Personally I think the reason why DiCaprio was so good in this film was because he made it his own. I barely even noticed the accent. What the hell does that have to do with fine acting? They even had one of his family members with the same accent.
Personally I would probably have found this to be a rather bland film if it were to cast your usual run-of-the-mill TV movie "star". Instead of going for nationality they went for the emotions they wanted to show.

Rimbaud had a very complex personality, and a 2-hour film wouldn't be enough to go deep enough in the character's mind. But watching the film last night, I thought DiCaprio's performance was quite powerful and compelling. It's one of his best from his early career, and I think it's a good preview of what was coming. I can't see anyone else playing Rimbaud as good as Leo did. River Phoenix was the first choice, but I can't be sure he would have pulled it off like DC did. And I didn't even like studying Rimbaud at school.

"I just want to be inspired."

after recently dscovering Rimbauds work, and reading several biographies I did wonder which actor would be best to play him, I settled on the young DiCaprio, only to discover later he actually played him early in his career.
While the film seems to fail to capture the intensity, drive, and brilliance of Rimbaud, though it might be fair how any film might, I think DiCaprio managed to capture a lot of what drew and still draws people to Rimbaud.
Maybe like Johnny Depp's The Libertine the film as a whole suffers from assuming those watching it already know the historical figure intensely well, that is more a potential flaw of the film, than DiCaprio's acting.
I enjoyed seeing this film, and would say although far from perfect, it is also very far from his weakest performance, in fact I am sure it will grow on me the more I see it.
life is not a succession of urgent "nows". It's a listless trickle of "why should I's".

Really? I thought he was very likable and I enjoyed his performance in this movie. I think his weakest film is definitely the
1996
Romeo + Juliet
; He gave a better performance in
Critters 3
than that.
"There's no business like grow business"
-Weeds

I actually think it is one of his top 4 movies.
As for his worst films - say how about Critters 3 or Poison Ivy?
I have an eternal hope.
KEIRAHOLIC N6.

It is a good thing that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, because otherwise, your opinion allows for no others.

I run for the hills when I learn DiCaprio is in something. Aside from Gilbert Grape, I find him supremely irritating. If I want to see a troll, I'll pull out one of little dolls from the 60s. That said, I turned off this terrible film because I can't stand films about people in other countries that were "Americanized." I'm one of those Americans who flocks to films in all languages. Many of my favorite films are foreign, with subtitles. I detest dubbed films. Creating less sophisticated films without any thought for authenticity is a nauseatingly American, read Hollywood, trait I can live without. I boycott nearly everything made in Hollywood. If some Americans are too lazy or vapid to follow a foreign film, then they don't deserve to see the story that film will tell. The more we keep dumbing everything down, the more our culture sinks into the morass of mediocrity. Hearing all those accents in Total Eclipse, along with the poor script, rendered this film unwatchable. While there are those rare performers (Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon) who can pull off foreign roles, DiCaprio is not one of them. He always seems to be playing himself, though the blame for these casting debacles lies with the producers and directors. Why can't they try to make the best film, rather than cater to the lowest common denominator?
Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!

Huh, you're accusing me of being a liar when I said I'm hardly a DiCaprio hater?
Hardly, this is really the only movie where I really dislike his portrayal. I even liked The Beach, which most people could not stand. Nor do I believe your premise that DiCaprio himself is gay. I would have to agree with naleyever that if he were truly gay he would need protect his true sexual preference to the world to maintain his marketability in leading male roles and would not have dared to play this role. He's not Tom Cruise.
And upon further reflection, I'm more inclined to agree with LikeaRose2k that he's actually been a decent actor all along, but this film made him look inconsistent. My original thought that he has gotten better with age I think was largely influenced by my being very impressed with his performance in Blood Diamonds, and the very large stretch he made in playing Howard Hughes in the Aviator. I did like the job he did in The Basketball Diaries though, but I didn't consider it THAT much of a stretch for him to play a junkie with Mark Wahlberg, as he was going through his rebellious phase at the time.
"But, but, but, CLINTON!!!"
~Any reich-winger when confronted with their miserable failures

if leo was gay and didnt want anyone to know i dont think he would be in a film where he had to kiss a man.and if you hate leo (which i cannot understand because he a great actor and a great person) then why did you see the film cause there's not much chance that you'll like him in it.

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I felt that Leo was too young to handle the Rimbaud role. To a certain extent Leo pulled it off. I also felt that if Total Eclipse is a french production, the dialogue should be in french. The movie didn't feel french.

I agree with this point, however a similar point can be made about The Man in the Iron ask where he also has an American accent, but I think the director is to blame for this not the actors. I'm a big DiCaprio fan and I agree that this is one of his poorer movies, however I don't believe he has gotten better with age, I think he has always been amazing, after all he was nominated for an oscar in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and is also brilliant in This Boy's Life and The Basketball Diaries.

you look such a beep
few scenes later
but you did look like such a beep

Forgive me, but your comment makes no sense at all.
When an actor plays a role in English, he speaks English, even though he might be playing a foreigner.
When Lawrence Olivier played Shakespeare's Othello, a North African living in Italian-governed Cyprus, he nevertheless spoke in perfect English.
Actors who play Romeo and Juliet, which takes place in Italy, nevertheless speak in perfect English. Should Leonardo have spoken Shakespeare's lines with a fake Italian accent when he played Romeo??????
Rimbaud and Verlaine were Frenchmen, but they are being depicted in an English-language filmed drama with English-speaking actors speaking English. Thus, they speak perfect English.
HOW would a vaudeville French accent have been more convincing?
If the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard, It can also be like a chicken-pox mark.

Rimbaud was immature though in real life, he was very young and the only thing that made him seem older was the fact he was such a brilliant poet!
Leonardo was perfect for the role as he was young himself and bought out the young man in Rimbaud. and the rudeness.
There were no french actors that could have played Rimbaud better than DiCaprio.
I have been studying french for 5 years now and am Australian so I'm not being biased to the french.
I Porker Face!

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This is one of my favourite Leo films. Sure, the film is VERY rough around the edges, but that's what I like in a film. It gives character. If you want a slick, Hollywood production-line style movie, there are plenty of those to choose from. Total Eclipse is rustic and organic in it's approach and I think that gives the story a lot more atmosphere than if it was a multi million (pounds/dollars/yen/insert your currency here) production.
I think that Leo DiCaprio was able to reflect the bratty, manipulative side of Rimbaud brilliantly, yet also allowed his performance to show Rimbaud's humour and fierce independent streak. Rimbaud was a nasty, snotty, tantrun-throwing child, but he was also a genius poet, forward-thinking, frustrated and insecure young man. I think this conflicted young person was played to perfection by Leo and I think it should be more recognised within his body of work.
Sure, the sets wobble at times, and at times the dialouge is on the gorgonzola side of cheesy and the special effects aint all that special, but the storyline, subtle character elements and the relationship between Rimabaud and Verlaine make for a very compelling love story, warts and all. I love it!
"You won't know how well you played until you've won."

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I think it's unfair to really have a go over the accent, David Thewlis isn't attempting an accent at all either and neither are the other actors, they are just French and speaking with their own
Thing for me is I can understand why DiCaprio was picked, he really really looks the part and in places his acting isn't so bad. - entirely in my opinion of course.
The awful thing about this film for me is the script personally. It's full of these lines taken from Rimbaud's poetry and the letters of Verlaine and Rimbaud and well people do not write how they talk, especially when it comes to poetry it's not how people speak
Most of the time when the acting is really really squiffy (or bad if you will) it seems to be a consequence of the fact that the lines they have been given to say as actors are utterly utterly false and wooden, something that few people could make sound natural..
just my two cents
"And if all this seems to be eccentric
Be aware be sure I meant it"
I
Johnny Marr