The Basketball Diaries / Total Eclipse [VHS] [1995] [1997]

Very much like "Prick up Your Ears", this film centres on the realationship between two talented writers, one of whom is pretty mediocre (Paul Verlaine) when compared to the younger mans talent (Arthur Rimbaud)

I was a little sceptical when I first heard about this movie as I feared that it was another mind-numbing DiCaprio movie, where he traded on his looks more than his acting talent (eg Titanic & The Beach).

However I was so surprised when I saw this film that DiCaprio really can act!!!! Forget what you may think about his acting talents if you are basing it purely on Titanic or The Beach, as this film will blow you away.

This film is beautifully shot and expertly brought the lives of these two poets to the screen. The cast was a real brain wave as they give the best performances of their careers to date!

But it was a little dissapointing to heat DiCaprio still talk with his American accent even though he was playing a French man!!! The same is true for Thewlis. A little effort on that part would've aided in making this film a little more belivable. The lack of that sort of realism meant that at times you forgot that it was actually real events they were showing you.

This film is also let down by the fact that you have no real sympathy with any of the characters. Just when you start to like them, they say or do something which makes you hate them again! Maybe this is how these people really were, I don't know! But it just seemed to me, that if you could get to know them a little better then maybe you would want them to succeed in the end! I felt that I didn't really understand or know them well enough to be interested in how they ended up.

Having said all that, it is still a great film that has sex, love, passion, poetry (not enough really though seeing as it is about two poets!), insanity, anger, hatred and death!

What else could you ask for from a film?

If only DiCaprio would make more films like this!!!

There is actually not a single character in this film who is really likable, and that's what separates it from the rest of the pabulum that we tend to get as a daily diet. There are moments that you adore them, then minutes later they couldn't be more loathsome. How like the real world! How like ourselves!

The psychological roller coaster ride of a relationship between two brilliant, but - through their genius - thoroughly disturbed, people is fascinating and never for a second boring.

It's not warm and fuzzy, but it will move you all the same.

This film shows that Leonardo is actually quite an accomplished actor (before Titanic came along and all credibility for his talents were washed away with the doomed ship!)as he shows that he was willing to take risks in the choices of film he did.

This is certainly one of them! This gripping drama tells the story of two 19th Century poets in France Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) and Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio)

Their passionate and doomed realtionship shocked the 19th Century world as Arthur was not accusomed to hiding his feelings and Paul wasn't much better.

Both were pretty disturbed people whose destructive natures made a long-lasting relationship almost impossible.

This film is wonderfully shot, and beautifully told. Helped imensily by the superb acting from DiCaprio and Thewlis who are both on Oscar winning form here.

Not to everyone's taste but I loved it!