Titanic is an American film directed by Jean Negulesco and released in 1953 . It tells the stories of various fictional characters during the sinking of the ship Titanic occurred on. This Hollywood blockbuster has bold special effects for the time, and won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay . It is however little faithful to the reality, especially in comparison with Atlantic, latitude 41 ° , another film devoted to the subject , which leaves five years later.
Synopsis
To remove her children Annette and Norman from the influence of her husband from whom she is separated, Julia Sturges decides to take them aboard the liner Titanic . Her husband Richard manages to embark at the last moment to recover his children. They meet other passengers like Maud Young, a young woman strongly inspired by Margaret Brown , Gifford Rogers, a young tennis player who quickly falls in love with the young Annette and George S. Headley, a priest suspended for alcoholism.
Julia finally agrees to let her daughter choose who she will stay with, given her age, but refuses her son to leave her. She tells Richard that Norman is not his son. The liner finally hits an iceberg, and the family reconciles near the lifeboats. Julia and the children embark, but Norman leaves the boat to make way for a woman.
Norman and Richard then perish in the sinking when the boilers explode and the ship sinks. Gifford Rogers also fails to drown but is saved by Julia and Annette, while George Headley sacrifices himself to give the last rites to the crew members who worked in the depths of the ship without trying to save their lives.
Technical sheet
- Title: Titanic
- Director: Jean Negulesco
- Production: Charles Brackett for Twentieth Century Fox
- Scenario: Charles Brackett , Richard Breen and Walter Reisch
- Music: Kaplan Sol
- Photography: Joseph MacDonald
- Artistic direction: Lyle Wheeler and Maurice Ransford
- Costumes: Dorothy Jeakins and Charles Le Maire
- Editing: Louis Loeffler
- Country of origin: United States
- Language: English
- Format: Black and white
- Genre: disaster movie
- Duration: 98 minutes
- Release date: April 11, 1953 (United States), March 18, 1955 (France)
Distribution
- Barbara Stanwyck (VF: Lita Recio ) : Julia Sturges
- Clifton Webb (VF: Gérard Férat) : Richard Ward Sturges
- Robert Wagner (VF: Hubert Noël ) : Gifford “Giff” Rogers
- Thelma Ritter (VF: Germaine Michel ) : Maude Young
- Audrey Dalton (VF: Arlette Thomas ) : Annette Sturges
- Brian Aherne (VF: Jacques Erwin ) : Captain Edward John Smith
- Richard Basehart (VF: Lucien Bryonne ) : George S. Healey
- William Johnstone : John Jacob Astor
- Frances Bergen : Madeleine Astor
- Barry Bernard : First Officer Murdoch
- Charles B. Fitzsimons : Henry Wilde
- Nicolas Coster (uncredited): a sailor
Realization and reception
The production of the film, originally titled Nearer, My God, to Thee ( Nearer My God To Thee ) starts in November 1952. A model of 8 meters is used to perform the scenes of shipwreck . On the other hand, the scenario is far from reality: the ship did not sink into a crash of boilers. In addition, the main characters are fictional. This did not prevent the historian Walter Lord to declare about the character of Clifton Webb if he was not on board, it could very well be one .
The film wins the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Charles Brackett , Richard Breen and Walter Reisch 2 , 3 . The film receives 88% favorable reviews on Rotten Tomatoes 4 website .
Notes and references
- ↑ (in) Titanic (1953) [ archive ] , “Titanic” in the film and television . Accessed April 6, 2010
- ↑ (in) Titanic (1953) [ archive ] , IMDb . Accessed April 6, 2010
- ↑ (in) Titanic [ archive ] , Variety . Accessed April 6, 2010
- ↑ (in) Titanic Movie Review [ archive ] , Rotten Tomatoes . Accessed April 6, 2010