Nostradamus (VHS)

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Nostradamus (VHS)

Story of the life of the great prognosticator and of his early unwillingness to accept his ability to foresee the future.

• Rated: R
• Number of tapes: 1
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Format: Color
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English

His story is still unfinished five centuries later. “Lively, ambitious and intense… fiercely passionate!”

Michael De Nostradame (1504-1566)

The Black Plague threatened man’s existence. The Inquisition of a tyrannical church terrorized the masses. But Nostradamus (Tcheky Karyo) stared through a window to the future. From his turbulent childhood forward, prophetic visions haunted him. A brilliant iconoclast at odds with scholars, priests, and rules, he constantly struggled for credibility – and his life.

A Parisian doctor, Scalinger (Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham), embraced him as a student and friend. Privy to the journals of great intellectuals stored in Scalinger’s secret study, Nostradamus strove to regard his frightening foresight, not as a curse, but as a gift that set him among the wise.

Lust, passion, and unbridled sex drove him to distraction. His first marriage, to Scalinger’s assistant (Julia Ormond) ended in tragedy; his famed rose pills could not save her from the plague. Hallucinogens used to induce visions caused vivid flashforwards of fate. As his life spiraled into despair, the counsel of a mystic Monk (Rutger Hauer) helped pull him from insanity. His second marriage (Assumpta Serna) was filled with joy. Endorsement by the Queen of France (Amanda Plummer) allowed him to live in peace and safety, and to record his visions for the betterment of mankind.

Nostradamus still fascinates us! He foretold the fates of popes and kings. He prophesied the birth of Hitler, two world wars, JFK’s assassination, man’s landing on the moon, the advent of AIDS, and a host of other momentous events. The man who has so accurately predicted our past may be right about the future!

1994 Orion Home Video