Nostradamus: redressed

Have I seen too much of the future today? I wrote the post below this one referring to Nostradamus at about 5pm. At 11pm I turn on the TV and on TVP2 find that the 1994 film 'Nostradamus' is on. Curious.

The first image I see if of vast city draped in smoke and children drenched in what appeared to be oil. This film was made in 1994... And bizarrely enough includes a vision depicting Saddam Hussein. I guess in 1994 after the first Gulf War it seemed like a good idea to throw in that bit of footage to just to impress further on the audience the -potential- significance of Nostradamus' predictions - 'see he even predicted him'.

I imagine the film's producer today contemplating a George Lucas-style series of endlessly update-able 'Special Edition' re-releases that replace Saddam Hussein with Osama Bin Laden...ad infinitum:

"Includes never-seen-before digitally-enhanced premonitions" and so on.

I hadn't seen the film before but remembered reviews on its release that stated that the film was largely dull and uninspiring aside from a few key scenes - like the burning city and Nostradamus discussing 'Hisler' and then painting a swastika on a church wall which really were 'visionary'.

For those key scenes the film is worth watching and despite the apparent sleepiness of its writer, director and editor (some shots are simply pathetic - witness the scene where Nostradamus collapses before a group of monks/extras clearly waiting to pick him up) - despite all that it does have an powerful cast of period movie pros including:

Tchéky Karyo, Julia Ormond, F. Murray Abraham, Rutger Hauer, Michael Gough, Maia Morgenstern and Amanda Plummer.

Look out for it in the bargin bin at the supermarket.