If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

In Lorraine, the worker Horty (Olivier Martinez) wins an internal competition promoted by Simeon (Didier Bezace), the owner of the foundry where he works, and the prize is a travel to Southampton alone to see the departure of the Titanic. Once in the hotel in England, a woman called Marie (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) knocks on his door telling that she is a chambermaid of the Titanic and the hotel is completely booked and she has no place to stay. Horty invites Marie to share his room; on the next morning, Marie is gone but Horty gets her picture with a street photographer. When Horty returns to his French town, he is promoted and his colleagues insinuate that his wife Zoe (Romane Bohringer) had had an affair with Simeon. The upset and jealous Horty goes to a bar with his friends and while drinking, he shows the picture of Marie and tells erotic fantasies about his one nightstand with her. His erotic tales become famous, drawing more and more people in the audience every night in the bar and changing the sexual lives of his friends. His fame reaches the actor Zeppe (Aldo Maccione) that proposes a business with Horty."La Femme de Chambre du Titanic" is a totally original romance that blends the tragedy of the Titanic with the lives of ordinary people, developing an intriguing and erotic love story. The truth about the night of Horty and Marie is disclosed only in the very end, and the viewers are never sure whether Horty is fantasizing because he believes Zoe has betrayed him, or if his affair with Marie had really happened. Surprisingly there are bad reviews in IMDb about this good film. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Camareira do Titanic" ("The Chambermaid of the Titanic")

As a new Olivier Martinez fan, I have clamored to get my hands on most of everything he's done. I bought this movie through Amazon.com along with 'Mon Homme' and 'The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone.'Anyway, this movie was very different from the very famous 'Titanic' movie made in 1997, as well. The story begins as Horty (Martinez) wins some kind of contest from his boss and he gets a free ticket to South Hampton to watch the Titanic set sail. When he arrives in South Hampton, he goes to the hotel he is staying at and is shown to his room. Suddenly, this chambermaid from the Titanic comes to his door and tells him that she has no where to stay and asks if she could sleep in his room for just the one night. Horty reluctantly, if I remember correctly that is, offers his room and his bed to the chambermaid while he tries to sleep in the chair. After they both settle down, she invites him into the bed just to sleep. He has this romantic dream about her, but when he wakes up she is already gone. He goes outside to watch the Titanic set sail, and sees that a photographer is taking her picture. After she walks away, he goes up to this photographer and asks to have her picture. When he comes home, his friends want to know what happened while he was there. He tells them that the chambermaid, named Marie, stayed in his room for the night. Obviously they were intrigued, and wouldn't believe that nothing happened between them. So, Horty gives in and starts to tell this elaborate story, making it up as he goes along. His wife overhears his stories, and believes that he cheated on her. He tells her that everything is made up and nothing happened. He eventually finds out that that Titanic sank, and figures Marie must have died. Somehow, this acting troupe comes along and wants Horty to make it into a play because he stories about the chambermaid named Marie are so popular in the town he lives in. He and his wife decide to go along and do it, because they need the money. One night as he's about to tell the story, he realizes that this person, Marie, is in the audience! I'll have to stop here, so I won't spoil it for you...This movie is a very good movie, and worth watching! It's not really even about the Titanic, the ship is in the details, but really its about Horty's fantasies about what could have happened the night he spent with a chambermaid named Marie.

Great poetic film about ordinary life and one-night romance that will last forever, even when it's not real at all!. A superb casting, a Bigas Luna dominating the slow pace, even through the many changes of the story.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing stories to board the Titanic craze is this exquisite tale of a foundry worker and a chambermaid. Never actually setting foot on the famed vessel itself, the action centers on a night in a Southampton hotel the night before the ill-fated vessel left England for the first and last time. That night, roomless title maid Marie who works for the line not the hotel) knocks on the door of handsome Horty, who has won a contest at the French foundry where he works and is rewarded with a trip to see the eventful sailing. Because Horty's boss has eyes for his lovely wife Zoe, she remains at home, leaving Marie and Horty to their own devices. Horty returns home having been faithful, but is unsure if his wife has done the same. From then on, Horty's barroom revelations of his encounter with Titanic and maid become more and more embroidered. Both to anger Zoe and to please his audience, Horty's stories become nothing short of hallucinatory. After the liner's sinking, Horty's fate is sealed as a virtual one man show, relating what is now nearly all fiction, including his presence on the ship the night it went down.But the fickle hand of fate that took the Titanic to a watery grave has just as unexpected plans for Horty and Zoe, who now "plays" Marie in a full-length stage production of Horty's story. The final act of this impressive motion picture is just as dramatic and humbling in it's way as the story of the liner itself.Director J.J. Bigas Luna peppers this French language feature with water imagery, forshadowing the Titanic's fate and a crucial plot point for Marie and Horty. A letterbox video release is terrific except for that the subtitles are a bit small. See it on a bigscreen TV. Although, there's no sinking to gape at, the human drama is also of titanic size.