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A sensationalized retelling of the Rimbaud-Verlaine story. The great French
poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote all his poems, which continue to amaze and
inspire to this day, during a brief burst of activity in the early 1870s, when he
was just a teenager. According to Christopher Hampton's screenplay, it's
amazing Rimbaud found time to write anything at all, since he was carrying
on a torrid, absinthe-soaked homosexual love affair with the older and not
quite so great poet Paul Verlaine. This affair ended when Verlaine shot
Rimbaud in the hand in a Brussels hotel room. In this version of the story,
it's also amazing that Rimbaud wanted to have anything to do with Verlaine,
who is depicted as a utterly despicable human being.