An in-depth look at the relationship between the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen.... (Full plot summary below)
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An in-depth look at the relationship between the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen.
Leave your thoughts about Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love.
| Film ThreatHunter LanierTaking on the melancholy, rain-tapping-a-window tone of Leonard’s music, Broomfield doesn’t try to draw a line through the story artificially but embraces the natural disorder of real life. |
| The New York TimesGlenn KennyWhile Broomfield’s films often take a sardonic, close-to-cynical tone, “Marianne & Leonard” is admiring, affectionate and a little awe-struck. |
| TheWrapSteve PondAs befits its subjects, Marianne & Leonard is as much poetry as documentary — it’s a gentle, rhapsodic film, an emotional change of pace for its director and a moving portrait of a love that still resonates. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayDutifully covering the rise, fall and final triumph of Cohen’s career, Broomfield relegates Ihlen to the background of her own story, before bringing her back for the film’s touching final act and devastating epilogue. Achieving the kind of balance to which Cohen always aspired, Marianne & Leonard is heartbreaking and heartening in Zen-like equal measure. |
| San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonLeonard & Marianne suggests that these were two immensely intelligent and talented people who never found happiness. The total love each person sought over the decades may have been right there all along. Or at least, it was there, in decades past, on Hydra. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerFittingly, given that the film from Broomfield (who was also a former lover of Marianne’s) is nothing if not a love letter itself. So long, Marianne. So long, Leonard. |
| New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMy ideal Leonard Cohen documentary would contain another hour’s worth of concert footage and be screened outdoors on the island of Hydra. Otherwise, this is as full a filmed portrait of the man and his muse as you could ever hope to see. |
| Original-CinJim SlotekThough it kind of loses track of its marquee title character mid-movie, Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is a must-watch for Cohen fans, with copious concert and backstage footage. It is also a snapshot of a time, and of hedonistic artistic idealism. |
| CineVueTom DugginsIt’s a mesmerising watch for fans of Cohen’s music, a fitting portrait sewn artfully together, and given a greater intimacy by dint of the fact Broomfield himself spent time in Hydra in his twenties and befriended Marianne whilst there. The only glaring absence is the lack of commentary from Cohen himself on their relationship. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawMarianne Ihlen emerges as someone of enormous gentleness and dignity. |
