Marianne, a soulful, generous, disarmingly honest woman, would later wonder why she was the only ex-pat on Hydra who didn't seem to be an artist, but she certainly facilitated Cohen's transition from tortured novelist to popster troubadour.Īfter he finished Beautiful Losers, Cohen had a breakdown and, as he recovered, began playing Ihlen his songs. Marianne on Hydra where Cohen was inspired to write some of his biggest hits He bought a small house, Ihlen moved in with him, and while he wrote, she tended to his needs, bringing him food and water while he worked feverishly on his second novel, Beautiful Losers, popping acid to keep himself going. Cohen, always the ladies' man, fitted right in, but while others were too busy boozing and flirting to create anything of substance, the quiet-spoken Canadian had the discipline to both enjoy himself and work. When Cohen first arrived on Hydra, it already boasted a thriving community of free-living, bohemian expatriate artists, hippies avant la lettre who drank wine, took drugs and slept with each other's spouses. By then, Cohen was famous and had left the place - and the person - that had played such key roles in his success. Marianne & Leonard is no speculative outsider's view because Broomfield had his own experiences on Hydra, and also became involved with Ihlen when he went to the Greek island in the late 60s. But as Nick Broomfield's absorbing, sometimes meandering film points out, their sun-kissed, painfully intense romance would haunt both parties for the rest of their lives. Ihlen would become Cohen's 'muse' (that outmoded, subtly objectifying phrase is used early and often in this documentary), helping him complete two novels and inspiring some of his greatest songs. It certainly did, especially after he ran into Marianne Ihlen, a beautiful and slightly lost Norwegian woman whose recent separation from a temperamental husband had left her alone with a baby son, Axel.

Beautiful losers leonard cohen review