A tribute to the last great blockbuster, Titanic.

itself completely seriously. It’s a toss-up as to who chews more scenery; Billy Zane as Rose’s magnificently self-satisfied fiancé Cal (surely even Harry and Meghan would balk at an “engagement gala”), or Danny Nucci as Jack’s Italian pal Fabrizio, about as convincingly Italian as the Dolmio family.

That first half is a film in itself; a gorgeous, charismatic romance in impeccable period surroundings, before launching into the harrowing devastation of what happened after the ship hit that iceberg. The quarter-hour that bridges the two is agony, even before Rose goes down to the suddenly flooded E deck to rescue Jack and she, and we, suddenly realize how dreadful a situation this is. First-class passengers serenely drink brandy while thirdclass are forbidden from climbing the stairs — Cameron’s unflinching eye has us bear witness to it all, and then kills off Jack to boot.

Winslet’s vivacious performance scored her an Oscar nomination, but poor Jack’s noble sacrifice didn’t butter any parsnips with the Academy. When news of DiCaprio’s snub broke, it was contacted by more than 200 people demanding a recount. “The calls did not just come from teenagers,” a spokesman said. “One older woman called and said the whole state of Florida was upset.” (DiCaprio quickly recovered; his $2.5-million Titanic salary ballooned to $21 million for his next film, The Beach.)

Both leads were at their newstar best: DiCaprio, eyes like chips off the iceberg, Nineties curtains flapping in the wind; and Winslet, impeccably styled in 1912 fashions, topped with hennaed hair and Mac Spice lipliner. Web pages, still a relatively new thing in 1998, were built by fans to show how much they adored DiCaprio, Winslet — and Celine Dion.

James Horner’s score, and his song for Dion, My Heart Will Go On, played no small part in sending Titanic stratospheric. I regularly sobbed myself to sleep listening to Graham Torrington’s syndicated Late Night Love show, which featured a special radio edit of the song with emotive extracts from the script. It began with Gloria Stuart talking about the hope with which passengers got on board. By the time Winslet stuttered, “I’m so cold, Jack,” I was a mess, but luckily Dion was there to bellow us through a key change and out the other side.