Impact/ Regain d'intérêt pour le Titanic

Aucun film avant celui de James Cameron n'a suscité un tel engouement pour l'histoire du navire.Le film de James Cameron, en plus de son succès planétaire, relance fortement l'intérêt du public pour le Titanic et son histoire.De nombreux films avaient auparavant été tournés sur le sujet (dont une superproduction nazie et un film réalisé avec l'aide de certains survivants : Atlantique, latitude 41°, mais aucun n'avait suscité un tel engouement médiatique et populaire.
 

En effet, à ce film succède la parution de nombreux ouvrages, parfois leur réédition ou leur traduction (c'est par exemple le cas du récit Rescapé du « Titanic » du colonel Archibald Gracie, mort le 4 décembre 1912).Cameron n'est d'ailleurs pas le seul à avoir été inspiré par le Titanic à cette époque puisque Robert Lieberman a sorti peu de temps avant un téléfilm (Le Titanic ) avec Catherine Zeta-Jones et Peter Gallagher, tandis que le développeur de jeux vidéo Cyberflix sort en octobre 1996 un jeu vidéo intitulé « Titanic » : Une aventure hors du temps.

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TRIVIA

-After completing Terminator 2 - Le jugement dernier, James Cameron got the idea to do the film after watching Atlantique, latitude 41°. He spent five years doing research on the Titanic and its fate.

-British newspapers alleged that Michael Caine refused a role.

-Macaulay Culkin was considered for the role of Jack Dawson.

-Reba McEntire was offered and had accepted the role of Molly Brown, but due to later schedule conflicts, had to turn it down.

-Ranks first in the Academy Award Most Nominated Films List with 14 nominations, tying with Ève.

-Kate Winslet was one of the few actors who didn't want to wear a wetsuit during the water scenes; as a result, she got pneumonia, and nearly quit the production . However, Cameron persuaded her to stay.

-Rose laughs during the flying scene when Jack sings "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine," as if she recalls the song from before. This is because a deleted scene shows the two characters singing it as they come out of the 3rd class dance.

-The "Sinking" coat was a size 8 while the rest of the gowns were a size 4. It was so large to make Rose seem more vulnerable in the sinking scenes.

-At the party in steerage, a foreign-speaking man is speaking with Rose and she says "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." The man is Swedish, probably a friend of Sven's, and he's saying to her "Talar fröken svenska?" In English that translates to "Does the miss/lady speak Swedish?" which she obviously doesn't.

-When the stern of the ship is vertical, Chief Baker Joughin (Liam Tuohy, in white) is drinking from a flask. Joughin was one of few to survive the freezing water, allegedly due to the alcohol (but this is disputed as unlikely since alcohol is known to accelerate hypothermia, not to help resist cold). The scene was added after Liam showed the flask to James Cameron explaining that it was a family heirloom as old as the Titanic itself.

-The Swedish phrases that Sven and his buddy exchange during the card game translate into the following: "I can't believe you bet our tickets!". "Shut up!". When grabbing Jack by the throat: "You damn weasel!". And after punching his buddy in the face: "You damn idiot! What the hell are we gonna do? I'm gonna kill you!".

-One of the Swedes in the beginning of the film, Erik Holland, is really Norwegian, and currently works as a doorman at a nightclub in Stavanger, Norway. The other, Jari Kinnunen, is an actor from Finland. His Swedish is so heavily accented as to be incomprehensible to Swedes.

-Was #1 at the U.S. box office for a record fifteen consecutive weeks, from 19 December 1997 to 2 April 1998.

-Dolores O'Riordan was asked to both act in and compose music for the movie, but refused both offers due to the birth of her son.

-The hands seen sketching Rose are not Leonardo DiCaprio's, but director James Cameron's. In post-production, Cameron, who is left-handed, mirror-imaged the sketching shots so the artist would be appear to be right-handed, like DiCaprio.

-Was the first film to be filmed at Fox Studios Baja.

-The car in which Jack and Rose make love was a Renault owned by the Carter family.

-The character of Rose is partially based on California artist Beatrice Wood, who died in 1998 at the age of 105.

-The elderly couple seen hugging on the bed while water floods their room are the owners of Macy's department store in New York; Ida and Isidor Strauss, both of whom died on the Titanic. Ida was offered a seat on a lifeboat but refused so that she could stay with her husband saying, "As we have lived together, so we shall die together." There was a scene filmed that depicted this moment but was cut from the final version.

Ce regain d'intérêt s'est également exprimé sur Internet, avec la naissance de nombreux sites sur le sujet, et de communautés de passionnés. De nombreuses reproductions d'objets du navire, ainsi que des accessoires du film (gilets de sauvetage, vaisselle) se sont vendus en grande quantité dans les années qui ont suivi le succès de Titanic.

Les associations consacrées au Titanic, comme la Titanic Historical Society fondée par Edward Kamuda en 1967, l'association française du Titanic et des associations de nombreux autres pays ont connu un fort accroissement du nombre de leurs adhérents suite à la sortie du film.

Dans le cas de l'association française du Titanic, ce succès a permis à l'organisation de remporter une victoire, puisqu'en 2000,elle a réussi à réhabiliter le musicien Roger Bricoux, mort à bord en 1912, qui était accusé de désertion lors de la Première Guerre mondiale, l'administration française n'ayant pas reçu de certificat de décès.*

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TRIVIA

-In the movie, Jack is a 3rd class passenger on the Titanic who sneaks his way up to first class with the hopes of never getting caught. In the real disaster in 1912, Third Class Passenger Hilda Maria Hellström, really did sneak up to first class out of curiosity and never got caught, however she was in her 3rd class cabin when the Titanic hit an iceberg and ended up surviving the sinking by boarding one of the last lifeboats to leave, Collapsible C.

-The "ale" in the below decks party was actually root beer.

-Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Jason Barry both injured themselves while filming the scene in which their characters pull up a bench in third class and use it to smash a gate open.

-Leo threw out a shoulder, and Jason caught himself in the chin with the bench.

-Jack has a line during the first class dinner scene in which he asks Molly Brown which utensils to use for what. Because of the enormous amount of time spent shooting the scene, having to provide different angles and coverage for all the cast members at the table, Leonardo DiCaprio was so worn out towards the end that he picked up a fork and asked Kathy Bates "Which one of these do I use to lobotomize myself?"

-During World War I, Titanic's former Second Officer Charles Lightoller served in the Royal Navy Reserve in multiple vessels (including 3 commands). Despite his distinguished record (he would be decorated twice for valor in combat), he would never command a merchant vessel for White Star or any other shipping line. After leaving merchant service, he owned a small motor yacht for much of the rest of his life. His was one of the many private citizens who helped in the evacuation of British and Allied forces from Dunkirk, France; he and his two sons would be credited for evacuating approximately 130 Allied personnel in the dangerously overloaded vessel.

-The most expensive movie to be filmed in the 20th century with a budget of $200,000,000.

-Approximately 120 tons of water (triple what had been initially planned) were released for Eric Braeden's final scene. Braeden said that he has never been more terrified in his life than when he was preparing for it, as there was obviously no possible physical rehearsal.

-Many of the "core extras" used for the movie took on characteristics of actual survivors. One scene where two little girls are loaded onto a lifeboat and the man says, "It's only for a little while" is based on testimony from one of the girls who survived.

-When Jack sneaks onto the first-class deck in search of Rose, we see a young boy playing with a top as his father looks on. The father is played by Titanic historian and author Don Lynch, of the Titanic Historical Society, who served as a consultant on the film. The scene is based on a famous photograph taken aboard Titanic during the second leg of the voyage, between Cherbourg and Queenstown (the photographer, Fr. Francis Browne, a Jesuit priest, left the ship when it docked briefly in Ireland). The boy, 6-year-old Robert Douglas Spedden and his father Frederic O. Spedden of Tuxedo Park, NY survived the sinking, but the boy died three years later in an auto accident in Maine, one of the first recorded in the state.

 Enfin, l'engouement pour le Titanic s'est traduit par la production d'un nouveau film de James Cameron, Les Fantômes du « Titanic »en 2003, ainsi que par la création d'une comédie musicale sur le thème du Titanic en 1997.

Une exposition consacrée au film, recréant notamment certains décors sur 5 000 m2, a également vu le jour au Wembley Stadium de Londres en 1999,avant de parcourir le monde En France, une exposition intitulée"Trésors du Titanic"s'est quant à elle tenue en 2003 à la Cité des sciences et de l'industrie de La Villette.
 

Le film Titanic a également eu une conséquence plus inattendue : depuis sa sortie, les navires de croisière interdisent aux passagers de se hisser à la proue, des passagers ayant tenté d'imiter les héros du film.

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TRIVIA

-The engine master says, "All ahead full," and we hear someone yell, "All ahead full!" in the background. That is actually director James Cameron's voice.

-Rose says "Jack" 80 times, not counting when she calls him "Mr. Dawson", but counting both Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart. Jack says "Rose" 50 times.

-James Cameron originally wanted Enya to compose the score for the film and even went so far as to assemble a rough edit using her music. When Enya declined, Cameron hired James Horner (who had composed the music for Cameron's previous film Aliens - Le retour) to write the score. Horner stated that the tensions with Cameron were so high during post-production of "Aliens" that he assumed he and Cameron would never work together again. However, Cameron was so impressed with Horner's score from Braveheart that he was willing to forget the past experience. According to some accounts, Horner independently decided the film's score should be done in Enya's style. As a result, several pieces of the score sound very similar to some well-known Enya songs, in particular her theme song for Horizons lointains (Book of Days).

-In the scene of Rose looking through the corridors for Jack, the water used was actually from the Pacific Ocean at the Baja California, Mexico set. The water was so cold that when Rose gasps when she first dives into the water, it was actually Kate Winslet's genuine reaction to the frigid ocean.

-A 162-foot crane originally intended for construction and lighting was mounted on railway tracks and used for most high-level exterior shots, rather than expensive helicopters. The camera platform was big enough for a gyro-stabilized Wescam, a Steadicam and a hand-held camera. James Cameron directed atop it to be able to see the entire set.

-Long shots showing the whole ship's exterior were produced by Digital Domain. A 1/20 scale model was filmed and computer-generated images of people, ocean and smoke were added. For one scene, James Cameron instructed them to "imagine we're making a commercial for White Star Lines and we need beautiful shots sweeping around the ship from a helicopter."

-The rooms that Caledon Hockley, Rose DeWitt Bukater and Ruth DeWitt Bukater occupied (B52, B54 and B56) were actual rooms on the real Titanic. They were originally booked by J.P. Morgan, but he canceled before the ship sailed. Morgan had a controlling interest in International Mercantile Marine, a conglomerate that owned the White Star Line. Bruce Ismay booked the rooms following Morgan's cancellation. (See Goofs.)

-Rose, in her old age, owns a Pomeranian. A Pomeranian was one of only three dogs known to have survived the disaster. As the real ship sank, a passenger freed dogs from their kennels and a survivor later recalled a French bulldog swimming in the ocean. James Cameron filmed scenes portraying the doomed animals but cut them.

-The completed film ignores the freighter Californian, which had stopped for the night due to the ice hazard and was within sight of the Titanic throughout the sinking (the Californian's warning had been received and sent to the bridge but was not placed in the chartroom). An early version of the script included a scene on the Californian, but James Cameron cut out the subplot after filming it to shorten running time. The two actors in the scene on the Californian were Adam Barker as radio operator Cyril Evans and Peter John White as Third Officer Groves.

Billy Zane

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Conséquences pour les acteurs

Le succès de Titanic donne une impulsion phénoménale à la carrière des acteurs principaux. Celui qui en bénéficie le plus est Leonardo DiCaprio. De nombreuses fans tombent littéralement amoureuses de lui, se bousculant pour revoir le film.

Les journaux parlent de  « DiCaprio-mania » pour désigner ce phénomène. Cette frénésie n'est cependant pas du goût de tous, et contrairement à Kate Winslet et Gloria Stuart, DiCaprio n'est pas nommé aux Oscars.

Sa carrière de star est cependant bien lancée. Ainsi, les deux autres films où il tient le premier rôle cette année-là, Roméo + Juliette (ça j'ai detesté!) et L'Homme au masque de fer profitent de cette nouvelle notoriété.

Les spectateurs du deuxième film sont à 55 % féminins, et à 46 % âgés de moins de 25 ans. DiCaprio devient un acteur convoité. Ainsi, son cachet, qui n'était que de 2,5 millions de dollars pour Titanic, passe à 20 millions pour La Plage, sorti en 2000.

Il tourne ensuite avec des réalisateurs tels que Steven Spielberg et Martin Scorsese, est nommé trois fois aux Oscars et remporte un Golden Globe. Il regrette cependant d'avoir eu cette étiquette d'idole qu'il n'a jamais désirée.

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TRIVIA

-This was the first time the Best Song Oscar (for "My Heart Will Go On") was won by a non-musical Best Picture winner. Best Song Oscar had been won by Best Picture winner only twice before (La route semée d'étoiles and Gigi, both musicals).

-James Cameron's regular Michael Biehn was nearly cast as Cal Hockley and attended numerous meetings with Cameron to discuss the role. Rob Lowe, Rupert Everett, Peter Greene and Pierce Brosnan were also considered, though ultimately the part went to Billy Zane.

-After finding out that she had to be naked in front of Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet decided to break the ice, and when they first met, she flashed him.

-Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet committed to the film even before the script was written, on the basis only of a 165-page outline James Cameron had written.

-Christian Bale auditioned for the role of Jack Dawson, but was turned down because James Cameron didn't want two British actors playing the lead roles of two Americans.

-Anthony Higgins turned down a role in this movie to do a play.

-With her nomination for Best Supporting Actress at age 87, Gloria Stuart became the oldest person to ever be nominated for an Oscar.

-Gwyneth Paltrow was also up for the role of Rose Dewitt Bukater but lost to Kate Winslet.

-In the movie the original script included scenes of newlywed couple Daniel and Mary Marvin, Daniel being a cameraman and son of Henry Marvin, co-founder of the movie production company American Mutoscope & Biograph. Daniel Marvin died aboard the Titanic, but not without photographing some of the only existing film of the liner.

-Even though the actors wore waterproof makeup for the scenes shot in the aftermath of the sinking, they constantly required touch-ups, as chemicals in the pool they shot in would wash the makeup off.

-As a joke in the edit suite, James Cameron had a razor blade with a label that said "Use only if movie doesn't work".

-The first film to be released on video (DVD/VHS) while it was still being shown in theaters.

-Bernard Fox appeared as Lookout Frederick Fleet in Atlantique, latitude 41° (uncredited) and as Col. Archibald Gracie in this film.

-Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard who built the Titanic in 1909, opened up their private archives to the production, sharing blueprints that were long thought lost.

-All the artifacts were created from scratch by Peter Lamont's production design team to recreate the newness of everything on the ship.

-For the safety of the stuntmen, most of the props were made of foam rubber.

-The schedule was originally meant to last 138 days but grew to 160 - 20 days short of 6 months.

-To sink the Grand Staircase into the purpose-built 5 million gallon tank, 90,000 gallons of water were dumped through it as it was lowered into the tank. Such was the volume that the staircase was ripped from its steel-reinforced foundations.

Kate Winslet, pour sa part, devient une actrice réputée et tourne par la suite dans plusieurs films récompensés. Cependant, le tournage dans l'eau gelée s'étant révélé éprouvant, elle a déclaré ne plus vouloir tourner avec James Cameron à moins qu'on ne lui propose beaucoup d'argent.

Enfin, Bernard Hill (Le capitaine) a vu sa carrière connaître une certaine impulsion et a participé, en incarnant le roi Théoden, à l'adaptation du Seigneur des anneaux par Peter Jackson. Il est de fait à l'affiche de deux des trois films ayant reçu onze Oscars.

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TRIVIA

-The post-sinking scenes were shot in a 350,000 gallon tank where the frozen corpses were created by applying a powder on the actors that then crystallized when exposed to water. Wax was applied to hair and clothes to create a wet look.
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-The original carpet manufacturers were persuaded to make an 18,000 square foot reproduction of the original weave that was on the ship.
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-The film contains over 100 speaking parts and over 1000 extras, all of whom needed to be dressed in lavish period costume.
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-Paramount had to send out replacement reels to theaters who had literally worn out their copies.
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-Of the special effects houses involved, VIFX were responsible for the icy, visible breath of the passengers floating in the water after the ship sank. They also worked on the engine room sequence and a lot of the workers seen therein. POP Film handled digital face replacements and matte paintings, Banned from the Ranch took care of some underwater shots, CIS Hollywood were responsible for sky replacements and bluescreen composites, whilst Digital Domain - James Cameron's own company - dealt with the bulk of the big showcase special effects.
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-Both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio learned how to dance the polka for the scenes set at the party in the third-class compartments.
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-Kate Winslet had to learn how to scuba dive in preparation for her scenes in the water.
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-Billy Zane was cast after James Cameron saw him in the film Le fantôme du Bengale.
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-Egg white was used for the initial spitting sequence, but petroleum jelly was used in the sequence where Rose spits on Cal.
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-Rose's chiffon dress which she wears for the latter part of the film was designed to look just as good wet as dry. Costume designer Deborah Lynn Scott had about 24 of them made.
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-This was the first film to be nominated twice for an Academy Award, for the portrayal of the same character. Kate Winslet received an Best Actress nomination for her role as Rose. Gloria Stuart received an best supporting nomination for her portrayal of the older Rose. The next time this happened was with the movie Iris, which also starred Winslet.
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-Most of the stuntmen in the engine room scenes were only about 5 feet tall to make the engine room look a lot bigger.
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-Fay Wray was originally offered the role of the older Rose but turned it down, saying, "I think to have done this film would have been a tortuous experience altogether". Hollywood legend Ann Rutherford also turned it down.
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-Titanic survivor Millvina Dean was asked if she would like to attend the premiere but she refused, stating that watching Atlantique, latitude 41° was painful enough to watch.
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-The name of the band seen playing at the party in 3rd Class is Gaelic Storm.
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-At the end of the movie, when Rose meets Jack on the Grand Staircase, the time displayed on the clock is the same time the ship sank, at 2:20 AM.
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-The most-voted-for film on IMDb that is not on the Top 250 List.
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-Jack's portrait of the one-legged prostitute is actually visible for two frames as he turns the page to his sketch of "Madam Bijoux". James Cameron decided not to show the portrait as he thought the audience would imagine something better.
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-James Cameron wrote the role of Lewis Bodine with his friend Lewis Abernathy in mind. When he couldn't find an actor to play the part, he went to Lewis and asked, essentially, if he would he play himself. Lewis replied, "If you want to fuck up your movie by casting me buddy, alright."
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-Lorcan Cranitch was the first choice for the role of Thomas Andrews after James Cameron was impressed with his performance as DS Jimmy Beck in "Cracker". Victor Garber was cast after Cranitch turned the role down.
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Gloria Stuart who was 87 at the time of the film's release, lived to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its release at age 97. She became a real life centenarian on July 4th, 2010.
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-Composer James Horner said the first rough cut he saw of the film was 36 hours.
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-The first Best Picture Academy Award winner to be produced, directed, written, and edited by the same person (James Cameron).
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-In the film, Molly Brown lends Jack a tuxedo that she has most likely purchased in Europe for her son who is supposedly the same size as Jack. The real Molly Brown did indeed have a son, Larry, who was 24 at the time that the Titanic sank.
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-When Jack prevents Rose from committing suicide, he shares a story about how he once fell into freezing cold water while ice fishing and how it feels like "being stabbed with a thousand knives all over your body." This was an actual quote from a Titanic survivor describing the temperature of the North Atlantic water.
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-The piece of wooden paneling that Rose floated on after the sinking is based upon a genuine artifact that survived the sinking and is on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, though it was scaled larger to provide sufficient buoyancy as a life-raft for Rose.
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-The first film James Cameron ever directed that did not include or mention nuclear weapons.
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