Total Eclipse 1995 In 1871, Paul Verlaine 1844 1896, an established poet, invites boy genius Arthur Rimbaud 1854 1891 to live with Paul and his young pregnant wife, Mathiltde, in her fathers home in Paris Rimbauds 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 Mathiltde he and Rimbaud become lovers and abandon her There are reconciliations and partings with Mathiltde 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