Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprioArthur Rimbaud
- David ThewlisPaul Verlaine
- Romane BohringerMathilde Maute
- Dominique BlancIsabelle Rimbaud
- Nita KleinRimbaud's Mother
- Félicie PasottiIsabelle, as a child
- James ThierréeFrederic
- Emmanuelle OppoVitalie
- Christopher HamptonThe Judge
- Denise ChalemMrs. Maute De Fleurville
Recommendations
- 75
ReelViews
Despite its flaws, Total Eclipse is the kind of movie that stirs thoughts and ruminations about the nature of genius, the true meaning of art, and the unfailing capacity of great people to destroy themselves and others. Holland has not matched the success of two of her previous films -- Europa Europa and Olivier Olivier -- but this picture is still a respectable examination of a fascinating historical relationship. - 75
Chicago Tribune
Total Eclipse is a biographical film steeped in ecstasy and despair, seething with madness and torment. - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
The poems can be read. The film must stand on its own, apart from the poems, and I'm afraid it doesn't. One admires the energy and inventiveness that Holland, Thewlis and DiCaprio put into the film, but one would prefer to be admiring it from afar. - 50
Slant Magazine
Despite its fascinating subject matter, Total Eclipse is both unflattering and loveless. Holland seems to care very little for the way Rimbaud and Verlaine’s crass relationship was channeled into words. Worse than DiCaprio’s accent are his and Thewlis’s ludicrous sex scenes. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Polish director Agnieska Holland paid no mind to the actors' accents during casting, and the melange of British, French and American speech helps sink a film that's already foundering under the weight of its pretentions. - 40
The New York Times
Unfortunately, the mad romanticism of Rimbaud's exploits has been made to look preposterous here, despite a cast that should have been magnetic in its own right. Total Eclipse clumsily exaggerates both these characters, from the moment when Rimbaud begins savoring experience in a laughably over-the-top poetic manner. - 40
Empire
Though well directed, Thewlis and Di Caprio simply do not gel (John Malkovich and River Phoenix were the original cast choices), the latter is too hyperactive in delivery, the former too static in expression. - 40
Time Out London
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.
