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Another successful “Somewhere in Time” weekend
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
May 22, 2008 at 7:53 am
MACKINAC ISLAND, MI — I heard about this event years ago and found it fascinating that there was enough interest to pull it off year after year. It’s built around the 1980 film, “Somewhere in Time” about a man that wills himself to go back in time to find the woman he loves. Basically, it’s a rather plush weekend where people come and stay in this historic hotel for a weekend fan retreat, period-dressed.
For the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, the “Somewhere in Time” weekend is as close to literal time travel as you likely will find anywhere.
Hundreds of romantics, film buffs and a few who feel out of place in the “modern” world come together each fall to pay homage to the film, a cult movie hit filmed on Mackinac Island in 1979 but set mainly in 1912. And they do so by mingling in (optional) period dress over five-course dinners, champagne receptions and lectures on everything from the movie’s cinematography to Victorian underpinnings.
Just to have an event where you’re literally living the movie like that always seemed special to me.
Read more at Michigan Live.
Comments (4)
I saw SOMEWHERE IN TIME for the first time only within the last years or so. Honestly, it didn’t do all that much for me.
I’m not trying to be cruel, but I saw the movie at the request of some date back when it was first released and thought it was horrendous. Christopher Reeve was one of the stars. I had a tough time sitting through the whole film. If these folks enjoy the movie and partying like it’s 1912, more power to them.
It’s one of those films that one either likes or doesn’t; I think romantic souls tend to and realists don’t. I happen to like it, implausible story line and all, but then I love Mackinac Island.
I had an interesting experience once viewing the film in 1993; I was attending a conference held at what was then Mission Point Resort on the island. It had formerly been a small religiously-oriented college at the south end of the island. The hotel used the college’s former main building for conference facilities; these included a lecture/hall auditorium. A scene in the film was shot in this lecture hall, the one where Christopher Reeve’s character talks to a professor about whether time travel is possible. (Other scenes in the film were filmed at some of the other former college facilities which included a soundstage intended for religious broadcasting).
During the conference, the topic of the film came up and a number of people said they had never seen it, so the hotel arranged to have it
shown for the participants one evening – in that very lecture hall, on a good sized screen. It was the oddest sensation, when that scene came up, to realize that you were sitting in the room that you were looking into. A number of people felt a bit disoriented, including myself. Nothing had changed since the filming – same furniture, layout, paint job. It was a bit eerie.
Some people liked the film; others thought it was stupid.
Thanks Cwalczak,Had a cousin who i guess was in early forties when it came out and be declared it the greatest movie ever made.Go figure.