Titanic

When I first saw the film on television, I didn't really like it, as it seemed to come from some rebellious protest. But Cameron simply cannot be denied that he captured the sinking of the ship perfectly and convincingly. You feel the weight of knowing that not everyone will be saved, that they are doomed, simply because there are people there who are incapable or have made big mistakes. But after the battle, every general is a hero... Plus, you also have one of the most iconic romances. (25/10/2014)

Watching Titanic again after so many years, in a remastered 4K and 3D version is a truly sensual experience. All the more so when you watch this 25-year-old opus and realise that a better film will be hard to find in cinemas this year. Titanic resonates even more intensely when its screening is preceded by trailers for Quantumania, parallel universes, digital fests of all kinds, in short, recyclates that either make your head explode or your eardrums pop. But as soon as the old familiar melody plays after 20 minutes of trailer hell and the black and white "old" intro with the silhouette of the ship comes on, I am in my element. In 20 seconds, James Cameron produces more emotion in two cuts than all those future supercomics combined. Titanic is a celebration and homage to modern filmmaking, a benchmark of cinema. It stuns with its breathtaking fragility, old-world wisdom, palette of iconic scenes and colossal epic. The pinnacle of world cinema and deservedly one of the best pieces of all time. One of the few that has avoided ageing. (15/02/2023)

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 :-))". (25/01/2004)

Perhaps the most famous disaster and romance movie. I don't think it's even possible not to know and like it. The older I get, the more I like it and the more I cry at it. Overall, Titanic stirs something greater in me. Maybe because I was born on April 15 :-)) And Leo and Kate were absolutely amazing... for me Titanic is a timeless movie. (11/02/2011)

With Titanic, Cameron finally achieved his benchmark in the field of the grandiose chick-flick, and its success then confirmed to him who really makes the decisions here about what’s worth a visit to the cinema.  Except that Titanic is also an insanely polished diamond in this regard, and it is almost irritating how clearly this can be seen in everything. Apart from the main love story, everything feels terribly mechanical, staged, stereotypical, and lifeless. Every character here has only one purpose: Rose's fiancé, for example, is almost comical in his villainy, always safely taking the worst side in every situation. Interestingly, the characters of Jack and Rose don't work on their own either, but thankfully they work perfectly safely together where it's surprisingly believable how Rose takes the initiative over Jack from a certain point onwards, to the point of motherly binding him to her bosom after their romp in the car leaves the boy so moved he's shaking. Unfortunately, the fateful night itself is terribly studio lit, the trick photography has aged a bit, and the whole space of the Titanic feels compromised to the point of theatricality. (06/11/2022)