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Not eligible for Prime, unfortunately.

Still works out to around $16.50 with shipping, better than 50% off.

Fantastic film. No melodrama. I have heard the complaint that this film does not allow any character development and therefore one doesn't care about the characters. I would like to believe the weight of this story and the knowledge that this is a true story would compensate... but maybe that is cheap?

Had this on in the background the other night and noticed something peculiar:

Can anyone explain the prominence of the Swastika at 1:49:02 in the woman's hat? It doesn't seem appropriate for 1912 (in the sense of a rich western woman knowing the Hindu symbol) or 1958 (post-war) when the film was made. It's been a while since I sat and really took in the film (May), so I don't recall her character. But I am baffled by its appearance. It's even tilted to the left. Not a screenshot, but a reference to the Nazi swastika.

That was most likely footage from Herbert Selpin's Titanic.

vidussoni wrote:That was most likely footage from Herbert Selpin's Titanic.

Wow, had never heard of that or the story behind it.

But my question still stands.

aox wrote: But my question still stands.

It looks like your own link addresses it!
EDIT: Actually, neither of the scenes listed here would seem likely to include a random lady in a Nazi hat, unless she happened down to the engine room for some reason. Maybe it's a fifth borrowed scene that didn't make the list?

The 1953 "Titanic" Fox DVD has an excellent 90 minute A&E documentary "Beyond Titanic", which one part goes through the various movie adaptations of the Titanic, including the 1943 German film, and also "A Night To Remember" (which surprisingly still sits in my unwatched kevyip pile.) The documentary was not carried over to the blu-ray edition.

jindianajonz wrote:

aox wrote: But my question still stands.

It looks like your own link addresses it!
EDIT: Actually, neither of the scenes listed here would seem likely to include a random lady in a Nazi hat, unless she happened down to the engine room for some reason. Maybe it's a fifth borrowed scene that didn't make the list?

Yeah, I saw that, but as you stated doesn't reference my specific shot. Unfortunately, I don't have the capability of doing a screen shot from a blu ray.

aox wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:08 pm Had this on in the background the other night and noticed something peculiar:

Can anyone explain the prominence of the Swastika at 1:49:02 in the woman's hat? It doesn't seem appropriate for 1912 (in the sense of a rich western woman knowing the Hindu symbol) or 1958 (post-war) when the film was made. It's been a while since I sat and really took in the film (May), so I don't recall her character. But I am baffled by its appearance. It's even tilted to the left. Not a screenshot, but a reference to the Nazi swastika.

Apologies for being six years later, but I took a picture with my iPhone of this specific shot. Here:

Spoiler

.

Thoughts?

Wow that's very peculiar indeed. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is some connection maybe to the 1943 German Titanic which this film used clips from (although I believe they were just boat shots).

This symbol was used as part of the design of Rudyard Kipling's books published around the era of the Titanic sinking so it is not inconceivable that it was used in a fashion context in 1912. It was a good luck symbol which given the situation is also rather ironic.

The commentary on the Criterion release stated that the actress wearing that hat was portraying (albeit loosely) the real-life survivor Lady Duff-Gordon. I have never read her memoir or any of the books or articles about her life, so not sure if she had any political connections but Lady Duff Gordon passed in 1935, so any connections in real-life she had to the Nazis would have been tenuous. my scanning of Wikipedia did not find anything connected to politics worth mentioning. However, given the real-life survivor's well-documented work in couture it would not be surprising that she should have traveled to Asia to seek out design inspirations or cotton/silk connections at some point. I remember visiting the Gamble House in Pasadena CA and seeing that the family had on display in a bookcase a small pair of slippers from Asia that had the swastika stitched prominently on them, but since the slippers were dated from the 1910s no one on the tour seemed to pass judgment.
However, considering this film was made after WWII, I agree that this is an odd touch. If anything, this ought to prove that with at-home viewing technological improvements, so too will come unmasking of these tid-bits which were not previously before visible or not visible enough to be commented upon.