Ouzo was used as a replacement for absinthe for the drinking scenes filmed on the first day. Because the scene turned out so well, method drinking was adopted for the rest of filming. As a result, Thewlis had admitted in a interview that he can't really remember making the film at all.
Contrary to popular belief, Total Eclipse (1995) with Leonardo DiCaprio was not the same project about Rimbaud that River Phoenix was in talks of doing. Phoenix was in discussions with director Volker Schlöndorff after he saw Phoenix's performance in "My Own Private Idaho". He let the idea go after Phoenix's death. Schlöndorff's idea would have been based on a completely separate work about Rimbaud written by Henry Miller that was more of a character study. It was not based on the play Total Eclipse by Christopher Hampton.
This film is based on a true story and biographical only in it's time line of Rimbaud's life as a poet. It is up for debate whether Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine were lovers. There is nothing in any legitimate source or biographical information that proves this. The proponents whom pronounce this as fact often rely on alleged innuendo in a letter that Rimbaud wrote to Verlaine, which is vague at best and can be interpreted in different ways.