Jacques Rivette reviews Titanic.

Film Popular filmic showman Jacques Rivette offers his review of Titanic as part of a list of his notable films coupled with his thoughts on those which were released around the time of the interview in 1998:
"I agree completely with what Jean-Luc said in this week’s Elle: it’s garbage. Cameron isn’t evil, he’s not an asshole like Spielberg. He wants to be the new De Mille. Unfortunately, he can’t direct his way out of a paper bag. On top of which the actress is awful, unwatchable, the most slovenly girl to appear on the screen in a long, long time. That’s why it’s been such a success with young girls, especially inhibited, slightly plump American girls who see the film over and over as if they were on a pilgrimage: they recognize themselves in her, and dream of falling into the arms of the gorgeous Leonardo."
Kate Winslet is practically one of the few things which keeps that film watchable in the first half before the action kicks in / tragedy strikes so these comments come across as particularly nasty.

But to an extent Rivette is the kind of figure desperately fighting against a tide of a particular kind of film which seems to run counter to his belief.  Either that or it's old fashioned jealousy that his own films have reached that kind of mass appeal.

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