DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

Once upon a time yours truly was a hopeless romantic, caught betwixt and between the mighty novels and stage plays of English masters of plot, intrigue, and (always it seems) the love eternal. Samuel Goldwyn it is reported, always lived by the maxim Every good story must have a happy ending. And who could blame him. Long before the advent of daytime TV soaps, and endless re-runs of nickel-and-dime plot and counter-plot, a great entertainment rested on three elements – a beginning, a middle, and an ending.

The Grand Hotel, Mackinac…

This past weekend, the annual gathering took place at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, of the followers of one of the most enigmatic and least-understood movies of the modern era. Produced for a paltry $5,000,000, it was filmed entirely on location at the hotel, and barely lasted three weeks in general release when it hit theaters in October of 1980.

Yet here we are, 33 years on, and once again the Somewhere In Time weekend has come and gone. Attracting 800 fans (mostly husband/wife couples of the ‘hopeless romantic kind’) the weekend is a cornucopia of nostalgia, 1912 dress-ups, dinner parties, receptions and symposiums on everything from scene visits, intimate close-ups with actors, producers and directors, and quiet, reflective sit-downs in the areas of favorite camera-shots; not forgetting the tracking down of rooms 117 and 416.

I won’t dwell too much on the content since there’s a link following the movie clip to a wonderful article describing the whole weekend. Suffice to say that the movie ranks right up there as one of my favorites, and is listed as such on my Facebook page. Who couldn’t fall in love with Jane Seymour (long before she became Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) or take on the persona of Christopher Reeve as Richard Collier, traveling back in time from 1980 to 1912? The time traveler seeking the old/young lady from eight years earlier who gifted him a pocket-watch on the only time they met this side of eternity.

Somewhere in time…

I do believe that deep, deep down in the psyche of each and every one of us, there dwells a yearning of eternal proportions, whether it be the longing of we believers in Christ to be united with him and the heavenly host in perpetuity; or down at the other end of the scale, where less-than-those in Christ still believe that there has to be something else to life, especially when it comes to romance. Somehow the romance part generally out-loves the spiritual part, but nevertheless, somewhere in time exists.

As to the time-traveler part of the story, surely we all do this each and every night when we fall asleep, and somewhere in our dreams visit places we’ve never seen before. Some indeed are fortunate enough to navigate the great divide while still sleeping, and awake in a far, far better place than they’ve ever known here on earth (or not, but that’s a story for another time and topic!).

As to Samuel Goldwyn and happy endings, this wonderful movie doesn’t disappoint. Richard does indeed fall asleep, his body at last finished with its time on earth. But in the final scene as he drifts towards the heavenly light, who does Richard find awaiting him, but his beloved Elise; and thus they are together once again, only this time for eternity. Somewhere In Time indeed.

As I say, once upon a time, yours truly was a hopeless romantic …