Titanic

There are two love stories here: one is between James Cameron and a ship; the other is between society girl Kate Winslet and third-class passenger Leonardo DiCaprio. Cameron's script wouldn't have sustained Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh for 80 minutes, but, somehow, he and his magical cast revive that old-style studio gloss for three riveting hours. Titanic is a sumptuous assault on the emotions, with a final hour that fully captures the horror and the freezing, paralysing fear of the moment. And there are single shots, such as an awesome albatross-like swoop past the steaming ship, when you sense Cameron hugging himself with the fun of it all. At a cost of over $200 million, it's one of the most expensive movies ever made; it grossed more than two billion dollars at the box office — a record. Winning 11 Oscars, it also shares — with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — the record haul of Academy Awards.

Said Cameron, on accepting one of the many Golden Globe awards for the film: 'So does this prove, once and for all, that size does matter?' To which there are two answers: one supplied by dialogue from the film ('Do you know of Dr Freud? His ideas about t