IMDb plot summary: Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Directed by Agnieszka Holland. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, and Romane Bohringer.
Total Eclipse tells the story of the turbulent love affair between French poets Arthur Rimbaud (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (played by David Thewlis). Verlaine takes Rimbaud under his wing as a younger poet, and the two begin a wildly volatile relationship. There’s just so much generally unpleasant about this story, these characters, and the film as a whole. Thewlis often has an uncanny ability to ooze sleaziness, and here that is turned up to 11, as he runs into a love affair with a minor and treats his wife despicably. DiCaprio doesn’t fare much better, with the almost hilariously obnoxious self-righteousness of the young, and I never once want him to get what he wants. While obviously they aren’t supposed to be a paragon of romance, the movie definitely hints that there’s something beautiful or at least worthwhile about their relationship, and I just don’t see it. It’s just two hours of miserable people making each other miserable, and I don’t know what I’m meant to get from it.
How it entered my Flickchart:
🎥 Total Eclipse (1995)
📊 Ranked #2804/4054 on my Flickchart
🎯 Flickscore™: 31
lost to Letters from Iwo Jima (#2017 → #2018)
beat Funny Face (#3037 → #3105)
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