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$200-million disaster epic would cause the director's downfall, signal the end
of the blockbuster era, and sink Paramount Pictures as quickly as the ill-fated
luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Titanic would
surpass the $1-billion mark in global box-office receipts, win 11 Academy
Awards including Best Picture and Director, launch the best-selling movie
soundtrack of all time, and make a global superstar of Leonardo DiCaprio. A
bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon, the film has all the ingredients of a
blockbuster (romance, passion, luxury, grand scale, a snidely villain, and an
epic, life-threatening crisis), but Cameron's alchemy of these ingredients
proved more popular than anyone could have predicted. His stroke of genius
was to combine absolute authenticity with a pair of fictional lovers whose
tragic fate would draw viewers into the heart-wrenching reality of the Titanic
disaster. As starving artist Jack Dawson and soon-to-be-married socialite
Rose DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio and Kate Winslet won the hearts of viewers
around the world, and their brief, but never forgotten, love affair provides
the humanity that Cameron needed to turn Titanic into a moving emotional
experience. Although some of the computer-generated visual effects look
artificial, others--such as the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull--are
state-of-the-art marvels of cinematic ingenuity. It's an event film and a
monument to Cameron's risk-taking audacity, blending the tragic irony of the
Titanic disaster with just enough narrative invention to give the historical
event its fullest and most timeless dramatic impact.
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Romantic Comedy
Product Reviews
Annie Hall Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on
film. In it, Allen plays a thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a
successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the
wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton) is a Midwestern transplant who
dabbles in photography and sings in small clubs. When the two meet, the
sparks are immediate--if repressed. Alone in her apartment for the first time,
Alvy and Annie navigate a minefield of self-conscious "is-this-personsomeone-I'd-want-to-get-involved-with?"
conversation. As they speak,
subtitles flash their unspoken thoughts: the likes of "I'm not smart enough
for him" and "I sound like a jerk." Despite all their caution, they connect,
and we're swept up in the flush of their new romance. Allen's antic sensibility
shines here in a series of flashbacks to Alvy's childhood, growing up, quite
literally, under a rumbling roller coaster. His boisterous Jewish family's dinner
table shares a split screen with the WASP-y Hall's tight-lipped holiday table,
one Alvy has joined for the first time. His position as outsider is
uncontestable he looks down the table and sizes up Annie's "Grammy Hall" as
"a classic Jew-hater."
The relationship arcs, as does Annie's growing desire for independence. It
quickly becomes clear that the two are on separate tracks, as what was once
endearing becomes annoying. Annie Hall embraces Allen's central themes-his
love affair with New York (and hatred of Los Angeles), how impossible
relationships are, and his fear of death. But their balance is just right, the
chemistry between Allen's worry-wart Alvy and Keaton's gangly, loopy Annie
is one of the screen's best pairings. It couldn't be more engaging.
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Sleepless in Seattle The director and stars of 1998's You've Got Mail scored
a breakthrough hit with this hugely popular romantic comedy from 1993,
about a recently engaged woman (Meg Ryan) who hears the sad story of a