Total Eclipse ** (1995, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, Romane Bohringer) – Classic Movie Review 1038

Director Agnieszka Holland’s 1995 adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s play (with a screenplay by the playwright himself) about the destructive mutual passion of the 19th-century French poets Arthur Rambeau and Paul Verlaine is a depressing fiasco thanks mainly to the absurd casting of Leonardo DiCaprio and David Thewlis in the star parts.

The actors seem to exist in totally separate worlds: DiCaprio is a coltish sprightly American hick from the sticks, while Thewlis is a lumpen British proletariat. Both of these very good actors are pretty embarrassing here. And Romane Bohringer has a really rotten time as Verlaine’s pregnant wife, Mathilde Maute.

Still, it’s interesting to see the young DiCaprio developing and exercising his acting muscles as the wild poet Rimbaud, who engages in a fierce, forbidden romance his mentor Verlaine while afflicted by the artistic lifestyle.

It did have its admirers. Empire magazine said it is ‘brilliant, startling, dangerous’! And, as the advertising teasingly says, it’s DiCaprio’s ‘most revealing performance’, helping it gain an 18 certificate.

John Malkovich was initially attached to play Verlaine. DiCaprio inherited the role of Rimbaud after River Phoenix died. DiCaprio’s kiss with with Thewlis is apparently his first on-screen kiss.