Spanning a lifetime of love, documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield revisits the story of musician Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen. From the days of free love on a Greek island to the peak of Cohen’s career, the pair’s relationship is revisited by those closest to it.
Star-crossed lovers are often born in storybooks and on stages – but the romance between Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen began on the idyllic Greek haven of Hydra. This is where filmmaker Nick Broomfield also meets Marianne and, briefly, becomes her lover, as his Louis Theroux-esque narration makes him a secondary character in the film as well.
Words Of Love claims to honour a love story between a man and a woman, one that transcends creative differences and the weariness of time. But through scattershot interviews with friends and collaborators, it feels more like a half-hearted biopic about Cohen throughout his tumultuous career – with a bit of intimate gossip intercut here and there.
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The film fails to radiate its own passion when it merely stitches disconnected emotions together.
Marianne does speak her mind, and does so beautifully – but the scrappy aesthetic reduces her to a disconnected voice, while other interviewees shuffle in their seats and stare at Broomfield as the camera patiently frames them talking about her life freely.
Love is loud, in the music as much as the words people have to say about it, but the balance is off. As Broomfield tracks the evolution of an intimate relationship, he also chronicles the rise of a star – and the latter eventually just eclipses the former.
Disjointed storytelling relies too much on history, as the film fails to radiate its own passion when it merely stitches disconnected emotions together in the hope that something will stick. Marianne and Leonard may have lived a deep romance, but the audience seldom has the privilege to really understand it.
