Touches You

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

BACKGROUND: "Titanic" was a pet project of Nazi Germany's evil propaganda minister, Dr. Goebbels. In the true story of the 15 April 1912 tragedy in which 1,503 people lost their lives, Goebbels saw a grand opportunity to denounce British opportunism, stupidity and greed. Goebbels had the script written by a fanatical Nazi, Zerlett- Olfenius. Direction was entrusted to Herbert Selpin who had successfully handled movie versions of other maritime disasters, despite the fact that Goebbels was well aware that Selpin had little love for the Nazi regime. However, Zerlett-Olfenius was entrusted with shooting the second unit work on location in the port of Gdynia in Poland. In May 1942, whilst Selpin shot the interiors in Berlin, Zerlett-Olfenius was detailed to direct the matching exteriors in Gdynia. When no footage at all arrived from Gdynia, the frustrated Selpin journeyed to that port to investigate. He confronted Zerlett- Olfenius and the two men had a bitter quarrel during which Selpin made many insulting references to the German armed forces. Zerlett- Olfenius reported Selpin to the Gestapo. Selpin was arrested and thrown into jail on a charge of treason. Unwilling to delay shooting and bring the matter to trial, the evil Goebbels ordered the prison guards to murder Selpin in his cell on the night of 31 July 1942. The propaganda minister then gave out that the treasonable Selpin had admitted his guilt by committing suicide. Werner Klinger was contracted to complete the film.However, Selpin had the last laugh after all. When Goebbels viewed the completed picture, he had enough wit to realize that its propaganda effects would be the exact opposite of what he and Zerlett-Olfenius had intended. Not only were the scenes of panic among the passengers uncomfortably akin to the contemporary reactions of German civilians under Allied bombing raids, but the instigator of the whole tragedy, Ismay, was shown to be a corrupt, self-seeking leader, reckless of people's lives in his own lust for power, money and "glory". A Hitler figure, in other words. "Titanic" was shown in Paris (in order to recoup at least part of its enormous cost), but in Germany it was not released at all until 1950.COMMENT:There are a number of movies dealing with the Titanic tragedy, but for sheer entertainment zing and gusto, this version is hard to beat. Not only are special effects absolutely marvelous and the scenes of shipboard panic and mayhem absolutely riveting, but the sets are superb, the costumes startling, and the acting dazzlingly charismatic. Nielsen hugs audience sympathy as the harassed Petersen, Miss Schmitz (despite a long dark wig that is a trifle disconcerting) transforms realistically from riches-into- rescuer, while the stunningly-gowned Heiberg limns the most decorative of high-class vamps and the evil-visaged Wernicke makes a human figure of the luckless Captain Smith. And a special clap to Jolly Marée who performs the sexiest dance number by which all others will now be measured.Selpin's driving, pacey direction, boosted by Behn-Grund's splendid camera-work nails home every hideously fascinating detail of this most terrible of maritime tragedies.

You probably heard or testified one of those jokes that one person does and it backfires against this same person while trying to get some easy laughs from the crowd? Well, this German version of "Titanic" is a classic and horrifying example of such joke. How come? The German government, more precisely the minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels approves a movie that features social injustice, denounce wrongdoings by a major institution (White Star Line and its owner) which always claimed to be flawless, we build a ship that doesn't sink, he approved such project when it was written and then when it was made yet later the Nazi arrested and killed the movie's director because they noticed the parallel made with the nation who was killing millions. It's of cruel taste for those idiots to think the poor director was doing such infamous act. No, he's just a mirror to the events as they happen and this happened to be a little similar with the then current war period. They were trying to laugh at the British but in the end the bomb exploded on themselves and the movie suffered in its future releases, censored, confiscated among other tragedies. What draws attention in this version is the sole fact of this being a story focused on the human error brought by the arrogant White Star Line president, Mr. Ismay and his way to rush the ship to New York in order to profit with the company's actions. Who got the blame? Captain Smith, forced to undergo his directives (and profit a lot of money as well). The background we have before the deadly voyage is of a company approaching its failure, a desperate man trying to save it and his pressure on Smith. And it concludes in his trial and his acquittance. Like all the other movies we have plenty of time to know some of its notorious passengers - silly presentations, quite arbitrary and pointless at times - and unsubstantial gossips that lived on another movies for adventurous and climatic purposes, such as allegedly criminals on the boat, jewels robbery and similar. There's a bit of romance in here, this time between two workers - a clean lady and a musician - but nothing close to Jack & Rose. Everything concerning those actions mentioned drags the movie down and down again to the point of being unbearable to watch. Then the most awaited moments comes in and...nope, doesn't get better.James Cameron, hands down, filmed the most spectacular Titanic sinking ever made, so it's kind of difficult to beat that one. But the scene presented here is too dumb, the ship keeps on the same floating position even all the panic on board was taking over, so you see people running and screaming but the boat's not moving, it's not sinking. The size of the iceberg is just laughable. And here comes the parts the Nazi objected. We all know the order of saving was women and children first. The director created during the 2nd class scheme two lines (male and female/children) which later erupted in complete disorder. The first image that comes to mind are the ones from Auschwitz, Treblinka and similar presented in documentaries years later. The most beautiful scene comes while everything's out of order and the telegraphist decides to release the bird he has on a cage, to fly away from the ship. Cute moment but doesn't save the film from its disaster. It's small minded, made for entertaining reasons rather than represent actual facts. And I feel really sorry for Herbert Selpin, the director, who tried to disown this film before the authorities and became the ultimate victim of a ridiculous, sickening and unfunny joke financed, signed, sealed and delivered by the Nazi. 5/10

"I watched Titanic when I got back home from the hospital, and cried. I knew that my IQ had been damaged." - Stephen King There are many films about the HMS Titanic and her tragic sinking, but the main 4 are "Titanic", a German propaganda film released in 1943, Jean Negulesco's "Titanic", released in 1953, "A Night To Remember", released in 1958 and regarded by many to be the "definitive Titanic movie", "Raise The Titanic", a ridiculous movie released in 1980, and 1997's "Titanic", James Cameron's box office juggernaut.The 1943 film was directed by Werner Klingler and Herbert Selpin, and eschews historical accuracy in favour for some hilarious German propaganda. The film portrays the crew and wealthy passengers of the Titanic, as well as the chairmen and managing directors of the White Star Line, as being slimy and despicable, concerned only with winning awards, profit, setting records and making money. Everyone in the film bullies servants, makes terrible decisions and is corrupt and incompetent, except for Hans Nielsen, the ship's German First Officer. Nielsen is not simply the only righteous member of the Titanic's crew, but the only person in the film who realises that the actions of those around him will lead to certain disaster.And so the film treats the HMS Titanic, her collision with an iceberg and subsequent sinking, as an allegory for western capitalism, which, like the titular ocean liner, is bloated, accelerative and heading for crisis. The film makes this most explicit by using the upper and lower decks of the ship to highlight social stratification (the rich hobnob on the upper decks while the poor live in steerage compartments), whilst the Titanic's sinking, which was due to the ship travelling too fast in order to break naval records, is shown to be the result of businessmen who were using the ship's lunge for the record books to drive up stock prices.The film ends with the words "The deaths of 1500 people remain unatoned for, an eternal condemnation of the English quest for profit", and then mourns the fact that the underprivileged died whilst those responsible for Titanic's crash escaped Scott-free, fleeing on lifeboats and buying their way out of subsequent law suits (the film is structured as a flashback within a courtroom), a salvation akin to the financial crisis of 2007-2010 and the ensuing bank bailouts (in real life, economic lifeboats are given innocuous names like "Emergency Economic Stabilization Acts").Ironically, the film was quickly banned in Germany, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels deciding that the ship's sinking too closely mirrored the fall of the Third Reich. Director Herbert Selpin was himself executed for expressing anti military sentiments.Unlike the German version of the tale, the 1953 "Titanic" has little to offer modern audiences. The film focuses on an estranged couple who are journeying to America. She wants to escape the confines of his high society life in Europe and he gradually learns to let her go. Of course the ship then sinks, putting an end to their petty squabbles.In contrast, "A Night To Remember", released five years later, holds up really well. A mosaic of short scenes, the film is a near documentarian account of the Titanic's launch, maiden journey and sinking. Director Roy Baker offers us glimpses into the lives of a myriad of characters, the film stressing the collective rather than the individual nature of the experience.Like most "Titanic" films, Industrial Age hubris is a big theme, but unlike most of these flicks, the film is more preoccupied with the ship's class divisions. This is made clearest during two sequences, the first in which we jump to and from characters of varying economic standing, and observe the various ways they journey to the ship itself (horses, trains, mules, cars, foot etc), and the second in which the different classes mingle or are forced into lifeboats together, the sinking of the Titanic symbolising the collapse of structured society and the crumbling of the British class system.Unlike the 1953 film, in which almost everyone is American, this is thus a very British film. It's a British production with British actors playing everyone including the Americans, and is one of many early post war British films to react to decolonisation and the dismantling of the British Empire.Social conscience is exactly what 1980's "Raise The Titanic" lacks, the film mostly interested in gimmicks and spectacle. It's a worthless film, notable only for its shots of submersibles, submarines, underwater camera drones and its plot which revolves around a group of salvagers who attempt to resurrect the Titanic, raising her barnacled carcass up from the ocean depths.James Cameron's 1997 "Titanic" is, of course, the big Titanic film which everyone is familiar with. What's interesting is how Cameron pulls subplots, scenes and whole sequences from all the previous Titanic movies. Cameron's bookends with the salvagers, treasure hunters, submersibles and camera drones comes from the 1980 film, whilst the love story, blue diamonds, jewels, villains, accusations of theft, bossy parents, arranged marriages, class constricted heroine (and the fiancé she doesn't love) and free-spirited hero come from the 1958, 53 and 43 films.All those memorable individual shots in Cameron's film of praying characters, ship-builders fine-tuning clocks, children and mothers on beds as the water rises, lovers separated by lowered lifeboats etc etc, are also all pulled together from the previous films.Pretty much the only unique thing about Cameron's film is its spectacular climax. Made after research dives ascertained that the Titanic broke in two before sinking, Cameron's film is the only Titanic movie which details how the ship sank in "sections". And while the other films simply show the ship sinking from afar, Cameron's is a very spatial movie, treating us to a range of complex shots and staggeringly elaborate action sequences as the ship sinks.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

Why the Nazis chose to spend a lot of money to make a film about the Titanic during the middle of WWII I'll never know. You can see that the real story of the ship is twisted into a propaganda piece that both extols German decency and decries the evils of a Capitalist society. It does this by creating some Germans and making them all nice folks--particularly the First Officer that tries very hard to do what is right even though Captain Smith and the nefarious forces of Capitalistic greed are risking the lives of everyone aboard! In the National Socialist Germany, the importance of individual profit and gain was publicly forbidden and America and Britain were seen as dominated by selfish self-interest. So the "nice Germans" are always mindful of the ultimate good and the rich Americans and Brits are the worse stereotypes of Capitalism. And so time and again, the First Officer is good and dutiful and tries his best to protect the ship and passengers while industrialists/speculators Ismay and Astor do everything purely for self-interest. All this was meant to convince Germans of the rightness of their political system, though the ugly truth was that many rich German industrialists became immensely wealthy thanks to German re-armament.Despite the obvious propaganda in the film, the movie itself was surprisingly well-made. While the shot of the Titanic (using a model) was incredibly sloppily done (with VERY fuzzy camera-work to try to hide that it was a model), the rest of the film looks pretty opulent and the acting was very convincing considering it was made in 1943-- as things were turning VERY bad for the Germans. Sadly, although the film is watchable and VERY interesting, it was not shown in Germany and was only recently discovered--it deserved a wider audience despite its shortcomings.