Nostradamus
Nostradamus
R | 16 September 1994 (USA)
Nostradamus Trailers

A dramatic retelling of the life of Michel de Nostredame, from his early work as a plague doctor to his time at the court of Catherine de Medici, after he became famed for his prophetic almanacs. Stars Rutger Hauer and Julia Ormond.

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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ChicDragon

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

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Sabah Hensley

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

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Roxie

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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James Hitchcock

Michel de Nostredame, generally known as Nostradamus, was a sixteenth-century French physician, but is better known today as a reputed prophet and seer. His fame rests on a series of gnomic quatrains which, it has been claimed, contain predictions of future world events, including wars, political changes and natural disasters. The problem is that his quatrains are written in a language so obscure that they can be interpreted to mean virtually anything. Those who seek to interpret them generally do so with the benefit of hindsight, seeking to prove that Nostradamus predicted World War II, the atomic bomb, 9/11 or whatever; those seeking to use his works to foretell events which have not yet happened tend to come badly unstuck. Even when a particular quatrain can be "proven" to have predicted a particular event, this is normally done with the help of some creative rewriting or creative mistranslating of his words. (Anyone with any knowledge of the French of the period can find some spectacular examples of this on the internet, particularly those interpretations which try to prove that by "Hister"- a Classical name for the River Danube- Nostradamus meant "Hitler").The obscurity of Nostradamus' prophecies was quite deliberate; had he clearly and unambiguously foretold specific events which then failed to occur, his reputation as a seer would have been destroyed for ever. The film, however, would have us believe that he deliberately obscured his meaning in order to ward off the attentions of the Church, although in the sixteenth century attempts to foretell the future were not forbidden and, indeed, astrology was regarded as an intellectually respectable, and theologically permissible, science.As might be clear from my opening paragraph, I personally do not believe that Nostradamus possessed a supernatural power to foretell the future. (Indeed, I do not believe that any human being possesses or has possessed such a power). In the original French, his verses have a certain surrealist inventiveness, but I have never seen any reason to attribute any other significance to them. This film, however, is quite openly made on the assumption that its hero did indeed possess prophetic gifts; I was left with the definite feeling that Roger Christian was asking me to accept that Nostradamus really was a man tormented by horrifying visions of the future and whose prophecies were intended as warnings to mankind of the fate that awaited them.Now I normally leave my scepticism about the supernatural at the cinema door; I have never, for example, allowed the fact that I do not believe in witchcraft to prevent me from enjoying the Harry Potter films. Suspension of disbelief, however, is something I find easier to accomplish in the context of a wholly fictional story than in the context of a biography of a real individual. Neither J K Rowling nor the makers of the "Potter" films are, after all, asking me to accept that witchcraft has any existence outside the realm of fiction, but when a film-maker asks me to give credence to the writings of a sixteenth-century charlatan I find it difficult to take his film seriously."Nostradamus" has other weaknesses, quite apart from its flawed central premise. Unlike many period dramas, this one is not particularly visually attractive, with dull, muddy colours. The action is slow-moving and at times difficult to follow. I understand that Tchéky Karyo is a well-known and respected actor in France, indeed the winner of a Cesar Award, so I presume that he can act in his own language far better than he can in English. (I have never seen any of his French-language movies apart from "Le Retour de Martin Guerre", in which he only had a small part). In the leading role here he is absolutely horrible, dull and wooden without any convincing attempt to convey emotions. Some of the supporting cast are better, including Julia Ormond as Nostradamus' wife, although I was left with the feeling that F. Murray Abraham had come down a long way since "Amadeus" and Rutger Hauer equally far since "Blade Runner". This was the first of Roger Christian's films I have seen, and I cannot say that it has inspired me with any great desire to explore his work further. 4/10

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pyewakt

I am frankly stunned by the generally positive responses to this dreadful film. 'Star' of the production, Tchéky Karyo does not even seem to be able to act in the conventional sense. He is completely expressionless throughout the film, and portrays Nostradamus as a rather dislikeable, arrogant person who seems to inexplicably attract the ladies at will. Why anyone would deign to talk to him, let alone screw him is a genuine mystery. At one point, Nostradamus is in a carriage, having visions of WWII, shouting 'Stop Stop!' over and over. I wonder if the real Nostradamus could indeed see the future, and if so, could have foreseen this horrible film and been suitably upset by it. Perhaps he was really shouting at the director and writer in this scene. There are some very clumsy moments, such as when our visionary shows a pal a symbol that has been perhaps tormenting him - difficult to tell with Karyo's complete lack of facial expression - which is of course a swastika. Cue ominous music etc.Each scene is also longer than it really needs to be, with lots of silence and blank expressions supposedly conveying - well, what exactly? The film has the feel and style of a made for TV movie, just made longer with these pregnant pauses. In fact, I think the film is so bad that any change made to it at all could only improve it.If I could take anything away from this film, it's that Nostradamus could not see the future at all, and was perhaps interested only in promoting himself at any price. A shoddy and pointless affair that in some ways trivialises Nazi atrocities by not even addressing them.

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Dejael

NOSTRADAMUS, aka: Michel de Notre Dame (1503-1566) is an enigmatic, elusive character in history books and dusty old biographies. What this excellent biopic does is make him a real flesh-and-blood person with passions, desires, fears and dreams, and the extremely talented European actor Tcheky Karyo (The CORE, 2002) carries the film admirably from start to finish. He makes Nostradamus a living, breathing human being, a Christian Jew who is seeking to understand his place in the Universe and is an open-minded seeker of truth and a true scientist and physician, a dedicated man of science who invented the first chewable Vitamin C tablet made with rose hips as an effective cure for the Black Plague in its early stages. Of course there was no cure once the plague had spread in the body, so it must have been especially a cruel twist of fate for Michel when his dear first wife Marie and their two children died of the plague and he could not even save them! The casting, acting, production, story and script, and lush cinematography at fascinating locations (filmed in Romania and Europe in 1993) are all first-rate. All aspects of this production are extremely well-handled. Especially good are flawless performances by Julia Ormond, Assumpta Serna, Amanda Plummer, Rutger Hauer, Anthony Higgins, and F. Murray Abraham as the remarkable Dr. Julius Caesar Scalinger (1484-1558), a wealthy friend of both Nostradamus and Dr. Rabelais of Paris, the most noted physician of his day in Europe. The visual effects are a bit shaky here and there, but in all everything works well to a satisfying look into the life of one of the greatest mystery men of the early Renaissance. His prophecies are fascinating and penetrating, as a latter-day prophet. One thing I would love to know is where that beautiful mansion of Dr. Scalinger is, and more about it. If it was built during the life of Nostradamus, it certainly was one of the most modern structures in the world, in its day! An interesting site, with its ornate topiary garden.The music score by Barrington Pheloung is captivating and should be available on CD. This film deserves a wide-screen DVD release! Classic epic drama, although episodic, with true European realism in its depiction of vignettes from Michel's love life, showing us the world as it really was in the plague-ridden Roman Catholic-dominated 16th Century Europe. Highly recommended, worth several viewings to take all of it in.

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Colonel Ted

A good looking, well acted (the leading players are excellent)but dull and VERY disjointed biopic of the famous prophet that seems of though it was cut down from something much longer. Karyo is a good casting in the title role but he struggles in a fairly flat role. Director Christian, (who was art director for Ridley Scott's Alien), gives the film a handsome old world look but he just ambles through the script that rambles on and on and tells us nothing that we did not know about the future and nothing even about the Nostrodamus himself. The performances and occasional moments of interest keep one's eyes half open, but this is missed opportunity on such an interesting subject matter.

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