If “Titanic”, directed by James Cameron, is one of the landmarks of Hollywood cinema, a love story really existed on the famous ship. And it’s not what you think … Here is “Pop it!”, Our decryption of the week.
Titanic, directed by James Cameron in 1998, has collected around the world 1.8 billion dollars in receipts, won 11 Oscars and exploded the careers of Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio, two actors who are now essential in cinema Hollywood. By its aesthetics and its themes, Titanic is also one of those movies that hasn’t aged a bit after all these years. As a reminder (and if you’ve ever lived in a cave for more than 20 years), this feature film tells the story of Rose, a young bourgeois woman who meets Jack, a poor artist, on board the Titanic. Already promised to another man, she dreams of emancipation and leaves her comfort zone when she meets Jack.
If the cult film by James Cameron has chosen as its setting the Titanic in 1912, on the eve of its sinking, to tell the fictional love story between Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, a romance did indeed exist on board the famous boat and the couple even visible in the film. The story, as tragic as it is, makes the scene dedicated to the famous lovebirds even more poignant. Explanations.
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Isidor and Ida Straus, the true love story of the Titanic
Who forms the most loving couple aboard the liner? They are Isidor Straus, member of the United States Congress and co-owner of Macy’s stores, and Ida Straus, his wife since 1871. In 1912, both stayed in France and boarded the Titanic in first class to return home. them. In James Cameron’s film, we see them, played by Lew Palter and Elsa Raven, lying on a bed during the shipwreck and letting themselves be swallowed together by the icy waves.
That’s about what happened, well almost! Because Isidor and Ida did indeed sacrifice themselves and refused to board a lifeboat. More precisely, Isidor Straus was the first to refuse to embark. “I’m no better than another”, he would have declared, renouncing to take the place of anyone “as long as there are still women and children on the ship”, according to Titanica Encyclopedia. As for Ida Straus, she would have refused to leave without her husband. “We have lived together for many years. Wherever you go, I will follow you”, she would have retorted, according to the survivors of the scene.
Witnesses also claim that she left her coat with her maid, Ellen Bird. “You will need it more than me”, she would have declared. The scene where the couple refuses to get into a dinghy featured for a time in the script for the James Cameron film. It was even shot, but was not kept for editing. The only difference with reality being that, according to the witnesses present during the sinking, Isidor and Ida Strauss were seen for the last time not in their bed, as in the film, but on the deck of the Titanic, peacefully sitting side by side on the deckchairs until a wave carries them away.
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Upon arrival in New York, survivors including their maid Ellen Bird massively shared the poignant story of Isidor and Ida Strauss with reporters. No doubt about the love they had for each other: the real Jack and Rose, it’s them!
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