Directed by:
James CameronScreenplay:
James CameronCinematography:
Russell CarpenterComposer:
James HornerCast:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Gloria Stuart, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, David Warner, Victor Garber (more)VOD (5)
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James Cameron's epic account of the world's most famous maritime disaster is currently the most commercially successful film ever made, and swept the board at the 1997 Oscar ceremony. The Titanic, the most prestigious liner ever to sail the seas, sets off on its maiden voyage in April, 1912. Amongst the passengers are Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and her fiance Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), the heir of a Pittsburgh steel magnate. Rose is less than thrilled at the prospect of spending the rest of her life with Hockley, and contemplates throwing herself off the stern of the ship, only to be persuaded otherwise by fellow passenger, barrowboy Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). Despite coming from opposite ends of the social scale, the couple soon fall in love, but will their relationship be cut tragically short when the boat crashes into an iceberg? (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (11)
A über-film where everything is exactly in place and the process of communicative narration reaches almost absolute perfection. In the first half we get all the information and clues needed to make the second half one of the most breathtaking audiovisual passages in film history, not to mention the overwhelming emotional impact and mandatory narrative build-up. Cameron had many ways to depict the destruction of the Titanic, but he chose the best and most human one – through passionate love, taking us into the narrowest corners and the most luxurious suites of the dream ship, whose tragic fate we can follow in the end as her good and sincerely grieving friends. The sunken cinematic heart that set the rhythm of Hollywood cinema for years to come.
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I avoided Titanic like a demon a cross, but eventually it caught up with me... And oddly enough, it wasn't a head-on collision, but rather a light miss. The story is sweet and protracted, but as soon as the overgrown steamer began to sink, there was plenty to watch - I finally recognized it as Cameron's work. Surprisingly, I quite liked the unruly Leonardo DiCaprio, but I didn't know much about the bourgeois maiden Kate Winslet. It's just shabby love story that Cameron painted gold. In places the paint is sparse, so rust shines through. Definitely a classic seasonal hit... Edit 2012: beautiful proof of how often a person is wrong. To see this film as a kitsch love story actually hides the essence of what Titanic really is: the product of Cameron's massive fetishism and a metaphorical path to the coveted object that comes to life with the power of the film and allows the filmmaker to lead the viewer through its lost nooks. The director simply captures the feeling that still seizes me today when I look at a dead wreck in the depths - a burning longing to "give faded matter meaning and shape with a story". The result is a film full of contradictions, but above all a film extremely precisely constructed and economically told. All the pleasure from it comes from pure rationality. If Rose says: "It doesn't make sense, that's why I believe it," I say "Everything makes sense here, that's why I believe it (but I do not succumb :-))".
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"Titanic the film is like Titanic the ship, a creation of exaggerated grandeur, a product of human hubris hurtling towards an iceberg." (The reaction at the time, when the film's budget was (again) increased and its release was (again) postponed.) Titanic is undoubtedly one of the most admired and widely hated films, and one that perhaps only a small handful of people have never seen. I first came across Titanic around 2001-2 when I discovered it recorded on VHS at a relative's house - and to use one of the most clichéd catchphrases, it was "love at first sight". As the years went by, my admiration for James Cameron's homage to the world's most famous liner deepened and refined; to a large extent, I later became interested in the story of the ship itself, whose fate fascinated and attracted me in a kind of chilling way. Cameron has without a doubt managed to portray the last five days of "the life of a ship that even God himself could not sink" in a truly believable way, and has become one of my favourite directors, a position that has only strengthened with each film. It is difficult to write something new about a film that has already been reviewed on by others, but (especially) in this case I will repeat myself. Titanic is one of the last blockbusters that was not made purely in front of a green screen, but featured proper and hand-crafted scenes with realistic sets that were artfully blended with CGI. If you watch it for the umpteenth time, you begin to notice things that escape most audiences on first viewing. I'm thinking now of the skillful blend between the shots of the real (mock-up) ship and the CGI version, which is to highlight the editing work (despite one of the most glaring errors, Rose breaking the glass in the hold). Overall, from a technical point of view, this is a film that, even after all the years since its premiere, is qualitatively superior to many films from current production thanks to the aforementioned and mostly realistically created visual effects, the precise camera work (especially the scenes with and from the water must have been a real challenge) and the sound effects, which authentically approximated the environment of the metal colossus. Apart from the purely technical aspects, it is impossible not to mention the iconic and breathtaking musical score, composed by James Horner, which I always like to come back to (my personal favourites are “Death of Titanic” and “Hard to Starboard”). The title song from the mouth of Canadian diva Céline Dion never tires me and I must not forget to mention and praise the amazing vocals of Norwegian soprano Sissel, which accompanied the viewer's ears from the beginning to the end of the film. As far as the story itself is concerned, one of its biggest drawbacks was the fact that we know from history how the ship will end up, and therefore it was necessary to add a non-historical line, which, however, caused an unpleasant aftertaste of kitsch for many viewers. Even though Jack and Rose is a more contemporary and mature take on the Romeo and Juliet relationship, I still had not the slightest problem with this short but all the more intense relationship and really wished both of them (not just on first viewing) a "happily ever after" together. To this day I still seek out films with both of the title actors, whom I already liked at the time, with Kate Winslet becoming my No. 1 favourite actress. To return to the plot, I very much enjoyed the framing of the story in the present day, which created fertile ground for a nostalgic return to 1912. I could talk about Titanic for hours and hours and each time I would come up with new insights or food for discussion - the same goes for each viewing. Despite its considerable number of technical and factual errors, Titanic is a film whose quality has certainly not diminished with time and has resisted the ravages of time with complete ease. (In the 2012 remastered version, some of the mistakes were even "tweaked" - e.g. the starry sky or the colour of the broken chimney). For me personally, this is a film that will always have great emotional as well as artistic value. You can really feel how intense Cameron's relationship with the infamous ship is. First he introduces us to its lavish spaces and to its various residents, only to have (almost) everything destroyed in the second half. In closing, I would like to say that I am eternally grateful to everyone involved for such a great cinematic experience. I often say with cult and legendary films that I can understand any rating, but in the case of Titanic, I especially don't understand the numerous Boo! ratings, because no matter how irritated you may feel by the story, its (not only) technical qualities cannot be denied. The eleven Oscars and the colossal sales in cinemas are proof of that!
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Today's 3D screening at Imax only confirmed what every viewer probably already knows: Titanic will never get old. It’s still brimming with energy, moving and tragic, funny and technically epic as it was 15 years ago. And it has survived everything. Even the pastime back then of mocking DiCaprio, who at the time was the personification of posters and stickers in teen magazines, suffered from the adoration of whiny teenage girls, and is now one of the world's most respected actors. Cameron's Titanic has survived the rapid evolution in the field of visual effects and even today can stand proudly next to all sorts of visually lavish flicks, without getting get lost and or blushing with shame. And just as I enjoyed the technical precision of the reconstruction of the sinking itself before, I now enjoy the romantic storyline, which is definitely not a Pretty Woman type of thing, Cameron endowed it with lightness, wit and a pleasant feeling at the heart. And as time goes by, the film is appreciated (and cherished) by a new and younger generation of viewers. The proof is in FilmBooster itself, when I registered in 2002, Titanic had an average rating of 75%. And today? You can see for yourselves! Bugger me, it was awesome!
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An opulent, spectacular picture which is simply flawless in technical terms. The outrageous length surprisingly didn’t break Titanic’s back, mainly thanks to Cameron’s directing. The end result flows by nicely, although there were a couple of places that could have done with more keen editing. The first half is more for the female audience, but then, after the collision, the disaster movie pandas more to the male audience. The characters are so terribly flat here, but thanks to their charisma, this isn’t boring. The most expensive movie ever and the greatest ever box office success, which is neither the highest quality movie ever, but it certainly is well above average.
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Gallery (412)
Photo © 1997 Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox
![Titanic - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/162/729/162729334_1413e8.jpg)
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