Christopher Hampton's original play upon which he based his screenplay was a major scandal of the London theatre scene in the late Sixties. The Nineties update, brought to the big screen with considerable grace and visual splendor thanks to director Agnieszka Holland, proved to be one of the great dark horses of film history. Most of the US critics displayed their abysmal ignorance of literature, history and psychology in their reviews of this film. Since they did not realize just how dark the personalities involved and how very complex the actual historical facts were, they trashed this film and it closed after a few weeks in most cities. I still routinely see reviews from the likes of Leonard Maltin that describe this film as a "bomb." It should be seen only by those with a taste for unusual stories that do not attempt to prettify the past. The performances were vividly believable, especially David Thewlis as Verlaine and the actress who played Rimbaud's sister. I thought di Caprio's performance was marvelous though not entirely free of anachronisms (it reminded me of Diane Keaton's performance in Reds in this regard). Holland's cinematography captures every nuance of di Caprio's remarkable physical beauty which helps make the "cursed" romance between the two men plausible. I thought the ending was beautifully accomplished--it brought the story to a lovely resolution which unfortunately probably eluded the principle people involved in real life.
Review of Total Eclipse
