I finally saw the documentary Marianne and Leonard: Words of
Love. I have to say I was left a little cold, by the end I liked neither
Cohen nor Marianne. He was easy to dislike, taking her for granted while
sniffing after every adoring female fan. But Marianne gave herself to him with
so few conditions, even putting her son in a British boarding school so she could
travel with Cohen. OK, maybe I’m not a romantic, but love of your child should
surely come before love of a philanderer who has sex with so many other women,
and even writes about it. Interestingly, my husband was more sympathetic to
Marianne than I was, he said he found her abandonment by Cohen tragic.
Tamar
Hodes, author of The Water and the Wine, bases her novel on her childhood on
Hydra in the 1960s. Her parents took her there when she was young, and she
watched the adults tear each other apart in their quest for love, sex and art. Nick
Broomfield’s documentary, echoes Tamar’s novel on the destructive outcome of
the bohemian lifestyle on adults and children. Marianne’s son, Axel, has had
drug addictions and spent much of his adult life institutionalised, other
children of artists on the island have turned to suicide.
Hydra remains home to
many artists, but they work quietly behind the high walls of their homes, a few
with open studios. I would hate anyone to be turned off Hydra by the film’s
focus on drugs and easy sex. Hydra can still bring peace to the soul. One of
Cohen’s friends says in the documentary that simply arriving in the harbour
makes him feel like he’s come home. My own sentiments precisely. I visit the
island every year. I relax and renew while there. Usually, there are Leonard
Cohen fans around, visiting his old home and listening to his music while
sitting at his memorial. But there is so much more to Hydra than Leonard Cohen.
An absence of cars give the island a peace that settles into your bones,
creating a tranquillity that is hard to find elsewhere. So, it is hardly
surprising that Leonard Cohen created his early work on the island.