Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 9-April-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Horseman on the Roof (1995)

I tell people I don't like French films, but this isn't strictly true. Of course there are a few I haven't hated, and there's even one that I have loved: Jean-Paul Rappeneau's "The Horseman on the Roof." Surely this movie is impervious to anybody's dislike. It's a marvelous adventure that sweeps you up to another time and place and puts you in company with fascinating, flesh-and-blood characters who are bold and passionate and easy on the eyes. You can watch it repeatedly and always find something exciting to ponder or to feel. It's a rare accomplishment in a historical film: a truly intimate epic.

"The Horseman on the Roof" takes place in the 1830s when Europe was in the throes of myriad upheavals. The dashing hero, Angelo (Olivier Martinez), is an Italian nobleman who has been tagged a rebel by the ruling Austrians and driven from his homeland into France. Not content with mere exile, the Austrians send assassins to hunt him down, so he flees precariously from town to town while searching for lost compatriots. If that weren't bad enough, Angelo's travels land him in the heart of a cholera epidemic (warning: this movie is not for the squeamish), which entails the dual dangers of rampant death and a citizenry turned into a panicked mob.

You might think such challenges would daunt the most stalwart hussar, but Angelo is a remarkable young man. As brought up by his single mother, whose looming unseen presence makes her a character in her own right, he scorns fear and rushes in wherever the services of a gentleman are needed. Strutting around with his clipped, erect strides, Martinez perfectly communicates Angelo's greenness and his valor; he may be a boy unused to real hardships, but he is most definitely up to them.

The only time Angelo's composure falters is when he's confronted with Pauline (Juliette Binoche), an older woman on whose hospitality he reluctantly imposes one dark and stormy night. Through his native chivalry and the vicissitudes of the crisis, they end up uniting to escape quarantine and ride south, he back to Italy and she to a series of border towns for reasons originally unexplained. Their journey comprises breathtaking scenery, swashbuckling exploits, and personal discovery, and it allows the story to grow and deepen right up to the very end. Angelo and Pauline open themselves to each other in the halting way of complex individuals, so their connection feels as unique and thrilling as their context. (I can assure you that no other movie presents a gorgeous man ripping off a gorgeous woman's clothes with quite the same pitch of intensity.)

"The Horseman on the Roof" leaves you aglow with the vastness of human experience, as expressed in the struggles people have endured, the lands they have traveled, and the emotions at least two of them might have felt.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.