Nostradamus *** (1994, Tchéky Karyo, F Murray Abraham, Rutger Hauer, Amanda Plummer Julia Ormond, Assumpta Serna, Anthony Higgins, Diana Quick, Michael Gough) – Classic Movie Review 8759

Director Roger Christian’s 1994 biographical drama Nostradamus tells the story of famed 16th-century doctor, physician, astrologer, prognosticator and visionary Nostradamus (Tchéky Karyo), who clashes with the authorities over the bloodletting treatment of the plague, which later kills his family.

He prophesies (correctly) the death in a jousting tournament of French King Henry II (Anthony Higgins), attracting the admiration of Queen Catherine de Medici (Amanda Plummer), who saves him from the Inquisition for the second time. The careful, costly historical re-creation sits oddly with the modern-day visions of Nostradamus, as he foresees newsreel footage of Adolf Hitler, President John F Kennedy’s assassination and Saddam Hussain reflected in a pool of water.

Since director Christian makes the realistic parts of the film look so eye-catching (as befits a man who won a Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Oscar for Star Wars and was nominated for Alien), the naff, cheap-looking ‘effects’ on the visuals look banal, and this will be for some audiences the more important part of the tale, as Nostradamus is supposed to have predicted a Third World War, a man on the moon and AIDS for the 20th century.

The film is a France, UK, Germany and Romania co-production, a ‘Europudding’, with excellent actors from too many nations speaking in too many different accents, stranded in some kind of nowhere land. Karyo is quietly effective as the hero, though I’d rather have seen the wasted Rutger Hauer (who has two brief scenes as the Mystic Monk in a crown of lit candles) as Nostradamus. Amanda Plummer gives an eccentric but enlivening performance, but Anthony Higgins and Diana Quick as King Henry II’s mistress Diane de Poitiers give performances worthy of Carry On Columbus.

Knut Boeser’s sometimes unspeakable screenplay plays like a translation of a foreign language, probably German, since, for example, the hero refers to ‘self-made’ jam, when in actual English it is ‘home-made’. The story is by Piers Ashworth and Roger Christian.

The final future predictions are chucked away in a 2001-style space sequence that leaves you wanting more. The pace over a two-hour running time is uneven, but increasingly slow in the last segment. Nostradamus is intriguing and very watchable but finally unsatisfying, even after all the good work. It is shot on location and in the studio (Buftea Studios, Bucharest) in Romania, in France (location, second unit) and in Ealing Studios, London (SFX studio).

Also in the cast are F Murray Abraham, Julia Ormond, Assumpta Serna, Michael Gough, Maia Morgenstern, Leon Lissek, Michael Byrne and Bruce Alexander.

It is rated R for strong sexuality and some images of violence.

Nostradamus is directed by Roger Christian, runs 119 minutes or 127 minutes (DVD special edition), is made by Allied Entertainments Group, Filmex, Nostradamus Enterprises and Vereinigte Film Partners, is released by First Independent, is written by Knut Boeser, based on a story by Piers Ashworth and Roger Christian, is shot by Denis Crossan, is produced by Edward Simons and Harald Reichebner, and is scored by Barrington Pheloung, with Production Design by Peter J. Hampton.

RIP the awesome Dutch star actor Rutger Hauer (1944–2019). Best known for Blade Runner (as Roy Batty) and The Hitcher, he won a Golden Globe for Escape from Sobibor (1987). He also appeared in Nighthawks, Eureka, The Osterman Weekend, A Breed Apart, Ladyhawke, Flesh and Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) as Lothos, Surviving the Game, Sin City (2005) as Cardinal Roark, Batman Begins (2005) as Earle and Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) as Hobo.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8759

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