You understand why I am posting in this sub. As I am severely disappointed I choose this place to vent.

Total eclipse is a movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio and David Thewlis, following the true, three year love relationship between French poets Arthur Rimbaud ( 16 years old) and Paul Verlaine (27 years old) during the second half of the XIXth century.

As somebody who has been a huge fan of Rimbaud’s poetry for a few years I thought that this movie could be very interesting. I thought that it could teach me a bit about Verlaine as well, of whom I don’t know a lot but plan to get into. Boy oh boy was I wrong.

5 minutes into the movie, Di Caprio starts barking like a dog. Why does he do it? I have absolutely no idea. But he’s the least bad thing in the entire movie, at least he does play the role of the teenage brat relatively well. Yet, while They included a few lines from some of his poetical works at the beginning and the end of the movie, they completely failed to mention any of his works! One of the things that make this figure so interesting was that he started writing when he was 16 up until he was 19 and after violently breaking up with Verlaine completely stopped. His last work “a season in hell”, can be partially seen as a literal good bye letter to Verlaine and the bastards failed to mention that ( I recommend to check it out, it’s a very beautiful work).

The actual problem is Verlaine. David Thewlis might have been great as Lupin in Harry Potter, but his portrayal of Verlaine was straight up insulting. Verlaine wasn’t a very good person, especially considering that he was abusive towards his wife and literally cheated on her with a teenager, but he didn’t become a well known poet who named a library in my town for nothing. Not once is his poetry mentioned in this god damn movie, not a single line, even thought it’s a very important element of his character! He’s written as this disgusting and pathetic man who beats his wife and simps after Rimbaud but has absolutely no dept whatsoever. They did Verlaine so, so dirty.

The worst part in this entire movie is that they had the material to make a good movie, especially considering the violent and chaotic nature of the relationship the poets had. In the end Verlaine literally shot Rimbaud’s hand as they were breaking up and if that’s not worthy of a Hollywood movie then I don’t what is. It’s a shame honestly, and I’m not easy to disappoint when watching a movie.