Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Acting
DiCaprio's feral intensity versus Thewlis's trembling dissolution.
Direction
Holland finds poetry in ugliness, never sanitizing the affair.
Costume
Period accuracy that somehow feels punk rock.
Director
Agnieszka Holland
Leonardo DiCaprio
Arthur Rimbaud
David Thewlis
Paul Verlaine
Romane Bohringer
Mathilde Maute
Dominique Blanc
Isabelle Rimbaud
James Thierrée
Frederic
Christopher Hampton
The Judge
Denise Chalem
Mrs. Maute De Fleurville
Andrzej Seweryn
Mr. Maute De Fleurville
Christopher Thompson
Carjat
Christopher Chaplin
Charles Cros
Mathias Jung
André
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
DiCaprio was 20, Thewlis was 32—the actual age gap between the real Rimbaud and Verlaine. Holland insisted on this authenticity despite studio pressure.
Rimbaud's actual 'Une Saison en Enfer' was written after their affair collapsed; the film's title references the 1874 eclipse he likely witnessed, symbolizing his temporary blinding by passion.
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