Titanic

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 :-))". (26/01/2004)

Romantic drama that breaks hearts with every viewing, subtle jokes that, in the viewer's adulthood, reveal how complex Titanic truly is, and above all, Cameron's life's work. Only with a decent, soon to be twenty-year gap and the fading of the last remnants of the uncontrollable hype from the turn of the century, can the greatness of the entire spectacle be fully appreciated. Unsinkable, unforgettable, and practically flawless. And I have no doubt that it will continue to grow. (30/04/2006)

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. (16/03/2022)

I’m giving one star for the ship itself, otherwise, it’s a mockery of all those who died in the tragedy. I can only imagine Cameron thinking: "Lots of dead people. Awesome! Let’s just throw in some famous actors, a love story, and epic music, and we'll make a killing." Hooray! Mission accomplished. (26/06/2016)

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. (23/04/2011)