Review of Total Eclipse (1995) by Veronica R — 30 Oct 2012

If you're interested in the rollercoaster of a relationship set forth between French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, then this film is nothing short of phantastickal. Arthur Rimbaud, the young poet who believed in "experiencing all love and madness and suffering in a life which was beyond rules" and the older Paul Verlaine, had both a platonic and sexual relationship filled with frenzy, madness, and a motto to 'break all rules'.

DiCaprio (in what is in my opinion, the best role of his career!) as a young Rimbaud is dazzling, and life in the French absinthe cafés is portrayed rather well in this underrated depiction of two incredibly significant writers and decadents of France.