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Total Eclipse

Play trailer Poster for Total Eclipse R 1995 1h 50m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
22% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 60% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Youthful poet Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) drinks absinthe and neglects his devoted wife, Mathilde (Romane Bohringer). Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio), an even younger and more celebrated poet, enters their lives and alienates the couple even further, seducing Paul and haughtily mocking their bourgeois lifestyle even as he benefits from it. Mathilde stands by Paul after he is jailed for sodomy, but she cannot prevent the poets' self-destructive descent.

Critics Reviews

View All (18) Critics Reviews
Anthony Puccinelli Chicago Reader Ironically the film’s failure as a work of art about artists may be what helps it succeed as a trashy guilty pleasure... Rated: 1/4 Jun 7, 2022 Full Review Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine Despite its fascinating subject matter, Total Eclipse is both unflattering and loveless. Rated: 2/4 Jul 31, 2003 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times It lacks any sense of humor, and is under the delusion that its subjects are interesting because they are great poets. That only makes their poetry interesting. Rated: 2.5/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault “The unbearable thing,” muses Rimbaud, “is that nothing is unbearable.” Obviously he hadn’t seen this movie. Rated: D Sep 1, 2022 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com A misguided project from Holland: Watching Verlaine and Rimbeau engage in endless arguments about the nature of love, you wonder when they had time to create the poetry that revolutionized the world. Rated: C Jan 9, 2007 Full Review Thomas Delapa Boulder Weekly Rated: 2/5 Apr 28, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (284) audience reviews
Blu B Ummm I guess I'm not artsy enough to appreciate this because this was beyond awful. The editing and pacing are just horrifically bad. This is basically a same sex arthouse romance if you can even call it that. There basically is no story at all. They meet up and stuff just happens...really weird barking like a dog and humping around like some other animal stuff just happens. It's never clear who the main focus is either of the two. You could just rearrange these scenes and honestly it wouldn't change hardly anything. I can't state it enough...there is legit no story or character to study. He starts out a a**hole and finishes as one. The music is boring, generic, and forgettable. The acting is suprisingly terrible. Mainly because the characters aren't likeable at all, DiCaprio is flat out annoying right from the start and never gets better, I was actively rooting for him to die to make the runtime end. The cinematography is the biggest tragedy. It's terrible but it has gorgous backdrops, color,s production value and costumes of the period. Literally if you look at everything behind what the main characters are doing it's a good movie effectively or a good screensaver. But the scenes themselves are just borderline bizaare, make no sense, are stupid, and sometimes I don't even know. And there is a ton of sex scenes and nudity in this and I don't get what it adds. It gets repetitive and you get the feeling this si going for something very arthouse like because the longer it goes the stronger that vibe gets. This could've come out in the 70's and prbably been just as bad but found a wider audience at least. I don't know anything really after watching this about the poet, his beliefs beyond he was a jerk and annoying, and they had lots of sex back than. Skip This. Probably the worst DiCaprio film. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 05/05/25 Full Review Julian S An unpleasant film that leaves little to enjoy—even dedicated DiCaprio fans might want to pass. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 12/23/24 Full Review Mateescu E It was pretty intresting but a little chaotic Rated 3 out of 5 stars 08/04/23 Full Review Linkle H Just read my review here I'm tired of getting "can't submit" on every site I go to. https://linklethehistorian.tumblr.com/post/721180096709443584/total-eclipse-1995-a-movie-review-by Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Family-friendly movie my kids loved it, the two of them are 3 and 5. they said it really inspired them and they started writing poetry and quite frankly, they are pretty good! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Expectations were completely overpass. Incredible performances! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Total Eclipse

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Movie Info

Synopsis Youthful poet Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) drinks absinthe and neglects his devoted wife, Mathilde (Romane Bohringer). Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio), an even younger and more celebrated poet, enters their lives and alienates the couple even further, seducing Paul and haughtily mocking their bourgeois lifestyle even as he benefits from it. Mathilde stands by Paul after he is jailed for sodomy, but she cannot prevent the poets' self-destructive descent.
Director
Agnieszka Holland
Producer
Ramsay Levi
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Dec 21, 1999
Box Office (Gross USA)
$339.9K
Runtime
1h 50m
Sound Mix
Surround