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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00The love story between these two men was based on letters and poetry in the 18th century.
00:06Both were the greatest and most famous poets in France at that time.
00:11However, their relationship was full of unexpected twists and turns, sometimes passionate and sometimes violent.
00:18Despite all that, their poetry forever revolutionized the face of modern poetry.
00:24This movie tells the story of two poets named Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.
00:29It is directly taken from their letters and poetry.
00:33In September 1871, a young Rimbaud sends his poetry to Verlaine from his home in the provinces.
00:40At that time, Verlaine is a well-established poet in Paris.
00:45Seeing his extraordinary masterpiece, Verlaine is immediately fascinated
00:50and impulsively invites Rimbaud to the house of his wealthy father-in-law, Mr. Modin in Paris.
00:57Rimbaud accepts the invitation and makes his way there.
01:01Once there, he meets Verlaine's young and pregnant wife, Mathilde Maudet, and her mother.
01:08Rimbaud asks where Verlaine is, but Mathilde says that he went to this station to meet him.
01:14After Verlaine returns home, all of them are having lunch together.
01:18Verlaine asks Rimbaud how old he is, and he replies that he is 16.
01:24It is revealed that Rimbaud lied to him by saying he was 21 in his letter.
01:29However, the wild and eccentric Rimbaud shows absolutely no manners or courtesy during the lunch,
01:35as he came from a remote province of France.
01:38Verlaine and Rimbaud have a drink at the bar, where the two talk share their thoughts about Mathilde.
01:44The next day, Verlaine urges Rimbaud to publish his poetry, but Rimbaud refuses.
01:51He says that the only thing that matters is the writing itself.
01:55Rimbaud does not believe in love either, and says that it has to be reinvented.
02:00At night, Verlaine is in his bedroom with Mathilde trying to understand the meaning of his poetry.
02:06Meanwhile, Rimbaud is messing around with Mr. Modin's collectibles.
02:11He even barks like a dog at the small dog statue and breaks it for some reason.
02:16He then takes one of the preserved butterflies and puts it on his clothes.
02:20Shortly after that, Mr. Modin suddenly comes back home and sees Rimbaud sitting on the couch.
02:27Rimbaud does not recognize him at first, even innocently calling him old boy.
02:33After learning the man is Mr. Modin, Rimbaud simply tells him that he just broke one of his dog statues,
02:40stating that dogs are all liberals.
02:42Because of all these strange actions, Mr. Modin kicks Rimbaud out of the house.
02:47He then informs Verlaine about it, and Verlaine is shocked to hear that.
02:52Verlaine immediately searches for Rimbaud and finally finds him sitting on a bench outside the house.
02:59Having no control over the house, Verlaine rents out a room for Rimbaud at a nearby inn.
03:06As Verlaine walks home, the naked Rimbaud comes out from his window and deliberately throws his clothes near Verlaine.
03:13Since then, Verlaine has become interested in the unique originality of Rimbaud's mind.
03:19When he gets home, Verlaine appears to be offended after hearing Mathilde's words about Rimbaud.
03:25As a result, Verlaine throws Mathilde to the floor.
03:29However, his actions are discovered by Mr. Modin and his wife, who suddenly enter their room.
03:35At that point, it seems that Verlaine's sadistic nature begins to emerge.
03:40Later, Verlaine and Rimbaud go to the gathering of artists in the city.
03:45Rimbaud gets acquainted with Verlaine's friends.
03:48While one of them is reciting a poem, Rimbaud suddenly makes a commotion.
03:53He fights with the others and gets on the table to run around.
03:57Rimbaud also pees on one of the poems, criticizing that the artists in the bourgeois city are even more bourgeois than the bourgeoisie.
04:06Verlaine and Rimbaud return to the inn, and they kiss for the first time.
04:11The two also spend the night together.
04:13The next day, Verlaine arrives at his house and finds that his son has been born.
04:18He starts treating Mathilde harshly, but she does not let herself get hurt this time.
04:24On the other hand, Rimbaud goes back to his hometown and meets his younger sister, Isabel, as well as his mother.
04:31He only stays at his house for a day to meet his family before returning to Paris again.
04:37Soon, the 27-year-old Verlaine is finally seduced by Rimbaud's physical body.
04:43Both of them sleep together for one night.
04:46The following morning, a drunk Verlaine returns home to see Mathilde and their son.
04:52Apparently, he intends to harass her again.
04:55Verlaine slams the pram with their son inside against the wall and chokes Mathilde.
05:01Not only that, he also sets fire to Mathilde's hair for his gratification.
05:06A few moments later, Verlaine and Rimbaud meet at a bar.
05:10Verlaine tells Rimbaud that he actually loves him, but he also loves Mathilde.
05:15Rimbaud asks him to put his hand on the table with palm upwards.
05:19He then takes a knife and uses it to stab Verlaine's palm.
05:23Both of them seem to be enjoying how they feel about each other now.
05:27The two sleep together again for another night.
05:30Rimbaud tells Verlaine that they have to leave somewhere, saying he wants to see the sun.
05:36He feels that running away from home could make him happy.
05:40Soon, both of them go to the wild and spend their time together.
05:44They do a lot of weird things, one of which is mimicking the wild goats.
05:49Rimbaud also runs into the sea with his clothes on, which is one of his dreams from long ago.
05:55One year later, the two have moved to Brussels, Belgium.
05:59One day, Verlaine quietly leaves the sleeping Rimbaud to meet Mathilde,
06:04who turns out to be following him to Belgium.
06:07However, Rimbaud knows what Verlaine is going to do.
06:11Mathilde finally has a brief reconciliation with Verlaine.
06:15Verlaine tells Mathilde that he abandoned her and their son for a year
06:19because he was afraid he would be arrested.
06:22Mathilde suggests that they emigrate to New Caledonia, where many of Verlaine's friends live there.
06:28She also says that it would be easier for Verlaine if he wants to stop drinking.
06:33When Mathilde leaves the room to get her things ready,
06:36she meets Rimbaud who is waiting for Verlaine outside.
06:40Mathilde tells him that she and Verlaine have decided to live together again.
06:44Hearing this, Rimbaud confronts Verlaine in the room.
06:48The two quarrel for a while, and Rimbaud reluctantly allows Verlaine to leave with Mathilde.
06:54Verlaine and Mathilde finally board a train.
06:57When they reach the border station, Verlaine sees Rimbaud following him on another train.
07:03Apparently, Verlaine and Rimbaud have planned to run away together when they had a fight in Belgium.
07:09Because of that, Rimbaud boards the same train as Rimbaud.
07:13He ditches Mathilde alone in the other train and makes fun of her.
07:18A few months after the incident, the two have moved to England.
07:22After reading Rimbaud's poem, Verlaine wonders why Rimbaud chose to write to him
07:27because he could never understand his writings.
07:30Rimbaud says that he has always known what to say in his poem, but Verlaine always knows how to say it.
07:37Sometime later, Verlaine tells Rimbaud that he received a letter from Mathilde's lawyer.
07:42Mathilde has applied for legal separation on grounds that Verlaine and Rimbaud are indulging in immoral relations.
07:50One morning, Verlaine goes to the market to buy a fish.
07:54As he approaches his house, Rimbaud says bad things to Verlaine from the window, even making jokes with him.
08:01Seeing this, Verlaine, who is not in the mood, takes this seriously and throws the fish at Rimbaud, breaking the window pane.
08:09Consequently, Verlaine rushes to the dock and decides to return to Belgium by boat, leaving Rimbaud alone in England.
08:17Several days later, Rimbaud eventually makes his way back to Belgium to see Verlaine.
08:23However, the two immediately fight.
08:26Verlaine apologizes to Rimbaud and promises not to leave him again.
08:30Saying he was very angry at that time.
08:33The next morning, Verlaine gets drunk in a cafe after buying a gun.
08:38When he returns home, he sees Rimbaud packing his belongings as he wants to come back to his hometown.
08:44On the other hand, Verlaine have decided that both of them are going back to England.
08:49Although Verlaine persuades him to stay with him, Rimbaud insists on leaving him.
08:54At that moment, Rimbaud's psychological torture of Verlaine intensifies
08:59and enraged Verlaine points his gun at Rimbaud and eventually shoots his left hand.
09:05The court suspects Verlaine whether he has a relationship with Rimbaud other than friendship.
09:11However, Verlaine denies it and says that he regrets his actions.
09:16After examining Verlaine's body, both doctors find that Verlaine has recently indulged in both active and passive sodomy.
09:25Because of that, Verlaine is sentenced a fine of 200 francs and two years in prison for sodomy and grievous bodily harm.
09:34In the meantime, the doctors are taking out the bullet from Rimbaud's wound.
09:38After the accident, Rimbaud returns to his hometown again.
09:42From then on, he feels very lonely, just like Verlaine who also experiences loneliness behind the bars.
09:50Rimbaud continues to write letters and poems day after day until Verlaine is released from prison two years later.
09:57The two eventually meet in Black Forest, Germany.
10:01Verlaine claims that he has converted to Christianity while he was in prison.
10:06He hopes that Rimbaud can follow his example to experience God's help, just like when he was imprisoned.
10:13The reason he came to see Rimbaud was because he wanted Rimbaud to find some direction in his life.
10:19Verlaine also hopes that God may help Rimbaud to achieve his aims, but Rimbaud says that he does not have it at all.
10:27Rimbaud finally states that he has stopped writing because he has nothing more to say.
10:32Rimbaud thought that what he did would make a difference and change the world, but he realizes that was not good.
10:40In the end of their conversation, Verlaine wants the two of them to go away together.
10:45However, Rimbaud tells him that he will have to find somebody else.
10:49This shows that their attempt to revive the relationship are ultimately in vain.
10:54Verlaine and Rimbaud part ways and never see each other again for the rest of their lives.
11:00After his separation from Verlaine, Rimbaud bitterly renounces literature in any form.
11:06It can be seen that Rimbaud travels the world alone, eventually living in Abyssinia.
11:12It is called Ethiopia in the modern day.
11:15While walking though the big rocks, Rimbaud suddenly stumbles and injures his leg from being hit by a rock.
11:22He then sees a boy in the distance, perhaps who would become his young lover in Abyssinia.
11:28When he gets home, Rimbaud's leg is being treated by his mistress.
11:33Several years after Rimbaud's death, the older Verlaine meets Isabel in a cafe in Paris.
11:39Isabel says that she and her mother want Verlaine to hand over any copies he may still have of Rimbaud's poems.
11:47They want to burn them for fear of the lewdness of Rimbaud's writings.
11:51Isabel speaks frankly that a number of poems Rimbaud wrote in his extreme youth were quite indecent.
11:58Apart from that, Isabel asserts that Rimbaud was converted to Christianity right before he died.
12:05She reasoned with him and prayed for him for weeks while he was ill.
12:09At one moment, Rimbaud asked for a confession from a priest.
12:13This is the main reason why only the censored versions of Rimbaud's poetry should survive.
12:19Verlaine then asks Isabel what had happened to Rimbaud before he died.
12:24The scene shifts back to the ailing Rimbaud, who has a tumor on his right knee moments later after he stumbled.
12:31There is no doctor there, and Rimbaud would not leave his work.
12:35Instead, he insists on staying until the pain becomes unbearable.
12:40Because of this situation, Rimbaud plans to go back to France to treat his serious injuries.
12:46He designs a litter and hires ten people to take him to the coast.
12:51Unfortunately, the journey takes more than two weeks for him to arrive in France.
12:56Before leaving, Rimbaud meets the boy he saw earlier.
13:00Long story short, Rimbaud is taken to the hospital in Marseilles as soon as he arrives.
13:06Sadly, his leg has to be amputated because his severe wound can no longer be healed.
13:12Rimbaud lives in his family's house for a month, where Isabel attempts to take care of him every day.
13:18For some reason, he keeps saying that he has to travel back towards the sun and that the sun would heal him.
13:25Nevertheless, his tumor grows into a cancer and spreads throughout his body.
13:30Rimbaud eventually dies at the age of 37.
13:34After hearing the rest of Rimbaud's life story, Verlaine pretends to agree to help Isabel and her mother.
13:41Before leaving, Isabel gives her business card to Verlaine,
13:45reminding him that they have to make a very careful selection about which poems would survive.
13:51However, Verlaine instead tears up her business card after she leaves.
13:56He then orders two absinthes, to which he has become addicted,
14:00and somehow sees a vision of the 16-year-old Rimbaud.
14:05Rimbaud expresses the love and respect which Verlaine has earned after Rimbaud's death.
14:11The movie ends with a young Rimbaud walking alone on a mountain range and carrying a white cloth.
14:17At the same time, Verlaine narrates that he sees Rimbaud every night since his death,
14:22proclaiming that they are both happy together.
14:25Rimbaud also claims that he has finally found eternity, which is the sun mingles with the sea.