Director James Cameron yells ““Rolling!’’ and stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio run forward, grabbing for the railing. Winslet’s satin evening shoes tangle in the delicate train of her dress. DiCaprio holds her bravely. As the ill-fated lovers (she’s first class; he’s in steerage) who carry the tale, they’re about to discover if they’ll live or drown.
It took one of the biggest-thinking directors in Hollywood to conjure a ““Titanic’’ for the ’90s: a high-tech, in-your-face scarefest that will breathlessly transport audiences to the past. ““The Titanic was a definitive disaster,’’ says Cameron, bracing himself to keep from sliding down the deck. ““It’s a story about faith in technol- ogy, and the failure of tech- nology to fulfill its promise. It’s a perfect microcosm of the 20th century.’’ The film will include footage of the real wreck, which Cameron shot from a Russian submersible during 12 dives in 1995; his camera caught things like a stateroom outfitted with a still-intact crystal chandelier and gleaming brass firebox. He wants his ““Titanic’’ to recapture the doomed grandeur of an era when first-class passage cost $50,000 (that’s 1912 dollars), and of a society consultant Ken Marschall calls ““the most cosmopolitan, obscenely irresponsible people the world has ever known.''
For such a massive production, the set has had only one major crisis. During filming in Halifax, N.S., of the present-day scenes that frame the story, the crew’s meal was poisoned with PCP (angel dust); 80 people became ill. Halifax police have yet to find a suspect. Less dramatically, in a crucial sinking scene where the poop deck upends to a 90-degree angle, a cable snapped, stranding stunt people until a crane could rescue them. No one was hurt. For a movie where all the props had to be made, not rented, since they’d be destroyed when the sets ““sank,’’ these are small prices to pay. Brash ambitions built the original Titanic, and they keep Hollywood afloat.
