Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour
In 1972, a college theater
student Richard Collier (Christopher
Reeve) is celebrating his debut as a play writer. During the celebration, he is
approached by an old woman (Susan
French) who places a pocket watch in
his hand and pleads "come back to me"… This is the very strange
beginning of one the audacious movie I have ever seen : “Somewhere in Time”
(1980).
Before
to be regarded in our days, alike a cult film, “Somewhere in Time” was a novel named
“Bid Time Return” (1975) written by the great American author and screenwriter, Richard Matheson (“I am a legend” / 1954) ;
« The
Shrinking Man » / 1956) …). Despite
the several and fine film adaptations of the Matheson’s novels, especially
about his most famous : “I am legend” (“The Last Man on Earth” / 1964) ; “The Omega Man » / 1971) ; “I am Omega / 2007) ; “ I
am Legend” / 2007), I think it is the best one and also a rare attempt to join two
different cinematographic worlds : “Melodrama and Science Fiction”.
The Story : In 1980, Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve), a successful playwright, became enthralled, smitten by a photograph of a beautiful woman at the Grand Hotel’s museum in
Then, he was so upset by this woman that he decided to hypnotize himself to travel back in time to the year 1912 and to find love with Elise. But Elise's manager, William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer), feared that the romance will threaten her career and resolved to stop him...
In 1976, the producer Stephen (Deutsch) Simon (“What dreams may come” / 1998) bought the
rights of the book for the screen. Two years later, he called the French origin
director, Jeannot Szwarc (“Jaws II” / 1978) ; “Enigma” / 1983) as the director
for the movie. After the agreement of Universal Studio to coproduce the movie
with Rastar Productions for a low budget ($5 million), Matheson wrote the screenplay
with the big challenge to use the Einsteinian concept of time (travel back in
time) and showed it in attractive way to the public.
The very talented actor Christopher
Reeve (“Superman I” / 1978) ; “Monsignor” / 1982) ; “Deathtrap” / 1982)) took the leading role of Richard Collier. The acclaimed and gorgeous actress
Jane Seymour (“Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger » / 1975) ; “Lassiter » / 1984) portrayed
Elise McKenna and the high class actor Christopher Plummer (“The Thorn Birds” (TV / 1983) ; “The Man would be King” / 1975) / see the
topic…) portrayed William F. Robinson.
Four distinguished actors complete this wonderful
cast, the Academy Oscar winner, Teresa
Wright (“The
Best Years of Our Lives » / 1946)
played with sensibility the part of Elise McKenna’s confident, Laura Roberts. The Grand Hotel's venerable
bellman, Arthur Biehl was played with a lot of humor by Bill
Erwin (“Dennis the Menace” / 1993). Susan
French (“Topaz” / 1969) was the impressive old Elise McKenna
and George Voskovec (“The Spy Who Came in from the
Cold.” / 1965) portrayed with authenticity Dr. Gerard Finney, Richard collier’s college professor.
The producers also gathered a fine technical team : “The American
cinematographer Isidore Mankofsky (“The Jazz Singer » / 1980), the editor Jeff Gourson (“Tron” / 1982), the veteran
Art director Seymour Klate (“The Manchurian Candidate” / 1962) ; “ Centennial (TV / 1979)) and the Emmy award winner costume
designer Jean-Pierre Dorleac (“The Blue Lagoon” / 1980)”.
In the summer of 1979 the
movie was filmed on location at the Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island, Michigan) and Chicago,(Illinois) in
Panavision, Technicolor.
At the end of the shooting, Jane Seymour suggested to Szwarc to hire one of her friend and most successful composer, John Barry (“The
last Valley” (1971 / see the topic) ; “Robin and Marian” (1976)). But the
budget couldn’t afford him. Nevertheless, Seymour
The director first wanted to use the tenth symphony of
Malher but soon realized that it wasn’t appropriate to the romantic mood of the
picture. Then, Barry suggested to replace it by the eighteenth variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody
on a Theme of Paganini which began the recurrent melody in the film. But the
whole score was composed by Barry. His love theme remains one of his best creation
alike “Out of Africa” (1985) or “Born Free” (1966).
The Composer John Barry
Barry explained how he
composed the musical score :
Quote
“I think I‘ve had more
letter about that score than any other score I’ve written… Why this music
connected in that way, I don’t know… It had something to do with the time I
wrote it, in that my father died, and within sixteen weeks of my father dying,
my mother died, and this was the first music that I wrote after that period of
time. I don’t usually get into the area of one’s direct personal life and what
one is writing, but I don’t know, maybe that had something to do with shaping
certain feeling in that Score”.
Unquote
Love Theme by John Barry
For the first time in his career, Barry agreed to accept a percentage on the soundtrack sales as part of his fee. It was a clever decision because the soundtrack became one of the most popular score in the soundtrack history.
The sales of the original album were so huge that in 1994, MCA released a digitally remastered, 24–Karat gold-plated compact disc album. Four years later, Varese Sarabande Label produced a new soundtrack album of the score conducted by John Debney with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
In my opinion, this score is
one of the most successful encounter between music and cinema. I regard it like
a masterpiece.
After “Superman I”, Christopher
Reeve gave again a very elegant performance. He portrayed with a lot of authenticity
and a great sense of humor the Richard Collier’s character. Jane Seymour gave
also an outstanding performance especially in the scene when Elise reveals her
love for Richard (“The man of my dreams”). The couple did very well on the
screen and I deeply regret that they didn’t have the opportunity to make
another movie together.
The Man of My Dreams
Christopher Plummer, like always, gave a convincing
performance. He was very impressed in the part of McKenna’s manager. Despite
his hostility again Reeve’s character throughout the story, Plummer succeeded to
feel us that he wasn’t a conventional villain. We understand his difficulties
in face of Elise / Richard‘s romance which destroys the aim of his life (to
make Elise the greatest actress of the period).
Unfortunately,
“Somewhere in time” didn’t become a “smash hit”. Although, it
was well received during its previews (April 11th, 1980), Universal Studios first supported “The Blues
Brothers” (John Landis) which came out the same week (October 3rd,
1980) with a large publicity campaign. Furthermore, an actors' strike did
prevent Reeve and Seymour from promoting the film. Thus, they weren't allowed
to publicize it and the critics' responses weren’t positives except in Europe
and Asia . Then, “Somewhere in time” disappeared from the U. S.
The
movie received several awards (Saturn Awards for Best Costume, Best Music, and Best Fantasy Film). In France
The Trailer
Everytime, I see “Somewhere…”, I have a great feeling of sadness because
I think about of the tragic last days of Christopher Reeve who remains to me a
great “Superman” in the real life.
I regard “Somewhere
in time” like one of the most beautiful romance ever filmed which must be
regarded on the same level as classic movies like “Gone with the Wind”, “Casablanca”,
“Love Story” and “Ghost”... I hope that many of you will agree with me…
P. S. : If you want to know more about “Somewhere in
Time” (1980)”, please refer to :
·
Website :
Official “Somewhere in Time” Website ;
·
Books :
“Bid Time Return” by Richard Matheson (in English) ;
1975 ; Viking Press, New York,USA.
“Le jeune homme,
la mort et le temps” by Richard Matheson (in French) ; Collection Présence du Futur,
1977 ; Edition Denoël, Paris, France.
“The Somewhere in Time Story” by Bill Shepard “(In
English) ; 2007 ; The Somewhere in Time Gallery (ISBN 0-9641698-0-0), USA.
·
Music :
CD Album of “Somewhere in Time” by John Barry ; 1984 ;
MCA Records DIDX 347 ; MCAD 5154.
CD Album of the rerecording of “Somewhere in Time” by
John Barry ; conducted by John Debney with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra ;1988 ; Varese Sarabande Label ; VSD 5911.
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