Total Eclipse (1995)

Very well executed

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Few biopics of great artists have ever worked. This one was perhaps doomed from the start - dealing as it so valiant tries with one of the great enigmas of French poetry, Arthur Rimbaud. I suppose the director deserves credit for even attempting the impossible. She deserved far far better than Leo DiCaprio as Arthur Rimbaud. It would be kind to say he was miscast. He wasn't. He simply cannot act.Everyone else in the cast is excellent - even David Thewlis as Paul Verlaine. Romaine Bohringer is beyond reproach (especially in her nude scenes) as Verlaine's long-suffering wife (weren't they all long-suffering?).Rimbaud remains a total mystery, quite particularly because of this sad film.

In this very grim portrayal of the love affair between 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis), we see how they in fact had a mutually destructive relationship. The movie really makes you feel like you're rubbing your face against sandpaper. You're not sure whether you want to sympathize with Rimbaud or find him unpleasant, but Verlaine is a real creep, often abusing his wife.Overall, this isn't a great movie, but worth seeing. If nothing else, it's a look at a certain part of literary history, but also of the most despicable kind of relationship possible. So if you do plan to see it, just be forewarned that it will probably make your stomach turn.

I found out about the movie "Total Eclipse" by chance and I was immediately captivated by its subject. On the first occasion that it was showed on TV, I recorded it. Meanwhile, I have also checked the commentaries of other people on this site and they all sounded very intriguing indeed. I have to admit that the beginning of the film was rather promising and I was expecting an interesting, mind challenging experience. However, after less than 30 minutes I was already totally appalled by the way the two main characters were presented. I was prepared to watch all kind of unusual behavior generally associated with artists, but this movie made a point in showing us how awful both main characters were. I can hardly accept that being an artist justifies such despicable conduct towards everybody around, be them wives, friends or fellow poets. Taking into consideration that the movie was about two of the greatest French poets, I was somehow looking forward to enjoying their great minds and spirit, and not just learn about their destructive love affair that seemed to be the main issue of the script. The main issue, so be it, but why the only one! Very depressing and very boring after all! At the end my general feeling was that I wasted almost two hours watching a movie that had very little to say about two great artists, besides their madness and eccentricity and I felt so embarrassed for them. To be fair, I would add that the film had its good moments and the acting was very impressive indeed. But still, what a miss!

You can talk about the history, the biographical truth and fiction of the characters, and the homosexuality... but this is really a misfire because of the casting. DeCaprio is too Modern American to pull this off, no matter how willing he is to go the distance with such an unsavory part. Thewlis is too English an actor, with a mug that seems lifted straight out of the Swinging London films from the mod 60's. Neither actor exudes anything remotely French or last century. And the previous commentators seem to be obsessed with the homosexual "love" scenes but are unwilling to give notice to the straight and quite hearty love scene between Thewlis and Romane Bohringer. Not to appear a drooling pervert, but Bohringer's eye-popping figure is not a force that should be ignored. If no one else here will honor it, I surely will.