Looking into the future

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 14

Looking into the future

Since the beginning of time there have been thousands of seers, soothsayers and oracles. But only one — Nostradamus —. is remembered. “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow;’’ which will begin at the Avon tomorrow, explores his life, predictions . and credentials as it seeks answers to some intriguing questions about the man. Who was Nostradamus? Why did he write in the form he did — rhymed quatrains often so enigmatic that interpretation was difficult, but at other times so pointed, that names were actually named? Where did he get his awesome power to see into the future? What- are some of his most famous predictions that have already come triie in the past, and what does he foresee for the last years of the twentieth century? Such ' mysteries admittedly. fascinated this film’s producer, David Wolper, whose prodigious utput of .637 films during the past 23 years include the Oscarwinning documentary, “The Hellstrom Chronicle,” and the Emmy-winning blockbuster, “Roots.” ;

Equally intrigued was the * writer-director, Robert Guenette, a longtime Wolper associate whose credits include the highly' successful “Monsters! Mysteries or Myths” and “The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena.”

Together with the renowneL Wolper penchant for ret?arch, and aided by a

team of researchers who combed through five hours of film a day for more than five months, Wolper and Guenette were able to recreate Nostradamus’s predictions of the past, such as the rise and fall of Napoleon and the defeat of Lord Nelson.

When his prophecies spoke of the recent past, however, finding film to illustrate them was mucheasier.

Wolper and Guenette simply used actual newsreel footage of such notables as the Windsors, the Kennedys and the Ayatollah Khomeiny — personages, whose existence and fates Nostradamus foretold- 400 years before motion picture cameras were even thought of. His prophecies of the immediate future, including a devastating earthquake in 1988 and the destruction of New .York City before the turn of the century, called for a different technique — special effects and dramatic enactments. : .

Tying it all together as guide and narrator, the “War Of The Worlds” man himself, Orson Welles — whose singular, visions and contributions to films and theatre brought him the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 1975. 4- helps heighten the drama of Nostradamus’s amazing gifts, while bringing hope for the future. People can, as he says, change predictions of doom 4- as long as they heed the warning. .