National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2017
“James Cameron's epic retold the story of the great maritime disaster and made mega-stars of both its leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Their upstairs-downstairs romance transported the audience to another world and time via spectacular sweeping scenes in the bow of the ship and beyond.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
James Cameron
Studio
Paramount Pictures · British Film Institute · 20th Century Studios · 195 min
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Titanic arrived in 1997 from Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, directed by James Cameron on a budget that made headlines before the film itself did. It became a cultural event, sweeping award season and holding box office records for years, turning a century old maritime disaster into a defining romance of its decade. For collectors of studio era ephemera, this is one of the handful of films whose physical remnants carry instant recognition across generations of moviegoers.
This cell preserves the Jack and Rose kiss, the moment the film's central romance reaches its most quoted expression. Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, anchor the story's emotional core, and this pairing became the image most reproduced in posters, retrospectives, and fan memory. A 35mm cell from this scene functions like a fragment of the film's own heartbeat, a physical trace of the sequence audiences return to when asked what Titanic means to them. It is a keepsake of romance cinema at its most widely embraced.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Titanic (1997).
Gauge
35mm; the strip holds three frames, each with four perforations visible on both the top and bottom edges.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly formed with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the bottom edge between the perforations and the picture area, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area pattern; a blue-tinted stripe consistent with a Dolby SR or similar analog optical encoding is also present alongside it.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
The base shows a slight blue-violet tint consistent with a modern polyester safety base; the dye image appears warm and well-saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible splices, cue marks, or heavy scratching are apparent; faint longitudinal lines are present suggesting the strip has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot and are consistent with a release print of Titanic (1997).
Era check
The polyester base tint, dual bilateral variable-area optical soundtrack with Dolby-format stripe, and saturated colour dye image are all consistent with a mid-to-late 1990s theatrical release print.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000062586
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
