As the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic draws near, Gaylyn Studlar, PhD, director of Film and Media Studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses film adaptations of the event and why James Cameron’s Titanic has become the iconic version of the tragedy.
Studlar also discusses the changing tastes of movie-goers and how they may impact the 3D re-release of Cameron’s film.
Studlar, the David May Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, is co-editor of Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster, a collection of 13 essays exploring what made Titanic such a popular movie and analyzing its representations of class, sexuality, gender, history, celebrity and contemporary social and economic concerns.