Description
Book SynopsisIn 1997, James Cameron's Titanic, became the first motion picture to earn a billion dollars worldwide. These essays ask the question: What made Titanic such a popular movie? Why has this film become a cultural and film phenomenon? What makes it so fascinating to the film-going public?
Trade ReviewThe contributors to this collection sift through the pre-release stories, merchandise tie-ins, advertising gimmicks, video offers, package tours and the like in order to make clear why Titanic turned out to be such a mammoth, international cultural phenomenon. . . . Keeping to the popular spirit of Titanic itself, the book is designed for a broad readership, and the contributors have made an effort to stay away from theoretical jargon. * Times Literary Supplement *
Anyone interested in accessible scholarly approaches to film and culture studies or a keener insight into why and how one film can resonate across borders at a particular moment in time will find this a stimulating and useful collection of essays. * Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas *
A thought-provoking collection of essays that bring contemporary cinema into serious focus.
Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster is wedded to movie history, to current cultural attitudes, and to its impact on viewers. Too bad someone wasnÆt around to do this for Gone With the Wind. -- Jeanine Basinger * chair, Film Studies Program, Wesleyan University *
If
Titanic was not just another film, then this work, with its range of approaches and perspectives, is not just another anthology. -- David Desser * University of Illinois *
The authors in this volume offer a first-rate examination of a question that has long vexed studies of media and popular culture: what makes a text resonate so extensively, so deeply with its audiences that it becomes a public sensation? Sandler and Studlar have assembled a collection of essays that vividly and persuasively demonstrate the complexity of forces acting on the reception of what became the biggest film blockbuster of them all. -- Barbara Klinger * author of Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture, and the Films of Douglas Sirk *
Intriguing perspectives on a major cultural phenomenon. -- Steven Biel * author of Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic" Disaster *
Table of ContentsIntroduction : the seductive waters of James Cameron's film phenomenon / Gaylyn Studlar and Kevin S. Sandler
"Floating triumphantly" : the American critics on Titanic / Matthew Bernstein
The drama of recoupment : on the mass media negotiation of Titanic / Justin Wyatt and Katherine Vlesmas
Selling my heart : music and cross-promotion in Titanic / Jeff Smith
"Almost ashamed to say I am one of those girls" : Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the paradoxes of girls' fandom / Melanie Nash and Martti Lahti
"Something and someone else" : the mind, the body, and sexuality
Women first : Titanic action-adventure films, and Hollywood's female audience / Peter Krämer
"Size does matter" : notes on Titanic and James Cameron as blockbuster auteur / Alexandra Keller
Heart of the ocean : diamonds and democratic desire in Titanic / Adrienne Munich and Maura Spiegel
Ship of dreams : cross-class romance and the cultural fantasy of Titanic / Laurie Ouellette
Bathos and bathysphere : on submersion, longing, and history in Titanic / Vivian Sobchack
"The china had never been used!" : on the patina of perfect images in Titanic / Julian Stringer
Titanic, survivalism, and the millennial myth / Diane Negra
"It was true! How can you laugh?" : history and memory in the reception of Titanic in Britain and Southampton / Anne Massey and Mike Hammond
