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Total Eclipse
By
Agnieszka HollandDuration
111 MIN
Language
English
Subtitles
French
Country
France, Belgium, England
Year
1995
Synopsis
In 1871, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), an established poet, invites boy genius Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) to live with him and his young pregnant wife, Mathilde, in her father's home in Paris. Rimbaud's uncouth behavior disrupts the household as well as the insular society of French poets, but Verlaine finds the youth invigorating. Stewed in absinthe and resentment, Verlaine abuses Mathilde; he and Rimbaud become lovers and abandon her. There are reconciliations and partings with Mathilde and partings and reconciliations with Rimbaud, until an 1873 incident with a pistol sends one of them to prison. Codas dramatize the poets' final meeting and last illnesses.
Direction
Agnieszka Holland
Agnieszka Holland was born 28 of November 1948 in Warsaw but went to Czechoslovakia to study film directing at FAMU in Prague. She began her film career working in Poland with Krzysztof Zanussi as assistant director, and Andrzej Wajda as her mentor. She wrote several scripts with Wajda before directing her own films, which were soon winning awards at festivals - [ Cannes (1980), Gdansk, Berlin (1981), Montreal (1985,1987), Golden Globe Award (1991)] - and gaining notoriety as part of the Polish New Wave. Holland is best known in the United States for her Oscar-Nominated Angry Harvest, Europa, Europa, and Warner Bros. films: Olivier, Olivier and The Secret Garden. In 1994 she has directed Red Wind in the United States, a thriller for television produced by Sydney Pollack, which was aired on Arte in the series Fallen Angels. A year later she made Total Eclipse. In 1996 she has directed Washington Square in the United States, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney.
Original Title
Total Eclipse
French Title
Les poètes maudits
