The Atlanta Constitution du lieu suivant : Atlanta, Georgia • 378

section: JWUALHtL. i The Atlanta Journal Constitution DINING Seeger's PHIL SKINNER Staff y-'-- The celebrity chefs long-awaited, eponymous Buckhead restaurant lives up to expectations. Grade: A Review, Page Q2 Things to Do P2 Pop Music P3 Music Grid P5 Holiday Listings P6 Movies P9 Cheap Seats PI I Comedy PI2 The Scene Ql Dining Out Q2 Theater Q5 CONCERT Patti Smith Armed with a new CD, the singersongwriter returns to Atlanta after 18 years. Review, Page P3 1 i i 1 "-iff i' V-Zm fcd, HLJUJn i Ic-J Ml' I ..4 nTW! I II I Csoff nniYn) Photos by MERIE W. WALLACE Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox ship had 20 lifeboats with room to save only about 700 passengers.

effects drive director's epic 'Titanic ll 'jlf a specially constructed studio in Romance and a By Steve Murray FILM CRITIC verything new is old again for writer-director James Cameron. The creator of the sci-fi thrill-rides "Aliens," "The Abyss" and "The Terminator" now harnesses Hollywood's latest high-tech tricks to tell a swoony old-fashioned romance, set afloat on 17 million gallons of water. "Titanic" is a shameless bit of American hoo-haw, an epic two-hanky romance for the gals that doesn't neglect the guys, either: For them, the movie throws in big floods, collapsing smokestacks and Kate Winslet posing nude (don't worry, she does it for the sake of art). Cameron has made a movie grandma and the grandkids will equally like. Working a fine American accent, Winslet plays Rose DeWitt Bukater, an upper-crust Philadelphia girl returning to the United States from a European tour.

Accompanying her on the Titanic is steel heir Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), her snide fiance' who takes a glance at an early Picasso that Rose has bought and sneers, "He'll never amount to a thing." Yes, fair warning: The writing is as broad as that. Rose, you see, doesn't love Cal. She feels stifled by stuffy upper-class conventions and is marrying only to satisfy her stern mother (Frances Fisher). As for the Titanic, the elder Rose (Gloria Stuart, in a modern-day story that frames the 1912 MORE a few too many people talk about the ship's unsinkability, or declare their luck at being aboard. The subsidiary characters, including Danny Nucci as Jack pal, are left undeveloped.

You can't help wishing Kathy Bates as the robustly nouveau riche Molly Brown had a few more scenes to steal, or that Cameron had gone ahead and given Zane a literal mustache to twirl. But the sweeping, corny conviction of the darn thing sweeps you along in its wake. By the end of the film, even Cameron's black-and-white characterizations have become iconic. The extensive computer-generated effects are often as awesome as you'd hope; you will believe the ship is going -Other scenes aren't so convincing. An early overhead shot of the Titanic was built for the film at TRIVIA The movie set: To make "Titanic," 20th Century Fox built the Fox Baja Studios in 100 days on 40 acres of beachfront in Baja California, Mexico.

The studio included: A 775-foot-long Titanic "replica," built in a 17 million gallon outdoor tank, with the deck 45 feet above the water line and smokestacks 54 feet high. Sets of the Titanic's first-class dining salon and three-story grand staircase built on a hydraulic platform at the bottom of the 30-foot-deep tank, designed to be flooded with 5 million gallons of water, housed in a sound stage. How long did the ship take to sink? Under three hours. How long is the movie? 3 hours, 1 4 minutes. How much did the ship cost? About $7.5 million in 1912.

How much did "Titanic," the movie, cost? About $200 million in 1997. Cameron the artist: The sketches done by NmK Leonardo DiCaprio's li character were actually drawn by James Cameron. An almost life-size version of TITANIC Quick history: The real Titanic was 880 feet long and weighed 48,000 tons. It left Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage on April 1 0, 1912, carrying more than 2,220 passengers. When the ship sank, more than 1 ,500 men, women and children died.

The wreck lies 12,378 feet under water 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It was discovered in 1985. Atlanta connection: Among the survivors was Atlanta-bom May Peel, who was traveling home to Rhode Island from London with her husband, Jacques Futrelle, a mystery writer. Previously, Futrelle was a New York newspaper man who was hired by The Atlanta Journal to create its sports department. He went down with the Titanic.

Mrs. Futrelle, who was strolling on deck with her husband at the time of the collision, found a seat on the last lifeboat that left the ship; it seated 65 people but was only half-full. On April Hat 1 1:40 p.m., the Titanic struck an Iceberg. By 2:30 am, it had sunk. Number of wigs used in the film: '450 Baja California, Mexico.

The real flood of special action) remembers it as "a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains." That's an unfortunate choice of words, because the current "Amistad" features a harrowing re-creation of the Middle Passage that shames such a trivial comparison. Suddenly, Rose is rushing toward the deck railing to throw herself overboard. You might think you've missed a scene, but no. It's just Cameron's awkward way of orchestrating a high-stakes meet-cute between Rose and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), the scrappy artist who has admired her from afar (well, from steerage anyway). The good news is, once Rose and Jack finally come together, the film shifts into a swoony romantic mode that's like something from a 1940s studio film.

And it works. She teaches him about upper-class protocol. He teaches her how to spit. If the cuteness of that setup has you squirming, you underestimate DiCaprio and Winslet's considerable charm. The film focuses on this romance for its first half.

The ship doesn't hit the floe (I don't think I'm giving anything away here) till halfway through. That's when Cameron unleashes an hour of watery horror and amazing effects. The movie throws in a little of everything: class politics and crashing lifeboats, nobility, cowardice and even a deranged man with a loaded gun. OK, some quibbles: There's lead-weight irony in having FILMS "Titanic" Grade: A- Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane. Directed by James Cameron.

Rated PG-13 for disaster-related peril and violence, nudity, sensuality and brief language. At metro theaters. 3 hours, 14 minutes. The verdict: The ship goes down, but after all the money, delays and speculation, the movie stays afloat the ship crawling with passengers is obviously computer-generated but no less impressive because it's fake. Cameron's best use of computer effects are those that create ghostly, lyrical transitions between the present and the past, transforming the wreck at the bottom of the sea into the yare ship of 1912, plowing through the waves.

Will the movie make its money back? Who knows? One thing in its favor is that the storytelling is so simple it should translate eas ily for foreign audiences. But leave that to the bean counters tin Hollywood. The best way to experience "Titanic" is to forget the stories about its $200 million budget, the delays, the on-set tempers and the laborious computer effects. Cameron's intent was to deliver an eye-popping romantic epic, and he's succeeded. So strap on your life vests and dive on in: It's wonderful hokum.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet In "Titanic." "Tomorrow Never Dies" Pierce Brosnan stars. Roger Spottiswoode directs. 5 Review, Page I "Mouse Hunt" Nathan Lane stars. Gore Verbinski directs. GRDEiB-.

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