IMDb RATING
7.0/10
6.4K
YOUR RATING
In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.
- Awards
- 4 wins & 8 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaShot over a period of four and a half months in 50 different locations.
- Alternate versionsThe version released in the U.S. was significantly shorter than the original French version, because the American distributor removed 15-20 minutes of footage.
Featured review
Great old-fashioned entertainment
The Horseman on the Roof has to be one of the most beautiful looking films I've ever seen, which is odd for a movie about a cholera epidemic.
Set in a beautiful summer in the mid-19th century, it follows Olivier Martinez's Italian in exile as he is chased across France by Austrian agents intent on killing as many Italian rebels as they can only for his pursuers to be outrun by a cholera epidemic that picks off friends and foes. Along the way his path crosses with various victims and survivors - a doctor who teaches him a neat disinfecting trick of setting your hands on fire, a cute governess, Jean Yanne's duplicitous peddler, Gerard Depardieu's paranoid mayor, and most importantly Juliette Binoche, who is determined to find her husband. Naturally they become travelling companions as they try to get through roadblocks and avoid being put into quarantine by the soldiers cordoning off the roads - a virtual death sentence - and eventually nearly become more. The film looks so good in cinemascope and so much of it is terrific than you can just about forgive the fact that the ending is a bit of a washout after everything that's gone before.
A really enjoyable old-fashioned epic, I'd definitely pick this up if it ever turned up on DVD uncut with English subtitles (the Miramax disc is typically cut by 17 minutes thanks to Harvey Scissorhands).
Set in a beautiful summer in the mid-19th century, it follows Olivier Martinez's Italian in exile as he is chased across France by Austrian agents intent on killing as many Italian rebels as they can only for his pursuers to be outrun by a cholera epidemic that picks off friends and foes. Along the way his path crosses with various victims and survivors - a doctor who teaches him a neat disinfecting trick of setting your hands on fire, a cute governess, Jean Yanne's duplicitous peddler, Gerard Depardieu's paranoid mayor, and most importantly Juliette Binoche, who is determined to find her husband. Naturally they become travelling companions as they try to get through roadblocks and avoid being put into quarantine by the soldiers cordoning off the roads - a virtual death sentence - and eventually nearly become more. The film looks so good in cinemascope and so much of it is terrific than you can just about forgive the fact that the ending is a bit of a washout after everything that's gone before.
A really enjoyable old-fashioned epic, I'd definitely pick this up if it ever turned up on DVD uncut with English subtitles (the Miramax disc is typically cut by 17 minutes thanks to Harvey Scissorhands).
helpful•100
- burrobaggy
- Apr 3, 2005
- How long is The Horseman on the Roof?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Damdaki süvari
- Filming locations
- Menthon-Saint-Bernard, Haute-Savoie, France(final castle scene)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,320,043
- Gross worldwide
- $1,320,043
- Runtime1 hour 58 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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![Juliette Binoche and Olivier Martinez in The Horseman on the Roof (1995)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTA5N2Y0OGItZGZhMi00ZmFjLWIxOGYtYzk5NjRhZjYyMmE5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjMwMjk0MTQ@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,1,90,133_.jpg)