Total Eclipse
- Director: Agnieszka Holland
- Writer: Christopher Hampton
- Producer: Staffan Ahrenberg; Jean-Yves Asselin
CGiii Comment
A period drama full of heavyweights.
2 hideous characters and one horrific moustache.
As for accuracy...arguable, but it does introduce an audience to writers they probably have never heard of - which is not a bad thing.
The acting, writing, directing are all commendable - it's just the wigs and facial hair that makes a mockery of this, otherwise, fine film.
Revealing and gritty performances from both leads.
Sort out the hair!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In 1871, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), an established poet, invites boy genius Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) to live with Paul and his young pregnant wife, Mathiltde, in her father's home in Paris. Rimbaud's uncouth behavior disrupts the household as well as the insular society of French poets, but Verlaine finds the youth invigorating. Stewed in absinthe and resentment, Verlaine abuses Mathiltde; he and Rimbaud become lovers and abandon her. There are reconciliations and partings with Mathiltde and partings and reconciliations with Rimbaud, until an 1873 incident with a pistol sends one of them to prison. Codas dramatize the poets' final meeting and last illnesses.
Cast & Characters
Leonardo DiCaprio as Arthur Rimbaud;
David Thewlis as Paul Verlaine;
Romane Bohringer as Mathilde Maute;
Dominique Blanc as Isabelle Rimbaud;
Felicie Pasotti Cabarbaye as Isabelle, as a child;
Nita Klein as Rimbaud's Mother;
James Thierree as Frederic;
Emmanuelle Oppo as Vitalie;
Denise Chalem as Mrs. Maute De Fleurville;
Andrzej Seweryn as Mr. Maute De Fleurville;
Christopher Thompson as Carjat;
Bruce Van Barthold as Aicard;
Christopher Chaplin as Charles Cros;
Christopher Hampton as The Judge;
Mathias Jung as Andre