The name Marianne Ihlen may not ring a bell on its own but mention Leonard Cohen in the same sentence and melancholic strains of one of the poet’s biggest hits floods the ears. She inspired two of his most famous songs, “So Long, Marianne” and “Bird on a Wire” and was the woman who “held on to me like I was a crucifix as we went kneeling through the dark.” A new documentary, “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love,” paints a more complete picture of a person often thought of as Cohen’s muse.
Their story begins on Hydra in 1960, a place where artists could survive on little money. Ihlen, fresh off a divorce from mercurial writer Axel Jensen and raising a child on the Greek isle when she met Cohen, a down-on-his-heels poet looking for inspiration. They fell in love, did drugs and searched for inspiration. Cohen wrote feverishly, penning his novel “Beautiful Losers” there. Today the book is considered a classic but at the time it was met with derision– Robert Fulford it, “the most revolting book ever written in Canada”—and failed at bookstores.
To make money Cohen and Ihlen returned to North America to begin his career as a songwriter. Folk singer Judy Collins, who recorded his song “Suzanne” a full year before he released his own version and convinced him to sing on stage. Cohen’s sophistication and romantic balladry caught on and soon he was a star, much to Ihlen’s disdain. Feeling left behind she wrote a letter to Collins, rebuking the singer for covering Leonard’s songs and “ruining her life.”
When they parted. After seven years, Cohen was on his way to becoming a superstar, Ihlen returned to a more normal life, largely fading from public view. Using archival footage—home movies shot on Hydra, news footage and photography coupled with new interviews— director Nick Broomfield stresses the importance of Ihlen in Cohen’s life. Broomfeild himself is an Ihlen disciple. They met on Hydra and she helped him find his vocation as a documentary filmmaker. He returns the favour with a loving portrait of a woman who served as an almost mythical figure, a muse. Overshadowed by the artists she inspired she is nonetheless well served by the documentary which gives dimension to a person best known as a song lyric.
Ihlen passed away in Oslo in July, 2016. At the end of her life Cohen sent a message, read to her bedside and seen in the film. “Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine,” it reads in part. “Endless love, see you down the road.” Four months later he too was gone, joined in death as he had been in life with his muse. “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love” is a sensitive and intimate portrayal of their time together, a love story that only spanned a handful of years but resonated for decades.
“Maiden” is one of those sports documentaries that does not require you to be a fan of the sport to enjoy the film. Ostensibly the subject is a sailing competition called the Whitbread Round the World Race but the true topic is the tenacity of the boundary breaking all-female crew of the 58-foot aluminum ocean racing yacht Maiden.
“Maiden” begins with 24-year-old Tracy Edwards, a British woman who dreamed of being a ballet dancer but changed gears while on a backpacking trip in Greece. Taking a job as a stewardess on a yacht, she met King Hussein I of Jordan (more on that later) and fell in love with the seagoing life and the “dropouts, misfits, gypsies and nomads” who worked on the boats. In 1986 she secured a job as a yacht cook in a Whitbread race. There she discovered the gender imbalance and sexism of the competitive sailing world that would inspire her to refinance her house and, with some help from her old friend King Hussein, buy a second-hand 10-year-old yacht which she refurbished and renamed Maiden. In 1989 Edwards and her all-female crew set forth from Southampton for Uruguay and into the history books. “We were doing something we had been told we couldn’t do and we did it anyway.”
Using a combo of new interviews and contemporaneous news footage director Alex Holmes weaves together a true story of teamwork, mettle and determination. Detailed is the inherent danger—“The ocean is always trying to kill you,” Edwards says. “It never takes a break.”—and all the drama that comes with a groundbreaking effort like this. The most compelling part of the doc is the sheer grit Edwards, who would later become the first female British Yachtsman of the Year, and her crew display.
It’s not all smooth sailing, however. In the early footage Edwards is a determined, sometimes divisive character with self-destructive tendencies but the personality clashes pale compared to problems with the weather, equipment malfunctions and the death of a competitor.
“Maiden” also presents a detailed account of the dismissive sexism of the press who covered the race. Even before the Whitbread began Edwards was asked by an interviewer, “How do you get this kind of money out of business men when you are this young slip of a girl?” and summarily dismissed by yacht reporters. Nonetheless they persevered, made history and more than fulfilled Edwards’ dream of being “a proper sailor.”
What makes a chef great? On this encore presentation our Pop Life panel, Baron Hau, chef & founding instructor Gusta Cooking Studio, Luke Hayes chef & owner L.U.S.T Supper Club and Janet Zuccarini, CEO of Gusto 54 Restaurant Group, share their take on this and more.
Tune in Saturday nights, 8:30 pm (ET) on the CTV NewsChannel and again at midnight on CTV or watch the whole thing HERE!
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
On this encore presentation of “Pop Life” Richard speaks to celebrity chef Bobby Flay about his love for the restaurant business and his start in the industry.
Tune in Saturday nights, 8:30 pm (ET) on the CTV NewsChannel and again at midnight on CTV or watch the whole thing HERE!
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
“Spider-Man: Far From Home,” the twenty-third installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is so expansive it’s not only a sequel to “Spider-Man: Homecoming” but to the year’s biggest blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame.”
Set shortly after the events of “Endgame” the new movie sees Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) on a school trip to Europe with his classmates. Still keenly feeling the loss of his mentor Tony Stark he is recruited by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., to assist Quentin Beck, also known as Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), in a war against a global threat called the Elementals. They are creatures formed from the primary elements, air, water, fire and earth, myths turned real and deadly. Mysterio is an expert on the extradimensional humanoids but can Peter really trust his new cohort? “Mr. Fury this all seems like big time, huge superhero kind of stuff,” says Peter, “and I’m just the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, sir.” “Bitch please,” Fury snarls, “you’ve been to space.” And so the adventure to (once again) save the world begins.
“Spider-Man: Far From Home” has the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am moments we expect from bigtime superhero action films but it is at its best when it zeroes in on the small stuff, an awkward glance between Peter and his crush MJ (Zendaya), or the comic rapport of Peter and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), or assistant Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) watching wistfully as Spider-Man steps into Tony Stark’s shoes. These moments come amid the cataclysmic fireworks, grounding the movie in some much-needed humanity. Peter Parker may have gone to outer space but he’s still a gawky teen who says things like, “It’s really nice to have someone to talk to about superhero stuff,” to Mysterio. If this movie had been made in 1957 it might have been called, “I Was a Teenage Superhero.”
It’s these interactions, the character drama, that make the “Spider-Man” movies the most likable of the superhero genre; they feel authentic even though they’re set in an unreal world where the name Mysterio isn’t just reserved for nightclub magicians.
(VERY MILD SPOILER) But this isn’t a high school drama, it’s a superhero flick so it plays around with ideas of perception in very flamboyant ways. “People want to believe,” says Mysterio, “and nowadays they’ll believe anything.” It fits in nicely with the on-going Avengers storyline but also feels like a sly and timely commentary on manipulation of the masses.
Add to that an eye-popping, up-close-and-personal look at Mysterio’s surreal powers, big dollops of humor and Gyllenhaal having fun hamming it up and you’re left with a movie that feels like part of the bigger Marvel universe but, somehow, retains its own character.
“Midsommar,” the creepy new film from “Heredity” director Ari Aster, is proof positive that not all scary stuff happens under the cover of darkness. Sometimes daylight can illuminate the true horror of a situation in even more terrifying ways.
In the wake of a family tragedy American grad student Dani (Florence Pugh) finds out about her aloof boyfriend’s Christian (Jack Reynor) secret holiday, a trip to Sweden. Christian has one foot outside the relationship but half-heartedly asks her along. “I invited Dani to come to Sweden,” he tells his friends, “just to not make it weird. She’s not actually coming.”
But she does go with Jack and fellow anthropology students Josh (William Jackson Harper), a PhD student gathering info for his thesis, and wannabe-playboy Mark (Will Poulter) to a midnight sun celebration in the remote hometown of school mate Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). “It’s sort of a crazy festival,” Pelle says. “It only happens every ninety years. Lots pf pageantry, special ceremonies and dressing up.”
The festival is a Scandinavian Coachella, complete with dancing, pan-flute music and hallucinogenic drugs, all under a blazing sun that never sets. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I wanted to share it with my friends,” Pelle says. “People I know would appreciate it.”
At first it’s hospitable—”Welcome and happy Midsommar,” says the Ceremony Leader. “Skål!”—but after the and fun and games—and psychotropic mushrooms—start to wear off a gradual air of menace settles over the proceedings as the tone shifts from Burning Man to “The Wicker Man” as a secret pagan agenda is revealed.
“Midsommar” is a tough movie to categorize. It’s not exactly a horror film although there are some horrifying moments. It’s more the story of Dani, a woman trapped in a loveless relationship, (SPOILER ALERT) who lost one family only to find another under very strange circumstances. Elements of high school rom coms and revenge films echo throughout.
Aster, a master of mood, slowly unveils how the unusual customs of the villagers unsettle their American guests. His film asks questions about the relationship the Swedes have with their surroundings and traditions. The circle of life brings joy for them, not terror and the pious, matter-of-fact way they deal with death as a sacrament suggests the North Americans fear the situation simply because they don’t understand the customs. Are they the ultimate Ugly Americans or are they actually in danger? That’s the push and pull that builds the tension leading up to the explosive climax.
“Midsommar” may be the definition of ‘not for everyone.’ A colleague, who has sat through more movies with me than either of us could possibly remember, declared it one of the worst films she’s ever seen. But that is the subjectivity of art, the polarizing nature of a film that doesn’t easily fit into any definable category.
“The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” a captivating new drama starring Jimmie Fails and Jonathan Majors, wonders aloud if Thomas Wolfe was right when he wrote, “You can’t go home again.”
Jimmie Fails (Fails) has a dream. He wants to live in the ornate Victorian house with red and gold trim his grandfather built after WWII in San Fran’s in Filmore district. His father (Rob Morgan) lost the house when Jimmie was just a child and now the home’s contents are stored in a relative’s basement. When he isn’t working at the old folk’s home he spends time at the house, even though another older couple own it. Uninvited and much to the consternation of the residents, he does odd jobs like yard work and painting the windowsills. “This house,” he says. “This is what I do.”
When the old couple moves, leaving the home empty, Jimmie moves in. After an unsuccessful attempt to buy the place from a realtor (Finn Wittrock) who needs 20% down on the $4 million price he claims squatter’s rights and has the bills put in his name. His friend, budding playwright Montgomery (Jonathan Majors), moves in with him and they attempt to recreate the home as Jimmie remembers it from his youth.
“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is about many things. Nostalgia. Love of friends and city. It’s about how gentrification in San Francisco has marginalized people of colour creating housing inequality. Mostly, though, it’s about the bittersweet romanticizing of the past with a healthy dose of reality. Perhaps Wolfe was right, but simply because the home in question is four walls and a roof, not a panacea to Jimmie’s feelings of emotional displacement. Jimmie’s expectations linked to the idea of home, in this his case feelings of family unity, are likely never to be met. It’s melancholic and beautifully rendered in a film that feels like a tone poem of love and loss.
