The Sunday Times (London)
January 7, 1996, Sunday
THE HORSEMAN ON THE ROOF
136 mins, 15
Jean-Paul Rappeneau, the director of Cyrano de Bergerac, returns with another tale of swordplay and courtly heroics. This time out, the setting is 1832 Provence.
A young Italian revolutionary (Olivier Martinez) flees an Austrian hit squad, only to land in the middle of a cholera epidemic. He takes refuge at the chateau of a beautiful young comtesse (Juliette Binoche), who asks him to accompany her on a dangerous mission to find her ageing husband. Unfortunately, the film lacks the self-deprecatory wit and woozy romanticism of Cyrano. It’s all galumping action. The roof turns out to be a proper setting for a film that goes over the top so often it barely touches the ground.
