Total Eclipse | | Cast : | Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis | | Director : | Agnieszka Holland | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | November 03, 1995 | | DVD Released Date : | December 21, 1999 | | Language : | English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | April 19, 2005 | | Summary | Truly sad. | Content
 | If you are looking for a touching and turbulent portrayal of the madness of artists in love, of a tempestuous relationship between two brilliant poets that destroyed one's life and reputation, then keep looking. If you are looking for something to replace the Rocky Horror Picture Show for a good campy laugh, this is your movie. The entire thing was beyond ridiculous. There was no chemistry between DiCaprio and Thewlis, no hint at what would have pulled these two together in an age when the very hint of such a relationship could have been, and in fact was, the ruin of the elder Paul Verlaine (Thewlis). The anorexic appearance of both actors (and let's face it folks, when is the cinematic world going to get it that they must never let Thewlis remove his clothes on camera?)and the scene of intimacy between them bring to mind the words brutal, abusive, sadistic and horrific. That having been said, be prepared to move quickly from being appalled to laughing riotously at all the wrong places. From crawling around imitating goats (yes there were real goats there too) to the frequent frontal nudity displayed by DiCaprio and Thewlis, there are giggles aplenty. I must admit this movie has some of my all time favorite lines. Poet 1: "Just shoot me." Poet 2: "I can't you stupid **** you just blew a hole in my hand." And lest we forget... Poet 1: "My wife has not been well." Poet 2: "Perhaps thats because you keep setting her on fire." Poet 1: "I'll have you know I haven't set my wife on fire since Thursday." Bottom line folks this one is just too painful for words. Even the actors admitted in interviews that instead of method acting they engaged in method drinking to get through the making of this movie. According to those interviews they were well oiled each day of filming. So much that Thewlis admitted he doesn't remember making the movie. Now if only we could all forget he made it. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 15, 2005 | | Summary | Total Eclipse of Good Taste | Content
| Not just a disaster: a total turkey for the ages! Every misstep a director can make while tackling an artist's bio-pic is made here by Holland. "Amadeus," "Immortal Beloved," or "Finding Neverland" this is not! It's not even as good as lesser bio-pics like "Pollock" and "Plath."
Where do I start? (sigh) No French accents. A cheesy moustache to age puer aeternis DiCaprio. No sexual heat--or even connection between the characters. California kid rebellion in a period film set in 19th century France. A dearth of Rimbaud's actual writing and an utter absence of Verlaine's. A shadowy shot of Rimbaud's genitals that suggests, as Rimbaud would never, that sex is shameful. Characters that are so powerfully unlikeable that we cheer for the Grim Reaper. Abuse and exploitation that don't even gel into intriguiing S/M. Sluggish pacing. Overcast coloring. Wooden acting. Etc. Etc.
In a day and age where Michael Jackson, the Catholic clergy, and "Law & Order SVU" have dropped the burning cinder of man/boy love on our culture's skin, this could have been a so much more radical film! Given the amazing poetic power of Rimbaud and Verlaine (Read their poems I beg you and avoid this film) this could have been a poetry lover's feast! Considering the bland centrism of the 1990s, this could have been a call to awakening, a call to explore and suck the marrow out of life, an insistence on the world of the senses and an immersion in all the darkness and light of eros.
Alas, this DVD is only the perfect coaster on which to set cold and bitter coffee. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 10, 2005 | | Summary | Total eclipse of the mind | Content
| Seldom is there a film that is actually dangerous to civilisation. I think we have found one with this. This film is wonderful if you are a gay male and you fancy sleeping with a 22 year old Leonardo Di Caprio. It will fulfill endless hours of fantasy, although it would better have been directed by Jean Daniel Cadinot and the sex scenes involving Thewlis and Di Caprio made absolutely explicit and hardcore. Given Di Caprio's warm hearted good ol'America's image doing this would at least have preserved some of Rimbaud's radicality for the modern audience of American or pro-American culture, potentially confronting and scandalising the viewer today the way his poetry did in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I guess we just aren't advanced or sophisticated enough to handle that. Like Max Ernst painting the Virgin Mary spanking Jesus this film should have at least done something to honour the iconoclasm of this great progenitor of surrealism. Instead, once again, we are given a film that stands as a monument to an actor rather than an artist. Like Kirk Douglas playing Van Gogh or Charleton Heston playing Michelangelo this film is pure hollywood cultural revisionism. Aside from that the costumes are nice, the acting besides that done by Leonardo Di Caprio is good, and the concept is ok. David Thewlis does honour to Verlaine, although I'm sure he could have done a better job with a proper script and a better Rimbaud. Di Caprio does portray a teenage rebel but not enough of one to make a convincing Rimbaud. Its like watching Tinky-winky from the telly tubbies melting into a character from TV's "Will and Grace". Di Caprio just isn't smart, literate, radical, or horny enough to be Rimbaud. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 18, 2005 | | Summary | Great movie | Content
| To me this is one of the best movies of Leo Di Caprio.
I personally love the story of the two poets as it has been represented by the director...
Nothing more to add. This is masterpiece to me. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 13, 2004 | | Summary | Some movies are just plain bad... | Content
| ...and you can't help but criticize them. This is not one of those movies. If you set out with a mind to critique and scrutinize every second of the film, you will be disappointed, as you well should be. If you begin watching it with an open mind, with the intention to see a well made movie with a beautifully tragic storyline, full of talented actors, you will be very happy with this purchase. Don't expect it to be a masterpiece, it's only 2 hours long. Don't expect it to depict every aspect of Rimbaud's life fact for fact, again, it's only 2 hours long. It revolves greatly around the short-lived relationship he had with a fellow poet. The only people who know exactly what happened during Rimbaud and Verlaine's affair are Rimbaud and Verlaine. The writer of the movie could only base it's story on records, letters, poetry, etc., and yes, also on assumption.
I have never been a fan of Leonardo Dicaprio, but I must say, he was magnificent in this film. He absolutely captured the essence of our beloved Rimbaud during this time. Young, fresh faced, slightly naive, confused, arrogant, rude, loud, stubborn, brilliant, seductive...I could go on and on.
Dicaprio and Thewlis share an on screen chemistry that brings Rimbaud and Verlaine's love to life again. Every scene they had together held my undivided attention.
Don't watch this movie if you were cursed with a narrow mind and little imagination. True Rimbaud fans have neither of these. This movie was made for them. |
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