Total Eclipse (1995)
A review of Total Eclipse (1995), directed by Agnieszka Holland.
I came across this movie completely by accident. I don’t remember how exactly I stumbled across it, but when I saw the premise, I was absolutely screaming. It was shot in 1995 and based off of the lives of two very-real and very-toxic poets who were alive during the 1870s. It stars teenage Leonardo DiCaprio as one of the younger poets, and the guy who plays Remus Lupin in Harry Potter, David Thewlis, as the other poet.
Why, you may ask, is this movie so interesting? It’s A) a young Leonardo DiCaprio movie and B) it’s extremely, extremely gay. Thewlis’ character cheats on his wife, who gives birth in the middle of the movie, to be with DiCaprio. I’m not romanticizing that at all, which I will get into more later in this review. But oh man, I can’t believe an LBGTQ+ nineties movie with young DiCaprio exists. How do people not know about this? (I think the answer is that it was extremely hard to find legally. I had to search hard to get my paws on a screening of this).
With that being said, let’s start the review!
Content
This movie is about, as I mentioned before, the two poets. They are both real people, and so the contents of this film actually indeed happen (although with fictional twists). Arthur, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is seventeen years old and is a genius. He’s a rising star in the literary world, a dashing young man, but lacks any manners and has a negative attitude towards societal norms. And, perhaps, that’s why Paul is so attracted to him, despite being married with a pregnant wife.
We follow their slightly doomed romance as it twists and turns. This is indeed 1870s France, where homophobia is still quite rampant, and, let’s face it, both men are extremely unlikable. Paul is violent and tends to scream at his wife, who, for some reason, still wants him, and even is aggressive to his newborn baby. On the opposite end, Arthur is snootish, a little too rebellious. I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to like these characters, as they both, to be frank, get on your nerves.
It’s a bit awkward at times when you note the age difference. Arthur is seventeen. The other poet guy is supposedly twenty-seven-ish, but he looks older. That is indeed the story, and I guess this mindset truly is a cultural thing, but man I thought this was awkward. The movie was also a bit slow, which probably added to this atmosphere, since we’re stuck in these scenes where we have DiCaprio…barking. Or having sex. We get a closeup of a naked DiCaprio at one point. And his leg chopped off not too soon after.
The actual cinematography and music within the movie did really well for the ambiance, you just really can’t save a film with that alone though. The pacing wasn’t good enough, the acting was decent but the characters just too unlikable. They’re just so toxic and I can’t wrap my head around the wife wanting to stay when Paul is treating her like shit.
Overall Thoughts
Only watch if you’re curious. There’s some misogynistic and extreme behavior towards Paul’s wife, which is quite unpleasant to see as a woman myself. Also there’s some stereotypical depictions of Africans towards the end. All in all though, this isn’t a good movie, I dare to say it’s even awful at times and quite unbearable because of the main characters. There really isn’t much redeeming them, as much as the film tries to. We also don’t really see as much as their poetry as we should? I have so many questions, but no answers.
