titanic Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Cinematical Seven: Romantic Tragedies
Filed under: Cinematical Seven »
The release of a new Nicholas Sparks movie (Dear John) serves as a reminder that audiences love a good cry. It's true -- as much as we enjoy romances where our heroes end with a kiss as they look forward to their bright future, we're even more enamored with romantic movies where the lovers are doomed, doomed, doomed.
Here are seven fine examples of romantic tragedies, films in which the main characters don't get what they want, maybe never will, and no one leaves the theater whistling a happy tune:
Titanic
James Cameron's epic saga may turn into a kick-ass action flick in its last act, but the movie's heart belongs to its heroes, Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet). Cameron presents a fairly cliched tale of class-difference love with so much elegance, charm and wit that it feels like he's treading new territory. It also helps that his two leads are spectacular actors. In classic romantic tragedy style, we know from the outset that the lovers won't end up together -- yet we root for them anyway.
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless MindA rare film that goes in so many unexpected directions that it leaves the audience breathless with tension, delight, and anticipation, Michel Gondry's masterwork is stunning not only for the performance he draws out of Jim Carrey, but for his deft hand at making concrete the nebulous inner worlds of emotion and memory. With Kate Winslet, again, as the object of desire, Eternal Sunshine is another film that ends on a melancholy note, but it couldn't have ended any other way.
'Avatar' Passes 'Titanic' to Become Highest Grossing Movie Ever Made
Filed under: Box Office »
Surprise, surprise! Titanic has finally been de-throned. Just yesterday in our Weekend Box Office, Eugene Novikov noted how Avatar was sure to become the number one-grossing film in the next day or two. Right on schedule, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Avatar is now the biggest-grossing film of all time. (However, the movie still has a short journey left on the domestic box office charts. It's at $551.7 mil, and needs to get to $600.8 mil.)Titanic fell into the icy seas of the #2 spot early on Monday, as James Cameron's epic cashed in $1.292 billion worldwide. Titanic's record was $1.242 billion. As THR notes, these numbers highlight the importance of the foreign circuit, which is responsible for almost 70% of the film's worldwide revenue. (To continue the comparison, Titanic found 67% worldwide.) But the new twist this time around was that super-magic 3D technology. It has to be seen in all its third-dimensional glory, and for once, everyone is on-board hook, line, and sinker.
Finally, not to tarnish James Cameron's achievements, but the accomplishment does diminish once inflation is taken into account. If all money were equal, using the U.S. Labor Statistics formula, Gone with the Wind is still the top dog with $400 million in 1939 being over $6 billion now. ("One dollar in 1939 is the equivalent of $15.43 today.") Six BILLION. Can we ever hope to reach that terribly elusive inflation number? I mean, more time to catch it just means more inflation and a higher divide
Oscar Discuss: 'Avatar' vs. 'The Dark Knight'
Filed under: Awards », Oscar Watch »
When The Dark Knight was left off the Oscar lists last year, the cries of injustice were heard loud and far. The Academy is biased. Who did the Weinsteins buy off? How many dirty pictures of AMPAS members does Stephen Daldry possess to get three director nods for three films? How could this have happened? Could it happen again? Well just four months after the gravelly growl heard round the film world, here came the Academy with an announcement.
Ten.
That's right. For the first time since 1943, the Oscars are going to have ten nominations for Best Picture instead of the usual five. "Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," said Academy President Sid Ganis. In other words, no longer will films as lauded as The Dark Knight get screwed. Gone are the days that animated films would be discriminated against. At least not those labeled with Pixar. It's the reason that three successful science fiction films are in legitimate contention for a Best Picture nomination this year. Only one of them serves up comparison to The Dark Knight though. In the numbers, not your particular preference over which film is a masterpiece of genre filmmaking and which has blue people in it. Put those personal opinions aside for the moment and ask yourself this question: If there were still only five nominees for Best Picture, would Avatar have been this year's Dark Knight?
Pitch of the Day: Mrs. Breadwinner
Filed under: Classics », Comedy », Romance »
One of this week's most popular New York Times articles is about new census data revealing that more women are becoming the breadwinners in American families. Titled "More Men Marrying Wealthier," the report states that more women have college degrees than men today, and that with so many men laid off during the present recession, the households in which only the wife/mother works is significantly higher than it was even a year ago. Sounds like ripe fodder for a new romantic comedy titled...Mrs. Breadwinner
The title, inspired by Mr. Mom, is just a generic place holder for what should be a few movies reflecting this change in society and gender politics. Back during the Great Depression, when similar role reversals were taking place in real life, Hollywood made a number of films featuring a wealthy woman marrying or at least falling for a lesser-status man. Platinum Blonde, Broadway Bill, My Man Godfrey, The Thin Man and others dealt with this situation, though most of these films then and since (Mr. Mom, Overboard, Coming to America, Titanic) have ended with the man rising in status, revealed to be more well-off than thought, returning to his own kind by ultimately marrying a more socially equal partner or dying. Or, the woman gives up her wealth for the poor guy.
Pitch of the Day: Time and Again
Filed under: Drama », Romance », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Mystery & Suspense », Steven Spielberg »
Today's pitch is more of a request for a greenlight. Jack Finney's illustrated novel Time and Again has been slated for the screen ever since the book was published 40 years ago, but I can't find any news on its development since 2002, when the long-attached Robert Redford had reportedly gotten Kenneth Lonergan to script the film version. Eight years later I've read the book and become a fan, and like many other of its fans I'd love to see someone finally get moving on...Time and Again
The book is about an artist recruited for a government experiment in time travel, in which the man is sent back to the Manhattan of 1882, where he falls in love while investigating the mysterious circumstances behind a suicide. It's somewhat a cross between 12 Monkeys and Gangs of New York (which was co-written by Lonergan) and involves a mix of romance and historical tragedy that might also lump it in with Titanic. Another more obvious film connection is with Somewhere in Time, which features a character named for Finney (who also wrote the basis for all the Body Snatchers movies).
Discuss: Which Movie Should Be Re-Released in 3D Next?
Filed under: Action », Classics », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Exhibition », George Lucas », Steven Spielberg », Home Entertainment », Peter Jackson »
Now that Avatar is the second-highest-grossing film of all time, 3D is finally confirmed as the future of movies. In a way, it's as if The Jazz Singer hadn't really harked the arrival of talkies and instead it took until Frankenstein arrived four years later to prove converting to sound was truly worth it. Anyway, just as films in production in the late 1920s were quickly turned into talkies, this year we keep hearing word of upcoming blockbusters being turned into 3D releases. For example, The Sunday Times is certain Ridley Scott's Robin Hood will indeed be available, as rumored, in both 3D and 2D versions when it opens this May (UPDATE: Universal says the Times is incorrect in this information).
The Times additionally reports on what we've been expecting for years now, that theatrical favorites like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings will now definitely receive 3D-version re-releases. The LOTR trilogy could apparently be out in the format by Christmas 2012, timed to follow the release of the second part of The Hobbit (which may end up being 3D after all, too). Action sequences from the films have already been tested in 3D by the effects company Weta and are quoted as being "gob-smacking." The Times believes the Star Wars trilogies will be retrofitted for 3D even sooner, with George Lucas already spending $10 million for the conversion.
8 Things in 'Avatar' You've Definitely Seen From James Cameron Before
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », Fandom », 20th Century Fox »
After 12 years and hundreds of millions of dollars, expectations are so high for Avatar that it seems impossible for James Cameron's latest film to live up to the promise of being a game-changer not only for 2009 audiences, but for the history of the medium itself. It certainly hasn't helped that Cameron has spent the better part of the last year proclaiming that it would be unlike anything anyone has ever seen.
Interestingly, however, what all of this hype may actually do is create the mistaken sense that Cameron's movie is truly unprecedented, bizarre, or otherwise unfamiliar in its form, structure and storytelling. The one thing that Cameron seems to understand best is that technological revolutions – one of which is essentially what he's staging here – are best packaged in familiar forms. In which case, we took a look at the movie and highlighted the top eight characterizations, plot points and ideas in Avatar that will immediately feel recognizable to his fans, much less moviegoers long since steeped in the conventions of contemporary moviemaking.
Cinematical Seven: Movies That Start Fights
Filed under: Horror », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », Cinematical Seven »
I've been meaning to purchase and wear this t-shirt since I learned of its existence a couple of months ago, but I figured I'd better let the Twilight: New Moon hysteria die down first. It would appear, after all, that openly declaring one's hostility toward the Twilight franchise on one's person, even with a statement as unquestionably correct as "Vampires Don't Sparkle," is just asking for trouble. You do not want to mess with a gaggle of rabid Robert Pattinson fans.
I do not hate the Twilight franchise, actually, though I would like to suggest that the Twilighteers may live to regret sinking so much time and emotion into something so utterly banal. But I seem to be one of the few who occupy the middle ground. Twilight might be the most divisive love-it-or-hate-it phenomenon of the last few years. Not everyone adores Harry Potter, but most people have at least a grudging respect for it; Twilight has as many haters as fawning admirers.
You gotta admit that if you can use a movie to start an argument, it's at least good for something. Here are seven other movies that seem to disproportionately divide the moviegoing population into adoring fans and angry detractors.
1. Titanic - To get the obvious out of the way. It's amazing to me how often people make offhand derisive mentions of Titanic, as if its awfulness were well-established and self-evident. As with Twilight, of course, the surprisingly widespread disdain of this movie is a backlash against its army of obsessive partisans (and from a similar demographic to boot) -- the folks who showed up on local news shows in 1997 bragging about having seen it 16 times in the theater, etc. The fact that Titanic is a fantastic film -- and not really (or at least not only) for the reasons many of its fans think -- tends to get lost in the shuffle, sadly.
James Cameron Never Wanted to Make 'Titanic'
Filed under: Fandom », Newsstand »
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Perhaps the most comically brilliant interview of the month will come sandwiched between naked ladies as a lengthy chat with James Cameron will be featured in December's issue of Playboy. While we don't have the actual interview for you to read, Playboy sent over a whole batch of quotes that were just too good to resist. Based on the quotes, it would appear the interview covers everything from Cameron's directorial approach to his inspiration (Star Wars) to his personal life (married five times) to his films to Christian Bale's famous on-set tirade ("Man, I have to take my hat off to this guy. I could not pull a rant like that if I had to.' I mean, I can get on a roll but not like that. I just had to bow down.").
And speaking of his films, Cameron was quite candid when Titanic came up, admitting there was only one reason why he wanted to make that film and it wasn't to get Kate Winslet topless. "I made Titanic because I wanted to dive to a shipwreck, not because I particularly wanted to make the movie...Titanic was about 'f*ck you' money," he said. And on Kate Winslet almost dying while filming: "[On the set of Titanic] we simply let Kate [Winslet] think she was nearly drowning. A little sputtering and coughing does not count in my book, because I have almost drowned several times...Anybody who signs on [with me] is going to be tested." Right on! James Cameron: The director who will let you think you're dying in order to get the best performance!
Check out a few more choice Cameron quotes after the jump (like why you'll never see him on Twitter), and you can read the entire interview in the December issue of Playboy, which hits newstands and online on November 13th.
How an Astrophysicist Convinced James Cameron to Re-Edit 'Titanic'
Filed under: Drama », Fandom », 20th Century Fox »
I absolutely love this story. If you're a regular TV watcher, you'll likely recognize the remarkably affable astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, be it from his repeat appearances on "The Colbert Report" or his regular hosting duties on "NOVA ScienceNow". If not, know the man has a rare gift for reducing complex science into theories any dope could understand, a gift that also makes him the worst fanboy possible. The video below is from an audience Q&A session in which the delightful scientist was asked to elaborate on what he thought was the worst "bad science" movie ever made. While you'd expect an astrophysicist to hate a work rife with lunatic science, films like Armageddon, he shares, are easily dismissed because they make zero effort towards accuracy. However, a film that falsely claims to be scientifically accurate, like Titanic, really sticks in the man's caw, "There are movies out there where the director just doesn't care, and if they don't care, why should I care? I'm okay if they don't care. It's when there's a premise of accuracy and precision that they just mess up, that pisses me off."
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Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
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