Marianne & Leonard: Words Of Love

Through vintage footage and interviews, "Leonard & Marianne: Words of Love" takes us back to the 1960s, to the rural village of Hydra, Greece, to an apartment reliant on candles half of the month and boasting no modern conveniences. It was the perfect place for a young artist trying to find his voice, and it was the perfect circumstance to fall into the love of a lifetime.

This documentary, directed by Nick Bloomfield, attempts to discover Leonard Cohen, the writer, musician, and poet, through one of his foundational romances. Cohen's relationship with Marianne Ihlen spanned 50 years. They were both free spirits in a time of free love, open relationships, and the stigmatization of commitment of any kind. They loved their booze, their drugs, their cigarettes, and their sex. But none of these seemed to pull them out of chronic depression and ennui. After nearly a decade they separated and left the Saronic Island where they created their bohemian life. Cohen went on to become a legendary folk singer, Marianne married another man and settled down, but nothing ever drove them completely apart.

Once the narrative of this film ventures outside of Hydra it focuses on the career of Cohen, his experiments with drugs, his quests for religious fulfillment and his sex addiction. He was a handsome man, thoughtful, sensitive and emotionally connected. His lyrics were so raw and his poetry so vulnerable that women flocked to him. He was also a raging narcissist. But no one ever seemed to mind this. It was almost expected.

The poetry of this film, and there is a lot of it, comes as much from the borrowed footage shot by the great documentarian D.A. Pennebaker as it does from Cohen's lyrics.

The movie ends where it began with Marianne and Leonard. What was their relationship really? An ill-fated love, a selfish tryst of youth, or a connection fueled by the media and hinging on a song Cohen once wrote?

"Well, maybe there's a God above," Cohen says in one of his lyrics, "But all I've ever learned from love / Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you." Whatever the relationship was, in this film it was lyrical.

This DVD includes the trailer and a photo gallery.

"Leonard & Marianne: Words of Love"
DVD
$19.98
www.leonardcohen.com/