Ein tödlicher Traum (1980)

Ein tödlicher Traum: Directed by Jeannot Szwarc. With Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright. A Chicago playwright uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time and meet the actress whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.

“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…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe thoughtful old lady presses a classic pocket watch, from a past existence, into his right hand and intensely whispers four haunting words u0026#39;Come back to me,u0026#39; which will affect him forever… u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEight years have passed and Richard is seeing his work incredibly sterile, gently afflicted with a case of lesser inspiration… So he packs his luggage and heads out to an island of enchanting beauty, to the Grand Hotel on the Straits of Mackinac waterfront…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile waiting for the huge dining hall to open, he tours the grand old buildingu0026#39;s museum, and sees a portrait of a lovely woman… He becomes obsessed about finding the truth behind the old photograph and begins questioning the people that knew her past… What emerges is a wonderful woman who is the first American stage actress in 1912 to create a mystique in the publicu0026#39;s eye… She is the same lady who visited him that night at the premier of one of his plays… u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRichard finds himself intrigued… There is so much to hear… People who knew Elise McKenna when she was young said that she was quick and bright and full of fun… Strong, willful, not at all the way she was later…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSeeking help from an old philosophy teacher who had written a book about u0026#39;Travels through time,u0026#39; 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).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNominated for Best Costume Design, the motion picture is a romantic fantasy that avoids any use of machinery in action… The time travel theory is completely non-scientific… 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…”