There have been far greater tragedies at sea. There have been shipwrecks where many more lives have been lost. There have even been much more dramatic sinkings. So what is it about the Titanic that is so irresistible to James Cameron?
“I think it's about the fact that it sank slowly. There was time for people to face their fate and to make the difficult decisions – fathers saying goodbye to their children, husbands saying goodbye to their wives and stepping back from boats that they felt were too crowded. The point is: what was going through the minds of everyone in those last moments? Who were the heroes? Who saw their duty in self-sacrifice?”
This kind of examination is manna to one of the world's greatest storytellers. His 1997 film about the Titanic's sinking remains the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time. He's got another two in the all-time top five: 2009's Avatar and its sequel, The Way of Water, released last year. That's around $7.5 billion (£5.8bn) in tickets sold for those three films alone.
The Canadian film-maker first dived the Titanic in 1995 – another 32 trips to the bottom followed – and remembers it like it was yesterday.
“We were
