for a while with the camera. "More material was found in the attic of an artist from Norway," says Broomfield. "He had not developed the movie yet, it was a diligent job to get all the footage." These recordings are enriched from the off with Cohen's thoughts about the special magic between man and woman.

Broomfield's special trick is to make himself the protagonist of his documentaries. Musician portraits such as "Kurt & Courtney" and "Biggie & Tupac", as well as two films about the multiple murderer Aileen Wuornos, who accompanied Broomfield for more than ten years until her execution, were born. The approach also shone on filmmakers like Michael Moore and has long become a standard documentary.

Absurdly, Broomfield does not quite trust his strategy for this personal issue. Instead, he introduces a bunch of other informants. One for Cohen's drug stories, one for Cohen's women's stories, one for Cohen's erratic management decisions. A friend from the sixties explains that such a man - a poet and singer! - impossible in itself could have bound. But it is also she who no longer wants to believe in the hippie stuff of free love. "Open marriage, what's that supposed to be?" She asks, even though she lived one herself.

Easy to Cohen's feet

So "Marianne & Leonard" tells from a love story of what the alternative culture once wanted and what was left of it. "The sixties were like a search for a higher, spiritual kind of existence," says Broomfield. "Marianne and Leonard have been on their quest all their lives, and my film reflects this feeling: the romance, but also the destructive of this time."

The usual role allocation - he the brilliant artist, she the self-sacrificing muse - acts like a collateral damage. Ihlen herself tells how she just lay on Cohen's feet on the terrace to inspire him while he was writing. He, in turn, remembers that she made the food home and made sandwiches for him, even if he was not that hungry for speed. She became a secretary, he popstar.

Broomfield's film emphasizes this contrast without wanting to evaluate it. The director sees the problem less in the gender roles than in today's perception. "'Muse' is now an outlawed word that is symptomatic of our time," he says. "Marianne was very proud to be the person who encouraged Leonard to make his transformation from writer to singer, having the talent to recognize the strength in people, to encourage them to take risks, to do something out of the ordinary is a gift that is not adequately appreciated. "

In the video: The trailer for "Marianne & Leonard"

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Piece of Magic Entertainment

Leonard Cohen once praised her with the lines: "I'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web is my ankle to a stone." (For example: I am standing on a ledge, and your fine cobwebs tie my ankle to a stone). And then set off. "So Long, Marianne!"