Total Eclipse

USA, 1995. 112 mins. New Line HE

A sensationalized retelling of the Rimbaud-Verlaine story. The great French poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote all his poems, which continue to amaze and inspire to this day, during a brief burst of activity in the early 1870s, when he was just a teenager. According to Christopher Hampton's screenplay, it's amazing Rimbaud found time to write anything at all, since he was carrying on a torrid, absinthe-soaked homosexual love affair with the older and not quite so great poet Paul Verlaine. This affair ended when Verlaine shot Rimbaud in the hand in a Brussels hotel room. In this version of the story, it's also amazing that Rimbaud wanted to have anything to do with Verlaine, who is depicted as a utterly despicable human being.

Director: Agnieszka Holland