NOSTRADAMUS
A film review by Eric Mankin
Copyright 1994 Eric Mankin
In a tower, we see the Sixteenth Century physician/prophet Nostradamus (Tcheky Karyo) staring into space, his face filled with alarm at a vision of the future he is seeing, his lips mouthing an unspoken "No!" Clearly, he is looking into the late Twentieth Century and seeing the film Roger Christian has made on his life, a sickly sweet dose of mystical mouthwash.
The guy couldn't have been this dull. Screenwriters, Knut Boeser and Piers Ashworth have stamped out his story with two cookie cutters. One formats the "misunderstood ahead-of-his-time genius confronts fathead mediocrities" scene. The other limns the "seer sees woman; she makes cow eyes at him" encounter.
Both of these are bad, but the prophecies are worse. Watch Karyo rolling his eyes and struggling to pronounce an unfamiliar word: "Hister ... Hilzer ..." and finally picking up a brush and painting a red swastika on the wall. Even believers impressed by this unforgettable dramatic moment will be frustrated, though: the visions of the future the film makers have the master seeing are concrete up to 1989 (Saddam Hussein's face floats in the sage's magic water basin), and then ... abruptly cease, except for brief glimpses of what look like Deep Space 9 outtakes.
Amanda Plummer, for once playing a character with an IQ above 50, generates a little energy near the end as Catherine de Medici. Otherwise, the prophet penning the words you now read foresees much greater happiness for those who spend their ticket money on other films.
Eric Mankin
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