French director-costar Bartabas shows off his celebrated Zingaro horse theater in Aubervilliers as well as a lot of flamboyant, mannered film technique, in this speculative period account of the early-19th-century encounter between the French romantic horse painter Theodore Gericault and Franconi, horse trainer and master of the Olympic Circus. Winner of the technical prize for best visual achievement at the 1993 Cannes festival, this movie is often striking as spectacle, yet it’s too calculated and self-enamored about its effects to allow one to get very involved with the material. But if you like horses and horse acts, this is a must. With Miguel Bose and Brigitte Marty; written by Bartabas, Claude-Henri Bufford and Homeric. (JR)