Dewy Xiao Li is not the reason for me to watch this movie

Waino 2022-04-22 07:01:55

This article was first published on the public account "Seven Shadows of Bamboo Forest".

In other words, is Rimbaud an experiencer who made himself a poet, or a poet who experiences life?

Xiao Li in 1995 is still two years away from Jack in "Titanic", but Rimbaud played in this film has more extraordinary aura than that third-rate painter. After all, he walked out of the psychic world. Not only Li Bai of China, but also Rimbaud, the symbolist representative of France at the end of the 19th century, can be counted as such.




Just like philosophers, poets can also be divided into two types. One is textual research on desk articles, and they often use what ordinary people can say and what ordinary people think and say. The second is sweet, but they definitely cannot open up a precedent for poetry. They can only follow the lines of their predecessors, but they also occupy three or four poems. The other is just the opposite. They deliberately erase the traces left by their predecessors, so There is a vast white fog in front of me, and I only have a small boat, swaying and entering with the wind, there are naturally faint ripples on the lake surface, so that future generations can follow. As for whether it can be recognized by the world, it is not their task. It is the child touched by the muse, who only creates the poetic language of beauty, and is not responsible for the interpretation of the poetic language.




The reason why I put such a paragraph before talking about this movie is because all the core of this movie lies in this. The protagonist of the film's biography is Rimbaud played by Xiao Li, a genius poet who came out of the French countryside. At the age of sixteen, he wrote symbolic poems that surpassed that era. People appreciate it, so Verlaine is a reasonable target.

Poet Verlaine, who is quite conservative in the Symbolist school, is a married man in his thirties. Since Rimbaud has broken his back since he was a boy, sparks naturally flashed with the poetic communication between the two. Hence the rather vulgar love triangle, as well as the plot of Verlaine abandoning his wife and children. It is understandable that this kind of notoriety on the ethical level just leaves a footnote to the poetic narrative of the film.




Although the main part of the story is spent in the on-off between Verlaine and Rimbaud, and the normal couple-like sparring, the elegant character modeling and highly restored historical scenes can undoubtedly put the audience in the in a poetic story.

What is in harmony with the poetic story is the film's treatment of sex. Since the film wants to show Rimbaud's strong poetic creativity and unruly character, the scale exposure is still without hesitation. A sex scene can see the wild aspect of sex.





This is completely different from "Girl with a Pearl Necklace", which is also a biopic of a European artist. In the latter, due to the calm and restrained sexual impulse between the painter Meier and the maid, the whole picture of the film is completely different. Basically, the frame is mainly fixed, and there is little action; in "Total Eclipse Crazy Love", whether it is the frequent walking between the characters or the movement of the scenery under the camera, the whole film is full of motion.




Interestingly, the two biopics have similarities in stories. Both Meyer and Verlaine are artists who are married to their wives, while the maid and Rimbaud are both acting as third parties, but they are quite different. The difference is that "Girl with a Pearl Necklace" retains the original love pattern with sexual restraint, while "Total Eclipse Crazy Love" opens up a new love adventure with sexual indulgence.

Their relationship and their poetic life can be seen in the superb acting skills of Li and David Thewlis, as can be seen in the following two passages:

Rimbaud said to Verlaine: "I always know what to say, But you know how to say it."

Rimbaud said to Verlaine: "You are forced to choose this path because of the situation, and I am different. I choose this way of life on my own initiative.

" People are different, it is undoubtedly reasonable for the movie to explain Verlaine and Rimbaud in this way, because in reality, Verlaine is a conservative poet belonging to the symbolism. Whether compared with Mallarmé's obscure and mysterious style of poetry, or with Rimbaud's advanced and aura, Verlaine's poetic style is more popular and more acceptable to the public, which explains why Lanbo is arranged in the film. Poe said Verlaine was "better at speaking".




But Rimbaud is different. He is not only a representative of Symbolism, but also a founder of Surrealism. His poetry transcended that era, and people could not appreciate his poetry until the beginning of the 20th century. The trend of literary and artistic thought did not stop even in the middle of the twentieth century, and even became a spiritual totem in the "Beat Generation" after World War II in the United States. Kerouac's "On the Road" was influenced by such uninhibited thoughts.




If the stereotypical love plot has lowered the quality of this biopic to some extent, then from another perspective, it has also narrowed the distance between the film and the audience, making it possible for the audience to fall in love with it .

The movie ended in Rimbaud's death. His sister asked Verlaine to ask for a poem, but Verlaine tore up his business card and did not intend to return it. It is redundant to say here, but I don't think so.




Because, the old Verlaine, as the leader of the Symbolist school, in terms of art, he not only admires Rimbaud, but at the same time, he is also jealous of Rimbaud, and does not want the publication of Rimbaud's poems, but as a lover of the year, he is so I miss Rimbaud, so much that I think of the memory of once stabbing the palm of my hand. People are always wandering between worldliness and sincerity, even Verlaine, even Verlaine who is old and dying.

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Extended Reading

Total Eclipse quotes

  • [first lines]

    Paul Verlaine: Sometimes he speaks in a kind of tender dialect of the death which causes repentence, of the unhappy men who certainly exist, of painful tasks and heartrending departures. In the hovels where we got drunk he wept looking at those who surrounded us, the cattle of poverty. He lifted up drunks in the black streets. He had the pity a bad mother has for small children. He moved with the grace of a little girl at catechism. He pretended to know about everything, business, art, medicine. I followed him, I had to!

  • [last lines]

    Arthur Rimbaud: I've found it. What? Eternity. It's the sun mingled with the sea.