1998 in movies: TItanic takes off and Shakespeare gets an Oscar

Being as I was a big fan of Tom Stoppard's Hamlet-adjacent Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, seeing it first as a movie and then the play, I was primed and ready for this Stoppard-assisted romantic comedy. To add a little perspective, I'd just seen Hamnet in the theatre a couple of weeks before watching this Best Picture winner for the first time in about ten years. 

While finishing the immensely moving Hamnet, I was reminded of the ending of Shakespeare in Love because both movies conclude with a summary version of one of Shakespeare's most revered works, and whatever faults may lay within the first two acts of either movie (and there are few, to be sure), all ends well as you suddenly realize why the ending of the movie is so great - because, oh yeah, it's mostly Romeo & Juliet (or Hamlet). It's hard to mess that up.

Incidentally: there's quite the run for the Fiennes brothers right now (though I think I knew even back then that Ralph was going to be the long distance runner of the two). 

In other news...

As posted for last week's Oscar-winning Titanic, it double-dipped as the top box-office earner for this year thanks to its very late release date and staying in theatres foreeeeeever. My most memorable viewing of it came at a drive-in late in the fall of '98, and by the time people were freezing in the water it was snowing and pretty cold in the car - call it an early 4DX viewing.