FILM REVIEW;Romance On the Run As a Plague Closes In

All it takes for civilization to explode into a frenzied panic is a rampant cholera epidemic. The madness that attends such a plague is a gripping leitmotif that runs through Jean-Paul Rappeneau's gorgeously picturesque film "The Horseman on the Roof" like a cagey rat skittering across a banquet table. In one scene after another of this sumptuous 19th-century costume drama, an idyllic rural tableau worthy of Corot or Millet is shattered when a character suddenly goes pale, collapses to the ground and succumbs to racking spasms that quickly end in death. The victims attract flocks of crows feasting on human carrion.

These horrifying moments are the ominous minor chords in a love story meticulously adapted from a much-admired 1951 novel by the French author Jean Giono. Its central character, Angelo Pardi (Olivier Martinez), is nothing less than 19th-century heroism incarnate. An idealistic revolutionary and an indomitably fearless soldier of noble character who stifles his passion for a beautiful married woman, he embodies values like honor and gallantry that have faded so completely from contemporary consciousness that the very words have a quaint, musty ring.

That may be one reason the movie's sword fights, rescues and other feats of derring-do, while filmed with a quicksilver lightness and fluidity, lack the impact of its scenes of agonizing death. In the era of "The Hot Zone," the image of a crazed mob storming through the streets of a plague-stricken city looking for scapegoats they believe have poisoned the water makes you wonder, what if? The hysteria reaches almost comic proportions when the guests at an elegant dinner party, learning that two latecomers have just come from a quarantined area, scream in terror and frantically scatter while a maid rushes into the dining room strewing disinfectant.

Against this backdrop of splendor and social havoc, the movie spins the tale of Angelo and Pauline de Theus (Juliette Binoche), the woman with whom he falls in love as he accompanies her on horseback across the French countryside.

It is the 1830's. Although a detailed historical background isn't crucial to appreciating the movie, it helps to know that Angelo is a member of the Carbonari, the secret society of Italian freedom fighters that flourished in the early 19th century. Angelo has exiled himself to France along with many of his fellow revolutionaries because the Austrian Empire, which wants to crush revolutionary movements throughout Europe, has installed a puppet king in their homeland. But even in France, the Carbonari are pursued by Austrian spies. In the movie's opening scene, set in Aix-en-Provence during a summer carnival, imperial agents break into the home of a Carbonaro and drag him off as his wife dashes into the street to find Angelo and warn him to leave town at once.

Angelo flees to the city of Manosque just as the epidemic strikes and finds himself pursued by a rabid mob. Following a dizzying rooftop chase, he steals into a well-appointed house whose sole inhabitant, Pauline, is remarkably unfazed by his presence and gives him food and shelter. In gratitude for her help, he insists on changing his plans to return to Italy and accompanying her on the journey to her hometown of Theus, where she expects to rejoin her much-older husband. The trip is fraught with danger, and the pair find themselves alternately fighting off and hiding from French soldiers enforcing a quarantine that has been imposed.