THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608170066
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 45 lines
AH, L'AMOUR.
Those French. They certainly know how to look into each other's eyes and say, well, FRENCH things.
In ``The Horseman on the Roof,'' dashing Olivier Martinez seems reluctant to finally break out and say ``Darling, Je vous aimes beaucoup'' to dewy-eyed Juliette Binoche, but they certainly look at each other a lot.
As an unbridled romance in Harlequin-style steaminess, this may be one of the few screen love affairs in a decade or so in which the participants merely work up to holding hands. Yet, it's quite a build-up. Martinez is as handsome and chivalrous a gentleman as could be imagined. Binoche was never lovelier, or more controlled.
In the years after the Napoleonic wars, he's an Italian freedom fighter, hiding from just about everyone in cholera-infested southeastern France. He literally drops from her roof and, together, they flee across beautifully photographed country landscapes. She's married. He's been raised, by a much-discussed but never seen mother, to be a gentleman. There's a little swordplay (not as much as we expected).
Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau turns this into a visual splendor reminiscent of his ``Cyrano de Begerac.'' Even Gerald Depardieu has a cameo appearance. It's adapted from the Jean Giono novel, which has become revered in French literature.
The political ramifications of the Austrian empire and Italian rebels hiding in France are a bit hazy; it's difficult, at times, to tell who's on what side. Still, the film is proof that a touch and a look can be as sexually tense as all the vulgar histrionics that Hollywood churns out in the name of sex these days. MEMO: MOVIE REVIEW
``The Horseman on the Roof''
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Olivier Martinez
Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau
MPAA rating: R (one scene of nudity)
Mal's rating: three stars ILLUSTRATION: MIRAMAX photo
Olivier Martinez... by CNB