TITANIC

 
Nothing on earth could come between them. 

The Titanic, the ship that was reputed as unsinkable, sailed the seas only four days before the unimaginable catastrophe sent it two and a half miles down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Jim Cameron's Titanic was shot in Baja California, Mexico where a forty acre studio with three sets, including 65 million liters of sea water, was created so as to follow the sequence of events with a certain rigor of accuracy from the day the Titanic set sail to the rescue of the survivors. However, Cameron had no intention of making an historical document. He chose rather to blend a romantic love story with scenes from the true shipwreck remains located some 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in order to recount the sinking of the Titanic. 

 

Synopsis

The film opens with the present day. Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton), a treasure hunter, is searching the remains of the Titanic for a famous diamond which was suspected to be among the passenger fortunes that were lost. Instead he finds a sketch in a safe box in which a young woman is wearing the diamond on a necklace. The 100 year old Rose Dawson (Gloria Stuart) recognizes the sketch of herself on a television news segment and joins the explorer's vessel to help them determine the location of the diamond.
 
The action cuts back in time to the year 1912 aboard the Titanic as she recounts her version of the "real" story of the Titanic's sinking. 
Played by Kate Winslet, Rose Dewitt Bukater was 17 years old, wealthy, well-behaved and about to marry Cal Hockley (Bill Zane), pressured by her mother to do so. During the trip she tries to commit suicide and is rescued by Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a third-class passenger who had been traveling Europe trying to make his mark as an artist. 
The film portrays the first-class passengers as bored, cowardly and preoccupied with insignificant details while the third-class voyagers are warm and communicative and the two just do not mix. As the love between Rose and Jack develops, so do the conflicts with her mother and fiancé. It is at this moment that the Titanic hits an iceberg and starts to sink... 
 
 
 
James Cameron
 
 
Canadian-born James Cameron, aged 43, started adulthood as a truck driver. From there, his rather rebellious wanderings brought him to Los Angeles where he found a job as art director for the B series specialist, Roger Corman. He went on to make his own B series  film - Piranha 2. His next films started to fashion his future as a film director: Abyss, Terminator 2 and True Lies. He also began to develop his reputation as crazy and always going over budget.
 
It was in 1987 that James Cameron first noted some ideas for the Titanic on paper. In 1995, 
Fox Studios approved the film proposal and he headed straight for Newfoundland where the remains of the Titanic lie some two and a half miles under the sea. His brother James, an engineer, designed a titanium casing for the camera capable of withstanding five tons of pressure and down they went.  Some of the footage from these underwater explorations  are included in the final film. 

In 1996, he decided to build a forty acre studio in Baja California, Mexico with three sets and a reservoir capable of holding 65 million liters of sea water. A scale model of the ship was reproduced at 92% the size of the original ship. Fox began to panic and decided to go joint venture with Paramount. Shooting finally began in July of 1996. 500 visual effects were necessary : the starboard side of the ship was digitally created, the water filling the ship as well, and the passengers jumping off the boat are all dummies. 

 
 
Way over budget and still unfinished, Cameron finally threw in his salary and percentage to the producing studios just to get them off his back and continue his film. After eight months of shooting, the film finally came out on December 19, 1997.
 

 

 
The car in which Rose and Jack made love was an exact replica of the
35 horsepower Renault that Mr. William Carter was bringing back to
Pennsylvania from his stay in Cherbourg, France with his wife, her
maid, 2 children, and his chauffeur. All but the chauffeur survived.
 
 
Leonardo DiCaprio
 
 
 
Leonardo DiCaprio, a native of Los Angeles, began his acting career at age 14 in commercials and educational films. From there, he went on to television including a role in the popular American television series Growing Pains. He made his film debut opposite Robert DeNiro and Ellen Barkin in This Boy's Life. In 1993 at 19, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a mentally retarded boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?  He has appeared in a variety of feature films including The Quick and the Dead with Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman,  The Basketball Diaries, and Total Eclipse in which DiCaprio played the poet Rimbaud. 

In 1996, he starred with Claire Danes in the modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet  as well as the screen adaptation of Marvin's Room opposite Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. He is currently on the screen in The Man in the Iron Mask with Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich and Gerard Depardieu. 

 
 
 
Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet first became recognized for her performance in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures. Opposite Emma Thompson, she won acclaim in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, including a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination in 1996. Most recently she was praised for her role in Michael Winterbottom's Jude and as the tortured Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Hamlet.

 

 Film Credits