The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Biography, Social History, Philosophy, Unexplained Phenomena  |   Release Date - Jan 9, 1981 (USA - Unknown), Jan 9, 1981 (USA)  |   Run Time - 90 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - PG
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Synopsis by Eleanor Mannikka

The Man who Saw Tomorrow is none other than Michel de Nostradamus, the French doctor who lived in the 16th century but supposedly saw far ahead into the 20th century and beyond. This documentary is an attempt to bring home the interpretation of some of his predictions using historical footage, newsreels, interviews, and dramatized scenes. The film is narrated by Orson Welles -- shown sitting in a small, nondescript office, with the voice of Nostradamus provided by Philip L. Clarke. Predictions noted in the documentary include Napoleon's career, the coming of Hitler, and of Franco, and events across the sea: the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy, and a supposed nuclear attack on New York City in 1999, among other dire events. If equal time had been given to scholars to refute the glib interpretations by illustrating how abstruse and confusing the original 16th-century French quatrains really are, the documentary might have achieved more balance.

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Keywords

astrology, doctor/nurse, France, future, mysticism, newsreels, prediction, prophecy, prophet, soothsayer