The cast for an upcoming biographical TV series about Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen’s love story has been announced.
Alex Wolff, known for his role in Hereditary, will star as the legendary singer-songwriter, alongside Thea Sofie Loch Næss, (The Last Kingdom) who is playing Marianne, Cohen’s lover and “muse”. Ihlen was a fruitful muse for the musician; some of his most loved songs, such as the eponymous and bittersweet ‘So Long, Marianne’, were written about her.
The show will follow their romance on the island of Hydra, Greece, where the couple lived during the 1960s, and their involvement in Hydra’s artistic community of bohemian, bed-hopping expatriates. The portrayal of their tender, yet turbulent, relationship is billed as “an intimate tale of two lonely people falling in love, during a period of their life when they are trying to find out who they are and their place in the world.”
Cohen’s recollection of his time on Hydra evokes the island’s aura and inspiring residents: “It was as if everyone was young and beautiful and full of talent—covered with a kind of gold dust. Everybody had special and unique qualities. This is, of course, the feeling of youth, but in the glorious setting of Hydra, all these qualities were magnified.”
Filming began on 24 March on location in Hydra, as well as in Norway, Ihlen’s home country, and Montreal, Cohen’s Canadian hometown.
So Long, Marianne is a co-production between Canada’s Crave, a streaming service owned by Bell Media, and the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Cineflix Rights will distribute the series globally.
Øystein Karlsen, who wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Jo Nesbø, said: “The way the world is now, a series that celebrates life and love, with a core about finding your way in life, is needed more than ever.”
The relationship between Cohen and Ihlen was also the subject of Nick Broomfield’s Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, a documentary which was released in 2019. There is no official release date for So Long, Marianne yet.
Word by Cerys McKew
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