The letter Leonard Cohen wrote to Marianne Ihlen as she lay on her deathbed — only months before his own death — has become a legend for Cohen fans. In Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, playing this Thursday, Oct. 3 at BUFS, we get a glimpse of the woman behind the letter and behind some of Cohen’s best-loved songs.
In 1960, Cohen, still only a poet, uses prize money to travel to the Greek island of Hydra. There, he meets Ihlen and her young son. The love affair unfolds in a sun-drenched paradise, but when Cohen stumbles into singing and stardom, the relationship falls apart.
Documentary film director Nick Broomfield, known both for his music documentaries (Whitney: Can I Be Me?, Biggie & Tupac, Kurt and Courtney) and for inserting himself into the stories he tells, has an easy in as he was personally encouraged by Ihlen to make his first film after a brief romance with her in 1968.
“Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love charts the friendship, love affairs and off-on relationship between these two, which resulted in broken hearts, cold shoulders and several unbelievably beautiful songs,” said David Fear of Rolling Stone. “What makes this film unmissable, however, is the fact that we get Marianne’s story more or less in full as well. It’s a fleshing out of someone who was more than just a muse…”
An official selection of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary is a must-see for any devotee of music films, as it features unseen footage of the Greek island’s 1960s heyday from D. A. Pennebaker.
Tickets for all BUFS shows are available at the Film House in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) on the evening of screenings. General admission is $9.50 or $7 for members, plus tax. Memberships are available through the Film House website.
Visit the BUFS web page for a full list of this season’s selections. A calendar of films coming to the PAC over the next few months is posted on the Film House website. Look for the red B that indicates a BUFS-hosted screening.
For more than 40 years, the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film has hosted the film society (previously known as a series) to bring some of the best in independent, international and Canadian cinema to the Niagara region.
