At the time of the release of James Cameron’s Titanic, Variety He called it “an opulent disaster movie, in the middle of a love story.” A description that his director, he insisted, was a point of considerable importance. “It is a romance in the worst possible conditions” he would say years later. What seems to encompass the very strange combination of genres that the film achieved and that ended up conquering the public.
Turned into a mass phenomenon, the film is one of the highest grossing in modern cinema. Also, the highest point of a genre that is often underestimated by specialized critics.
The romantic has been part of the cinema since its beginnings and of the great great movies of Hollywood. As early as 1896, Thomas Edison shocked the public with a close-up showing a couple in a passionate embrace. The Kiss, was less than three minutes long and immortalized, in an early way, the cinema’s obsession with the most sublime feeling.
Decades later, Gone with the Wind became a major box office hit. Not just for its exploration of the American Civil War. At the same time, because of the tragic and bitter romance between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler. It was the beginning of a long history, in which the cinema used love as the center of its great plots.
If you like the genre, we suggest 5 great movies to celebrate the return of Titanic to theaters.
Great Movies To Watch If You Loved ‘Titanic’
‘Noa’s diary’
The adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, has the elements of a classic. Noa (Ryan Gosling) is a humble young man in the city of Seabrook (Texas) in the forties. Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams), is the daughter of a privileged family, who wants to live one last carefree summer before getting married. Of course, an impossible love, stormy and in the end, destined for a tragic separation, will be born between them.
Of course, it was his final scene, the one that dazzled and brought the audience to tears. With an elderly Noa (James Garner), devotedly devoted to his beloved (Gena Rowlands) who no longer remembers him, it’s a tribute to romance. What made the film one of the most remembered love stories of the seventh art.
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‘Forget about me!’
Michel Gondry directed, perhaps, the most painful and to some extent cruel allegory of heartbreak and subsequent nostalgia. Forget me! It’s not just a romantic plot. It is also a powerful and sensitive reflection on loss and the rigors of heartbreak. With a brilliant script by Charlie Kaufman, it also moves between the science fiction setting and a sensitive exploration of the need to love.
When Joel (Jim Carrey) breaks up with Clementine (Kate Winslet), his life falls apart. Desperate, he will make the decision to undergo a procedure that will allow her to remove every memory of the relationship from his mind. A brutal solution to an almost unbearable type of pain. Gradually, the character will discover that the memory of Clementine is also a way of understanding her life and identity. What will force him to try to stop the process of destruction of memories and will give the film its best moments.
Considered a bittersweet jewel, the ribbon is the symbol of broken love, but which, in the end, fully discovers all its importance. Converted into one of the great classics of the 20th century, it celebrates a singular and slightly cynical perception of emotions. Ideal for those who want to explore a whole new and especially powerful perspective on romance.
‘Edward Scissorhands’
Tim Burton had a recurring image about a monster with a heart overflowing with good intentions. So he got down to business and wrote a script, which surprised and baffled several studios. Finally, it was 20th Century Studios that dared to take the step of filming this dark fantasy, which was also a romance and ended up joining Burton’s list of great movies. The director would admit years later “that no one understood Eduardo and they only did so when I commented that he could love.”
The story is a combination of the director’s obsessions, with a gothic staging and an impossible romance in the middle of the plot. Eduardo (Johnny Depp), is the creation of a scientist who did not finish his body and gave him scissors instead of hands. When the latter dies, the very young creature remains confined in a castle, where Peg (Dianne Wiest) finds him. Amazed and moved by the loneliness of the inexplicable being, she takes him to her house. Once there, she will meet Kim (Wynona Ryder) with whom, of course, he will fall hopelessly in love.
This updated and macabre version of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast became the symbol of a sinister type of romance that still captivates. Much more, after Burton turned the lonely and tragic Eduardo into a symbol of his way of understanding cinema. A curious jewel for lovers of the singular.
You can see Edward Scissorhands on Disney+.
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‘A place called Notting Hill’
Once upon a time, a famous actress fell at the feet, and at first sight, of a London bookseller. The premise of A Place Called Notting Hill couldn’t seem more like a classic fable that’s very close to the cliché. However, the director, Roger Michell, also turns it into a fun version about fame, media exposure and solidarity. Everything, when none of the topics were part of the great collective conversation.
The film also does something else: it shows love in a modern and kind shade that is captivating. Anna Scott is the most famous actress in the world. Played by Julia Roberts in a role bespoke for her, she is the most loved, admired and haunted face on the show.
Except for the dusty bookstore that William (Hugh Grant) runs, probably the only person who wouldn’t recognize the actress right away. In the midst of this crazy premise, the story takes place in a careful atmosphere of tenderness. Beyond the celebrity or the stumbles of her adorable male character, it is a reflection on the reasons why she loves herself. A curious philosophical point of view for a film that ends with a happy ending, which includes a book, a baby and a warm home scene.
‘The Shape of Water’
Guillermo del Toro’s work is also a reinvention of the story Beauty and the Beast and, in the same way as Burton’s, slightly sinister. This romance between a woman unable to speak and a blue-skinned monster goes beyond its oddities and precise visual staging. At the same time, a careful reflection on communication, human cruelty and the search for identity.
Of course, del Toro is a monster creator and his great movie love story was meant to be memorable. So, in addition to building a context in which human evil is everything, he gave the cinema a brief sexual scene between his main characters. The possibility of physical passion in this curious narrative puzzled and fascinated the public. But he demonstrated the filmmaker’s sensitivity by delving into feelings as a link that supports simple definitions. One of those great movies that falls in love when you see them.
Winner of the Oscar for best film and turned into a classic of science fiction and romance, the film is a tribute to both genres. Likewise, to a long tradition of films in which emotions are much deeper than any language and questioning. Of course, one of Del Toro’s great obsessions.