Music

Here's your first look at the Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen documentary

The trailer includes archival footage of the couple.

The trailer includes archival footage of the couple

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love premiered earlier this year at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. (Roadside Flix/YouTube)

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, the brand new documentary detailing the relationship between Leonard Cohen and his former partner Marianne Ihlen, made its premiere earlier this year at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Now, many months later, fans who missed out on those screenings can get a look at the film with the release of its first trailer.

The film, which is slated to come out this summer, follows the couple from their "early days in Greece, a time of 'free love' and open marriage, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician," according to an early press release.

In this trailer, archival footage of Cohen and Ihlen is intercut with old photos as the voices of interview subjects featured in the documentary play overtop. "It was a love story which had 50 chapters without being together," one voice says. Another voice later reveals some of the tension that grew between Cohen and Ihlen as his music career took off: "She wanted to be with him, and you cannot be with Leonard." Words of Love is directed by Nick Broomfield, who has also put together docs on Whitney Houston (Whitney: Can I Be Me) and Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love (Kurt & Courtney).

Ihlen was the inspiration behind some of Cohen's biggest songs, including 1967's "So Long, Marianne." She died in July 2016, and Cohen died four months later on Nov. 7, 2016.