Total Eclipse Movie Review 1995

Unfortunate look at the mutually destructive relationship between 19th-century French poets Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (Thewlis). Rimbaud was a 16-year-old Parisian sensation for his iconoclastic work but what's presented is an obnoxious showoff, while the older, married Verlaine is a drunken lout who abuses his teenaged wife Mathilde (Bohringer). There's lots of dissolute, violent behavior and absolutely no insight into their work (which is the only reason to care). Ugly film wastes a lot of talent.

Distribution

New Line Home Video, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, Phone: (310)854-5811, Fax: (310)854-1824, URL: http://www.newline.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 111 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Biopics: Writers, Period Piece: 19th Century, Paris, Poetry, Gays, Flashback

Screenplay

Christopher Hampton

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, Romane Bohringer, Dominique Blanc

Cinematography

Yorgos Arvanitis

Director

Agnieszka Holland

Music

Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

Other

Isabelle Lorente

Producer

Jean-Pierre Ramsay Levi, Staffan Ahrenberg, Jean-Yves Asselin, Pascale Faubert, Fine Line Features