The Horseman on the Roof

Provence provides a stunning locale for this romantic adventure. The camera work is exquisite and every opportunity is taken to capture the natural beauty of this region. The story is simple enough. Angelo, an Italian colonel (handsome Olivier Martinez) escapes from Austrian-oppressed Italy to raise funds in the continuing battle against Austria. He finds more than an unsympathetic acceptance in France. Most of the towns through which he rides are beset with cholera. The camera scenes of the dead and dying victims, horse-drawn carts packed high with bodies and funeral pyres are terrifying enough, but it is the fluttering of black wings as crows seek out the eyes of the dying victims that frighten most. Some of the close-ups are pretty grim. In lighter vein I liked the scene where a cat befriends our horseman and he talks to it on the roof about how wars are won with money as much as guns. The cat is a great little actor. The horseman an accomplished swordsman carves his way through many a desperate situation (What hero doesn't?) He acquires a bottle of medicine from a dying stranger who has taught him a massage technique to avert death from cholera. On his way back to Italy with a bag of gold coins, he gives protection to Pauline, a doctor's wife (Juliette Binoche)who is seeking out her missing husband in the cholera-infected area. The young 25-year old colonel who sends almost daily letters to his mother in Italy (they are really a diary of events) behaves as the perfect gentleman at all times, but his protegee is obviously drawn to him. Here is a love story where the lovers admire from a distance never submitting to the chemistry which is drawing them together. When the woman collapses with cholera, all existing barriers are forgotten as he works on her frantically with his acquired knowledge to save her life. One of the great joys of this film is to watch the handsome faces of Martinez and Binoche. Their beauty contrasts sharply with the agonised plight of the villagers and the devilish black crows which hover continuously about the dead, fluttering out through open doors and windows. The ending may not satisfy some, but it leaves us with the thought that somewhere sometime all will be well again.

I found this film to be excellent. Though I am a student of history, I really do not know all the details regarding this episode of the freeing of Italy from Austrian authoritarianism. Though interesting, the historical aspect of the movie was not that important to me. It was a highly enjoyable adventure film that could have been placed in lots of different historical times.

Besides being a great adventure film it masterfully dealt with a most wide range of emotions. There were many undertones and harmonics dealing with fear, desperation, horror, escape, passion, love, honor and divine, or natural, justice.

What was so fascinating to me was how the movie showed the power of freedom, courage and focus. The protagonist was raised by his mother (a most curiously powerful presence in this movie even though we never see or hear her)to be independent and freedom loving and this movie shows how strong and almost invincible this makes him because he believes it and lives it with all his heart. All around him the world is literally falling apart and going mad from fear and disease and yet, by neither railing against it nor taking on these thoughts, he triumphs with his will to live and being true to his own vision at all times.

And as an added bonus, the visual artistry of this movie, from the titles all the way to the end is beautiful to behold. The scenery, costumes, sets, actors, camera angles and etc. are all brilliantly satisfying. The movie was a joy to see.

Juliette Binoche and Olivier Martinez look great, and they throw themselves enthusiastically into their roles. They do have a certain chemistry together, but the film devotes much more attention to the effects of the French cholera epidemic in 1832 on the countryside. The plot that kicks off the story rather dramatically is that of the assassination plots against Italian nationalists by Austrians who'd like to take over northern Italy. The end of the movie, however, reveals the true focus of the story. I wish that the majority of the movie was devoted to that story.

Two superstars of the french cinema: adorable Juliette Binoche and hot Olivier Martinez, love and save each other from lost, sickness and death, while horse-riding through the stunningly beautiful Provence. An adaptation of the famous novel by Jean Giono. They are there: on the screen, on their horses, in this magnificent landscape, he tries to become a man, she tries to stay a woman, they are smiling, and soon you'll express the wish of being with them on this screen, to be one of them, maybe both, if this happens, Rappeneau gets to his goal: grace. A great tale about love, renouncement, youth, passion, courage and Honor. A famous novel of the french literature. Patriotism, romanticism, and grace. Rappeneau is the master, Binoche and Martinez are the gifted pupils.

Le Hussard sur le Toit presents its audience with the grim reality of cholera-stricken rural France in 1832 and its effect on a journey of escape by two anxious visitors. The frequent images of corpses and mass burial are refreshed by the breathtaking and beautifully shot scenery, itself brought to life by characters who dilute the presence of death with an oxymoronic mix of comedy and despair. Carrion crows regularly appear, mercilessly flying around in sinister anticipation, their cawing beaks wide open with hunger.

Juliette Binoche enters only in the second half, her laconic period style beautifully portrayed, and preparing the way for her appearance as George Sand in Les Enfants du Siecle (1999). Le Hussard's plot is simple, its screenplay uncomplicated. But the action is fast and Bond-like and the innocence of Martinez' military-dominated character is uncanny. But it is its simplicity that makes this movie a work of exceptional visual satisfaction, for romantics or action-lovers alike.