Mazeppa - by Bartabas (1993)

"Mazeppa," which calls itself a speculative meditation on the life and art of the French Romantic painter Theodore Gericault, is a film that will literally make you dizzy. Conceived and directed by Bartabas, a renowned horse trainer and impresario of the Theatre Equestre Zingaro, it is an equestrian fever dream that suggests Peter Shaffer's play "Equus," but with the mystical fervor multiplied severalfold.





Filmed largely in Bartabas's theater in Aubervilliers, France, "Mazeppa" has many breathtaking scenes of the troupe performing gymnastic feats on the backs of horses. As the camera tracks the animals trotting around and around the circus ring, you can lose your balance in the gliding merry-go-round swirl.




The movie studies equestrian form and anatomy with a painter's and a horse breeder's eye. Horses are graphically photographed excreting, mating and giving birth, as well as cantering, galloping and executing tricks. In one of the movie's most sensual moments, the camera compares human and equine limbs as naked humans make love in a stable.




If the film, which opens today at the Village East, is one of the most visually poetic celebrations of horses ever filmed, it is not as successful at telling a story. Using a narrator and sparse dialogue, it tries to force together two separate tales into a coherent romantic fable.

Stars: Miguel Bosé, Bartabas and Brigitte Marty
Production land: france
Run time: ~ 105 min