The song Long sound, Marianne Leonard Cohen's The Love Song has transcended as one of the most beautiful love songs in music and has elevated the name of Marianne Ihlen to one of the great inspirations of the author's creative process. However, this is the simple and idealized version of the relationship between the two. In 2020, director Nick Broomfield broke this mystical aura surrounding the couple with a splendid documentary. Marianne & Leonard: Words of love He did justice to Marianne, who had been reduced to a muse adored by the great poet of music. He gave her the personality that had been lent to her and made evident the toxicity that surrounded the bond between them. The resulting portrait, through archive images and witnesses, is raw and revealing. Neither life on the Greek island of Hydra nor the stages of the couple's reunion were a postcard of happiness and unconditional love.
Now, the Movistar+ platform has released Long sound, Marianne, a fiction based on this version of the couple's story. The production works because of the interest in the real protagonists, because it tries to discover more about the truth that the song hid. If the series were simply a story about an anonymous couple's relationship over the years, it would not be able to sustain the viewer's interest throughout the eight chapters. The underlying layer of reality is an indispensable engine that stimulates the curious look at Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen. If we move away from the biographical field, Long sound, Marianne The series lives up to its title. The fuss about the beloved takes on a literal meaning and the series is somewhat too long. On the other hand, the intimate portrait of the singer and poet —especially in his younger years— turns into a kind of cliché, and the character becomes a heavy intellectual who does not stop pseudo-philosophizing on a loop about heavy subjects with the people around him. If the viewer were not clear about the narrative pact of assuming that the boy who settled on the island of Hydra would become the great Leonard Cohen, we would perceive the fictional character as a tiresome and tiring protagonist. The series strives to delve into the point of view of Broomfield's documentary, trying to strip the characters of their public image, but fiction cannot get rid of the need to justify them, because that is what sustains its appeal. The series needs to keep that emotional bond of the viewer with the protagonists intact, and that softens the drama.
However, Long sound, Marianne is a series that allows you to reconnect with Cohen's poems and songs, discover his contacts with contemporary artists and satisfy the gossip about the singer's life. So, the best thing to do is to revisit the documentary Marianne & Leonard: Words of love, by Nick Broomfield, which Movistar+ is rebroadcasting on the occasion of the series. It is essential to compensate for the more saccharine and soft look, once the eight chapters have finished.
