Total Eclipse (1995)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Agnieszka Holland

Writer:

Christopher Hampton (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 November 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Touched by Genius. Cursed by Madness. Blinded by Love.

Plot:

The self-destructive relationship between 19th-century teenage French poet Arthur Rimbaud and his older mentor Paul Verlaine.

Plot Keywords:

Poet | Pregnant Wife | Self Destructive | Absinthe | Paris

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio	...	Arthur Rimbaud
David Thewlis	...	Paul Verlaine
Romane Bohringer	...	Mathilde Maute
Dominique Blanc	...	Isabelle Rimbaud
Felicie Pasotti Cabarbaye	...	Isabelle, as a child
Nita Klein	...	Rimbaud's Mother
James Thiérrée	...	Frederic
Emmanuelle Oppo	...	Vitalie
Denise Chalem	...	Mrs. Maute De Fleurville
Andrzej Seweryn	...	Mr. Maute De Fleurville
Christopher Thompson	...	Carjat
Bruce Van Barthold	...	Aicard
Christopher Chaplin	...	Charles Cros
Christopher Hampton	...	The Judge
Mathias Jung	...	Andre

Also Known As:

Eclipse totale (France) (DVD title)
Rimbaud Verlaine (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality and nudity, language, and some startling violence.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

UK | France | Belgium

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:MA (15+) | Singapore:(Banned) | Denmark:15 (video rating) (self applied) | Argentina:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:III | Italy:VM18 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium

Company:

FIT Productions

Trivia:

River Phoenix was originally attached to the project, but the part of Rimabud went to Leonardo DiCaprio after Phoenix's death.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the Café Andre where the adult Isabelle Rimbaud meets with Paul Verlaine, the typeface on the window is clearly in Helvetica, a typeface that was not created until 1954.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Paul Verlaine: Sometimes he speaks in a kind of tender dialect of the death which causes repentence, of the unhappy men who certainly exist, of painful tasks and heartrending departures. In the hovels where we got drunk he wept looking at those who surrounded us, the cattle of poverty...

Movie Connections:

Remake of Teljes napfogyatkozás (1989) (TV)

A literal literary must see dramatization...

There will be those who watch this film for DiCaprio, which is fine, then there will be those who watch this for the fact that it's about a French Poet, Rimbaud. The former is most likely the more probable, unfortunately, thus the rating of 5.7 at the time I'm writing this review, 4, September, 2004. Rimbaud was a poet who came to fame early on. Born in 1854, Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was one of four other siblings, a brother and three sisters, however, two of the three sisters passed. By fourteen, he was "winning nearly every academic competition he entered and by fifteen, had his first poem published in a literary review" (Mason, 2003). The police took interest in him as he was a trouble maker.

Some of his more famous writings, "A Season in Hell," "A Drunken Boat," and "First Night," are what he accomplished before giving up on writing at an equally young age, eighteen! Because he was so young, and maintained such excellence, he's been likened to similar prodigies such as Mozart, and Picasso. His is a work of certain genius which we can peer into - via this short dramatic biography - if we allow ourselves to pay close enough attention. I recommend this movie to any scholar, anyone interested in poetry/writing, anyone interested in prodigies, artists (or their madd, sometimes megalomania temperament), or depressives. Overall, it was good, it sparked remembrances of Robin Williams in "Dead Poet's Society" (1989), Gwyneth Paltrow in "Sylvia" (2003), and Sean Connery in "Finding Forrester" (2000). All are great writing flicks about love, loss, overcoming the human condition, or being ruined by it.