Somewhere in Time

Plot synopsis:
On May 19, 1972, college theatre student Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) is celebrating the debut of a play he has written. During the celebration, he is approached by an elderly woman (Susan French) who places a pocket watch in his hand and pleads, "Come back to me." Richard does not recognize the woman, who returns to her own residence and dies soon afterward.
Eight years later, Richard is a successful playwright living in Chicago, but has recently broken up with his girlfriend and is struggling with writer's block. Feeling stressed from writing his play, he decides to take a break and travels out of town to the Grand Hotel. While looking at a display in the hotel's museum, Richard becomes enthralled by a photograph of a beautiful woman. With the assistance of Arthur Biehl (Bill Erwin), an elderly bellhop who has been at the hotel since 1910, Richard discovers that the woman is Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), a famous early 20th century stage actress. Upon digging deeper, Richard learns that she was the aged woman who gave him the pocket watch eight years earlier. Traveling to the home of Laura Roberts (Teresa Wright), McKenna's former housekeeper and companion, he discovers a music box Elise had made, in the shape of the Grand Hotel, that plays his favorite melody. He also discovers among her effects a book on time travel written by his old college professor, Dr. Gerard Finney (George Voskovec). Learning that McKenna read the book several times, Richard becomes obsessed with the idea of traveling back to 1912 and meeting Elise McKenna, with whom he has fallen in love.
Visiting Finney, Richard learns that the professor believes that he very briefly time traveled once to 1571 through the power of self-suggestion. To accomplish this feat of self-hypnosis, Finney tells Richard, one must remove from sight all things that are related to the current time and trick the mind into believing that one is in the past. He also warns that such a process would leave one very weak, perhaps dangerously so. Richard buys an early 20th-century suit and some vintage money; he cuts his hair in a time-appropriate style. Dressing in the suit, he removes all modern objects from his hotel room and attempts to will himself into the year 1912 using tape-recorded suggestions, only to fail for lack of real conviction. Later, while searching the hotel's attic, Richard finds an old guest book from 1912 with his signature in it and realizes that he will eventually succeed.
Richard again hypnotizes himself, this time with the tape recorder hidden under the bed. He allows his absolute faith in his eventual success to become the trigger for the journey back through time. He drifts off to sleep and awakens on June 27, 1912 to the sound of whinnying horses. Richard looks all over the hotel for Elise, even meeting Arthur Biehl as a little boy, but he has no luck finding her. Finally, he stumbles upon Elise walking by a tree near the lake. She seems to swoon slightly at the sight of him, but suddenly asks him "Is it you?" McKenna's manager, William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer), abruptly intervenes and sends Richard away. Richard stubbornly continues to pursue Elise until she agrees to accompany him on a stroll through the surrounding idyllic landscape. It is during their boat ride that Richard hums the theme from the 18th variation of opus 43, and Elise says it's lovely but she never heard it before. (It was written 22 years into the future. In 1980 Richard had learned that it was her favorite piece of music and he hears her recording of it.) Richard ultimately asks why Elise wondered aloud "Is it you". She replies that Robinson somehow knows that she will meet a man one day who will change her life forever. Richard shows Elise the same pocket watch which she will eventually give him in 1972, but he does not reveal its origin, merely saying it was a gift.
Richard accepts Elise's invitation to her play, where she recites an impromptu monologue dedicated to him. During intermission, he finds her posing formally for a photograph. Upon spotting Richard, Elise breaks into a radiant smile, the camera capturing the image which Richard first saw 68 years later. Afterward, Richard receives an urgent message from Robinson requesting a meeting. Robinson tries to get Richard to leave Elise, saying it is for her own good. When Richard professes his love for her, Robinson has him tied up and locked in the stables. Later, Robinson tells Elise that Richard has left her and is not the one, but she does not believe him. She says that she loves Richard.
Richard wakes up the next morning and manages to free himself. He runs to Elise's room and finds that her party has left. Despondent, he goes out to the hotel's porch. Suddenly, he hears Elise calling his name and sees her running towards him. They return to his room together and make love. The next morning they agree to marry. Elise tells him that the first thing she will do for him is buy him a new suit, since the one he has been wearing is about 15 years out of date. Richard begins to show her how practical the suit is because of its many pockets. He is alarmed when he reaches into one and finds a Lincoln penny with a mint date of 1979. Seeing an item from his real present wrenches him out of his hypnotically induced time trip, and Richard feels himself rushing forward in time. Elise screams his name in horror as he is pulled inexorably out of 1912.
Richard wakes up back in 1980, in the same room where he and Elise were last together in 1912. He is drenched in sweat and very weak, apparently exhausted from his trip through time and back. He scrambles desperately back to his own room and tries to hypnotize himself again, without success. Heartbroken, after wandering around the hotel property and sitting interminably at the places where he spent time with Elise, he eventually retires to his room. He remains there unmoving for days until discovered by Arthur and the hotel manager; they send for a doctor and paramedics. Richard suddenly smiles and sees himself drifting above his body. Having presumably died of a broken heart, he is drawn to a light shining through the nearby window, where he is reunited with Elise.

Tags: cult, cute, alternate history, romantic

Review:
From the opening at the theater to the unbelievably moving final scene, I have never seen a film so passionately and yet so innocently depict the power of absolute, all-encompassing, unconditional love.The story is so simple, yet therein lies the beauty.
Richard Collier, a man with no love in what otherwise seems like a nice enough life, becomes enchanted at the sight of Elise McKenna's painting and with only the power of his heart travels back to her time.
The emphasis is not on watching events, but on simply feeling love, and this is as close as anyone has ever come to making a movie out of pure emotion.Jane Seymour looks radiant while on screen but this is Christopher Reeve's movie.
Every element in this movie is just perfect, and it should be universally considered one of the greatest love stories of all time (if not the greatest, like I think it is).As it is most people have never heard of it, but it is nice to know that a small devoted following gives it the recognition it deserves.
Being one who always seems to enjoy time-travel stories, it's no wonder I like this movie so much, but it isn't the interesting "time" angle that draws me in: it's also the fact that this is one of the most touching love stories I've ever seen.
I'm not usually a big fan of romance stories, but this one has always moved me, maybe because, as another reviewer points out, it's from the man's point of view.The film is a wonderful old-fashioned type of story with a really nice feel for the period (1912) and is simply a pleasant, leisurely-paced story I found comfortable.
Christopher Reeve takes on the role of (Richard Collier) a successful Chicago playwright who is approached (in May 1972) by a very old woman (Susan French) who will alter the course of his life eternally...The thoughtful old lady presses a classic pocket watch, from a past existence, into his right hand and intensely whispers four haunting words 'Come back to me,' which will affect him forever...
Strong, willful, not at all the way she was later...Seeking help from an old philosophy teacher who had written a book about 'Travels through time,' Richard attempts to disassociate himself entirely from the present, move everything out of sight that could possibly remind him of it, hypnotize his mind, and transport himself backward into the past, into June 27, 1912, into the life of the stunningly beautiful and talented Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour).Nominated for Best Costume Design, the motion picture is a romantic fantasy that avoids any use of machinery in action...
The film captures the idea of a fine young man moving back among other time periods, and affirms that love is an undeniable force which goes beyond us, a force with no limit to the spiritual power, with no end to the potential of spiritual expansion....
Superman Christopher Reeve is all boyish charm and wonder; when he walks towards Jane by the lake and she says "Are you the one?" Well, it takes your breath they are so gorgeous.Any romantic can't help but have a lump in the throat at the lovely ending - white on white - no beginning and no end - they are together "Somewhere In Time." 9/10.
It is romance, science fiction, and fantasy rolled into one, based on Richard Matheson's novel, Bid Time Return, (Matheson also wrote the screenplay and has a cameo appearance in the film).
Directed by Jean Szarc, the cast is first rate, starring Christopher Reeve, (what a standard of personal courage he has set for us in recent years!) as the playwright Richard Collier, Jane Seymour, one of the loveliest ladies to ever grace either the large or small screens, as the actress Elise McKenna, and the fine character actor Christopher Plummer as the mean-spirited W.S. Robinson, McKenna's agent.
During his visit to McKenna's home, he discovers a book on time travel that Elise read "again and again." 	After visiting with the book's author and, finding his own name in an old Grand Hotel register from 1912, Collier makes an intense effort to slip into the past, and succeeds.
It was pleasing to see Richard Matheson, author of such hard-edged tales as The Omega Man and The Shrinking Man, (to name but two), and who is seen as an astonished viewer during Elise McKenna's Grand Hotel performance, turn out such a powerful love story.
For us hopeless romantics, this kind of love story gives us the feeling that our own soulmate might have lived in another time instead of our own.
This film will never age and the pleasure and message this film brings makes it "Real Gem" I never tire of watching "Somewhere In Time" The haunting music of John Barry creates the ideal background to the scenes and the location shots create mind thought and nostalgia.It was a breath of fresh air to become completely engrossed in the storyline and to be perfectly honest I really didn't want the film to end.
A simple movie with the Most Beautiful actress Jane Seymour and Reeve is just unbelievable in his acting.
This story of time travel and undying love is superbly brought together through great direction, casting and unforgettably the soundtrack!
Word TIME from title somehow insinuated SF movie and I just inserted DVD without even knowing what would come out of this "box of chocolate".Christopher Reeve name appeared first and my immediate reaction was - Oh no, not Superman, because I am absolutely not fond of that genre and never were, not even as a kid.
This movie is NOT SF, not even close to that, as its ridiculous time traveling here is just a container in which this SURREALLY PURE Love Story is packed.
I admit to being somewhat disappointed in this movie as I'd had great expectations, considering its cast with three of my favorite stars, Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer.
The old fashioned love tale is beautiful, but I felt that the context of time travel should have been managed more skillfully.The story centers around a Chicago playwright, Richard Collier, who is approached on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him "Come back to me", and presses into his hand a classic pocket watch.
Through self hypnosis, he manages to travel back in time to that era, where he meets the beautiful Elise and they fall in love, despite the objections of her manager.
Also, despite the difficulties of being separated by almost a century in time.The actors are all wonderful in their roles, the handsome and charming Christopher Reeve playing Richard, with Jane Seymour as Elise, absolutely beautiful, elegant, and radiant in every scene.
Another time-travel romance with which it has something in common is the British "Quest for Love" from 1973, although that film does have some science-fiction content and its hero travels not back into the past but rather to an alternate present in which (among other differences) the Second World War never took place.The opening scenes take place 1972.
He also learns that she was the woman who gave him the pocket watch eight years earlier, but that she subsequently died later that same evening.Richard becomes obsessed with the idea of travelling back into the past to meet Elise as a young woman, and learns about auto-suggestive time travel from his old college professor.
The two fall in love, but they face an obstacle in the shape of her obsessively protective manager William Fawcett Robinson, who fears that the budding romance will damage Elise's career.As with a number of time-travel films the plot, especially its dramatic conclusion, will not always bear the rigid application of strict logic.
His signature, for example, appears in an old hotel register for that year, and he himself was responsible for taking the photograph which came to obsess him 68 years later.This is the film which proved that Christopher Reeve was more than just a musclebound superhero and that Jane Seymour was more than just a Bond Girl.
The relationship between Robinson and Elise is reminiscent of that between Lermontov and Victoria in Powell and Pressburger's "The Red Shoes"; there is a suggestion that, at least subconsciously, he may be in love with her, but on a conscious level his love for Elise the woman has been sublimated into his concern for Elise the artiste.Director Jeannot Szwarc succeeds in evoking a romantic, dreamlike atmosphere, aided by the visual beauty of the Grand Hotel and its surroundings, by the radiant loveliness of Jane Seymour and by the elegance of the Edwardian costumes.
The sad faith of a great and strong willed person Christopher Reeve and the most beautiful actress Jane Seymour makes this piece even more valuable..
Christopher Reeve(very good here) plays writer Richard Collier, who is met by a mysterious old woman who beckons to "come back to me".
Intrigued, he investigates, and finds himself in an experimental form of self-hypnosis, where he wills himself back in time decades earlier, and meets that old lady, only now she is a beautiful actress named Elise McKenna(Jane Seymour, perfectly cast, and entirely believable).
They gradually fall in love, much to the consternation of her manager(Christopher Plummer, also good).Beautifully directed by Jeannot Szwarc, who recreates the period setting nicely, and creates an ethereal, melancholy air at that hotel that is most effective.Story does seem fantastic, but the performances are so sincere, and the heartbreak of the doomed romance so believable, that it works despite reservations of credibility.
A near all-star cast, stellar performances, a fantastic storyline, and brilliant execution all come together to deliver a fine finished product suitable for nearly all ages, though I daresay younger movie goers will bore with this tragically beautiful love story.It rates a 8.9/10 from...the Fiend :..
My mom told me about it and she said it was a good movie and all, and since I liked Christopher Reeve I figured I'd watch it.
Somewhere in time is a movie that you could see a hundred of times, it is just perfect, involves great actors, Christopher is marvelous and Jane is so brilliant emotive and beautiful, and even though the theme is not the best, what makes this the best romantic movie ever made are the emotions,good acting and beautiful music.
Romance,intrigue,time travel,and a beautiful film score.
I enjoyed this beautiful movie in 1980 and today in 2000 I do still LOVE this film!!!
Do yourself a favor and watch and enjoy this rich lovely warm LOVE story!!!!You cannot view this film too many times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Somewhere in Time is a lovely little movie full of romance and escapism.
We have all experienced some form of love and loss, and this story with its beautiful actors and tug of wars within the chapters, makes anyone who's not made of stone, feel and wonder about real love - finding thee soul mate - the one you would travel through time for.
The idea for this incredibly romantic story was apparently based on the book "Bid Time Return," and the main locale in the movie is visited regularly by devoted fans (mentioned above).
Any guy that has seriously thought about what it would be like to go to a different time and change history or just "knows" he would fall in love with someone from their picture or words they've written will find some real personal connection here.I've always liked just about anything that Jane Seymour has done and her movie and television characters always strike me as something near the ideal woman.
It's what a call a "guy's girl film," meaning gals can swoon over Christopher Reeve and the "love story" aspect, while guys can swoon over Jane Seymour and also "secretly" appreciate the love story parts.The performances, music, cinematography, direction...they all hit the mark.
When Christopher Reeves travels to the past, to a life he is not of and finds love that is almost forbidden, you are ahead of the characters, but can only sit and wait for the inevitable, as they are torn apart by time.I watch this movie now, not with a sense of nostalgia, but with a passion for Reeves and Seymour, portrayed with expression only read of in books..
A playwright (Christopher Reeve) uses self-hypnosis to go back in time to meet an actress (Jane Seymour) whose photograph he is drawn to.
It is celebrating a play about an old woman and the writer Richard Collier, gives him a pocket watch and says: "Return to Me." Eight years later, in the Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel, where they have wrought great stories, the young playwright discovers a portrait that leaves him obsessed.For those who believe in reincarnation, which have other lives and other times, this movie reaffirms all its expectations.
Elise McKenna and Richard Collier will spend the time tunnel and a wonderful love story will live in 1912, sixty years before that last game.
Richard Collier's desperation to travel back in time to Elise McKenna and the intensity of his feelings jump out of the screen.The instant connection between them when they meet is wonderful.There could not have been a more stunning actress than Jane Seymour to play the part of Elise.She is outstandingly beautiful and Christopher Reeve's performance as Richard was a welcome surprise.Together they made you feel the love between them.This and the wonderful musical score make it a film you will never forget.I know I won't.It will always have a place in my heart..
I was young, 13 or so, at the time and my first choice in movies was definitely not any sappy love story.
The latter piece being among the most beautiful concertos ever written.While Jane Seymour and Chistopher Reeve have good chemistry, the film tends to drag at times.
Richard Matheson's novel is one of my favourite sci-fi works.His hero was a terminally ill man whose story was a long flashback: he had written it and,after his death, his brother read it.Robert had his doubts about the authenticity of brother Richard's adventure and a doctor gave him an explanation: the brain tumor caused hallucinations .Nevertheless,he did hope that maybe "they " were happy somewhere in time.Like for the classic "the incredible shrinking man" ,Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay himself with good results.He made his hero a healthy man.By introducing Elise's housekeeper and the professor ,he avoided the voice-over which would have been necessary, for Richard carried out research alone in the library or in his bedroom.Matheson's great idea (no time machine, only the thought,the concentration) has been kept and the scenes where Richard meets Elise and her manager (Elise's mother does not appear ,but it's not a problem)are faithful to the book.The last picture is perhaps the only flaw because the trick seems a bit hackneyed .The actors are excellent : Jane Seymour is Elise McKenna as I pictured her .The sadly missed Christopher Reeve display humor,emotion and warmth.Christopher Plummer is the perfect villain.And hats off to Jean-Pierre Dorleac,Catherine Deneuve's and Françoise Dorleac's cousin : the costumes are dazzling.The movie won "the Antenne d'Or " during the fantasy and horror festival of Avoriaz,France.They say the audience was stunned:after gore,monsters and special effects galore,they had forgotten that romanticism and elaborate screenplays still existed ..
"Somewhere in Time" was Christopher Reeve's first movie two years after his major breakthrough as Superman.
From the gorgeous Oscar-nominated costumes and the lush John Barry musical score to the on-location setting of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, the movie certainly looks good on screen.I have to admit that the story of a playwright traveling back in time to search for a woman from several decades ago certainly feels and sounds very corny.
I only watched it because Christopher Reeve was a great actor and I loved him as Superman.
It's a Time Travel Movie, with a unique idea (different from another Time Travel film like Back to the Future or Bill and Ted), powerful performances (by Chris Reeve and Jane Seymour), and a powerful score (by the great John Barry), and it delivers something fresh that'd I'd love to revisit and analyze even more.
The ultimate modern-day four-hankie chick-flick, "Somewhere In Time", starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, and Teresa Wright (in a bit part) is an unabashedly sentimental, romantic, beautiful film that never fails to bring me to tears.Reeve portrays Richard Collier, a young Chicago playwright, who, on the opening night of his first play, is approached by an elderly woman who pleads with him to "Come back to me" as she presses an antique watch into his hands.
Their performances, along with Christopher Plummer's, the beautiful soundtrack by John Barry, which is almost better than the film itself, and the costumes combine to make a great tearjerker along the lines of the old classics..
And with good reason, as this movie is hauntingly beautiful and wonderfully romantic.I recommend Somewhere in Time to anyone who is looking for a great cinematic experience.
I have loved this movie from the very first time I saw it at age 12.
I think Christopher Reeve was perfect for the part - understated, unlikely hero, out of place, but not really, and Jane Seymour was superb as Elise, dramatic, beautiful, and Plummer, one of my favorite actors was wonderfully mean-spirited.
A beautiful romantic drama starring the ever popular Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.
I think I can safely call this movie my all time favorite romantic film.
one of the very best love story movies of all time.
When someone asks me for a good romantic movie, I ask them have they seen "Somewhere in Time."   Christopher Reeve plays Richard, who is greeted by an elderly woman beckoning him to come back to her.
The story is good, with a flaw here or there, but all time travel movies have them.