THIS PAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PICPAL.COM THE PICTURE PALACE
James Cameron's "little" movie will find a much larger audience on tape than it found in theaters. That's a fact that Hollywood doesn't like to acknowledge about today's film business. Despite Titanic's record-breaking ticket sales, most people in America and in the world have not seen the film yet. In the long run, many more viewers will experience it on video than on the big screen. And it works just fine on the more intimate medium.
Curiously, Titanic has also become a lightning rod for wingnut social conservatives who rail against "PG-13 immorality" and sexual permissiveness. If they thought they had problems keeping kids away from this kind of unabashed romanticism in theaters, wait until adolescent girls get their hands on the tape! This fall, slumber parties from sea to shining sea will be Leo Love-Ins.
Despite the gargantuan sets and special effects, the film is really nothing more than a sea-going soap opera with attractive, mostly stereotyped characters involved in contrived ridiculous conflicts. That said, the potboiler does have the courage of its bubbling convictions and perfectly tuned performances in the key roles. The movie really works through two characters, Jack and "old" Rose, who have no scenes together.
As Jack, Leonardo DiCaprio emerges as a full-fledged movie star of James Dean-Marlon Brando proportions. Gloria Stuart's Oscar-nominated performance as "old" Rose brings the film's two time frames together.
Their work - along with spirited support from Billy Zane as the unhinged villain and Kate Winslet as "young" Rose - loses nothing on the small screen. By some measures, it's better. And on any screen of any size, the last third of the film is still unpersuasive. The water just doesn't seem cold enough, but so what? That lack of realism doesn't hurt a soap opera and Titanic remains one of the great tearjerkers of our time.
So, forget the niggling criticisms. Get a copy, open up a fresh box of tissues and prepare to wallow. At the end, there won't be a dry eye in the house.
Also, despite many rumors, this version of Titanic is the "director's cut." According to a Paramount publicist, no plans exist for any longer version. A conventional Pioneer laser disc is scheduled for release in October. Though Paramount has recently adopted the DVD format, Titanic is not yet on its schedule. It may well appear on DVD in November or December.
In person, Gloria Stuart is just as engaging as "old" Rose and, at age 87, she looks much younger.
At a small press conference in July at the VSDA convention, she had little interest in talking about herself. Instead, she was quick to praise director James Cameron, sounding like a proud parent, a mother who dotes on a particularly talented son. "He's crazy about me and I'm crazy about him." She did claim credit for coming up with the film's best laugh line - "old" Rose's comment on a sketch of "young" Rose - but she pooh-poohed Cameron's reputation as a harsh taskmaster. It's merely an incredible attention to detail, she said. It took Cameron himself an hour and a half to arrange the photographs on "old" Rose's dresser for one key shot.
When she did talk about herself, the focus was more on the early days of her career.
Like so many actors, she got into movies at the beginning of the sound era because of her background on the stage. "In those days, Paramount offered $75 a week; Universal $125. It was so much money and my husband and I were so broke - we were living in Carmel - it was a fortune. My agent opted for Universal, which was a disaster. Universal was a B-studio. I didn't know from B-studios. Paramount had Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, Ann Harding, great directors like Lubitsch. Universal had Boris Karloff, but I didn't know that. I just knew that $125 was $50 more than $75. So after two and a half years I figured how to get out of this contract - get pregnant."
The praise she had for Cameron and her fellow cast members is exactly what you expect to hear from people who have been part of a commercial hit, but she was also unashamed to admit how much she wanted the role. When some other actresses of her generation were rumored to have balked at reading for Cameron, she pursued auditions actively. She was just as candid about why she was chosen: "I think they were looking for an actress from the '30s who is - what should I say? - still viable, [who] could talk, could remember lines, and wasn't an alcoholic. You know, time takes its toll."
