X
- 1995
- R
- Fine Line Features
- 1 h 51 m
- 1995
- R
- Fine Line Features
- 1 h 51 m
Summary Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his mentor Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Directed By: Agnieszka Holland
Written By: Christopher Hampton
- 1995
- R
- Fine Line Features
- 1 h 51 m
- 1995
- R
- Fine Line Features
- 1 h 51 m
Total Eclipse
42
5.4
Summary Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his mentor Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Directed By: Agnieszka Holland
Written By: Christopher Hampton
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
42
29% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
35% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
35% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
42
29% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
35% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
35% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Total Eclipse is a biographical film steeped in ecstasy and despair, seething with madness and torment.
The story excels in its portrait of obsessive love and desire. Where the tale falls down is in its portrait of two comrades in poetry, the writers who inspired each other to new levels of artistry and dwelled with the muses wherever they cohabited.
Director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) re-creates 19th-Century Paris beautifully, and poetry scholars might find the movie worthwhile strictly for its subject matter, but Total Eclipse comes off as a big downer that confuses dreariness with substance. [03 Nov 1995, p.6G]
DiCaprio (Rimbaud) and Thewlis (Verlaine) provide dynamic if mismatched performances, though there's no excusing Hampton's own laughable cameo, nor the protracted coda with DiCaprio doing a Peter O'Toole in the desert.
In Total Eclipse, directed by Agnieszka Holland, they fail to persuade us that their versions of the 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine were great artists. They just seem like rattle-brained hedonists with superiority complexes. Genius ought to be as alluring as any other well-developed human attribute, like beauty or sexuality. If this is genius, we are in trouble.
Presumably, there's a poignant story to be told about the love between 19th-century poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. But Agnieszka Holland's Total Eclipse, a pretentious, flat affair, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Rimbaud and David Thewlis as Verlaine, is not the film to pull it off.
A good biographical film about artists should, at the very least, inspire the viewer to learn more about its subjects and the work they created. Total Eclipse has totally the opposite effect, of making one never want to hear about its protagonists again. This misbegotten look at the mutually destructive relationship between the 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaineis a complete botch in all respects.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 User Ratings
5.4
25% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
63% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 User Ratings
5.4
25% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
63% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company
FIT Productions,
Portman Productions,
Société Française de Production (SFP),
K2 SA,
Capitol Films,
Eurimages,
European Co-production Fund,
Canal+,
StudioCanal
Release Date Nov 3, 1995
Duration 1 h 51 m
Rating R
Tagline Touched by Genius. Cursed by Madness. Blinded by Love.
Awards
Créteil International Women's Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
San Sebastián International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
