Rose prior to her trip

[Andrew Pascale]

Hello all.
If i remember correctly, i dont think there is a scene in titanic explaining why rose, ruth, cal, etc. were in england/europe. Does anyone know why she might've been there? Forgive me if this thread was already started or if i am asking a stupid question.

 

[João Carlos Pereira Martins]

As I could understand by watching the film, Rose,her mother and Cal were returning to America after an holiday trip in Europe. If you buy the recent Titanic DVD, in the deleted scenes you can see Rose and Jack talking about art in Paris and I understood that Rose had been in the french capital.

João

 

[Robert T. Paige]

>>If i remember correctly, i dont think there is a scene in titanic explaining why rose, ruth, cal, etc. were in england/europe. Does anyone know why she might've been there? <<

Many wealthy persons, including J.P. Morgan...he cancelled his Titanic return trip at the last moment...were making trips to Europe at this time.
In "that other Titanic movie - "Titanic" (1953)" the central family (fictional) had been touring Europe on a regular basis . Molly Brown was said to have been returning to the US after having been - among other things - on camel riding in Egypt with John Jacob Astor, so it wouldn't have been unusual for a person of Cal's means to have been traveling around Europe and returning home on Titanic.

 

[Andrew Pascale]

Thanks a lot for clearing that up, now i can understand the movie better.

Andy

 

[Johan Jonsson]

I've read somewhere that they had been to Paris, where Cal bought Rose an entire new wardrobe of clothes (explaining why Rose wears a different type of fashion than the other first class passengers in the movie)

 

[Robert T. Paige]

I think it's on one of the commentaries on the "Titanic" DVD that Rose was the only one wearing a white dress in the "Southampton Boarding Scene". She also was wearing a white dress in the final "Heaven" scene at the end of the movie.

 

[Jon Meadows]

Couldn't this be a choice on the part of the costume designer to draw attention to Rose by making her the brightest object onscreen?

 

[Jaime Croft Larsen]

I have no factual basis for this...but my take has always been that Cal and Rose's mother had gone to Europe to "retrieve" Rose from finishing school. It was the whole "returning to America in chains" statement. I've just always had the impression that the marriage with Cal was pretty much an arranged thing, (they don't seem to act like they've known each other well or were friendly), and after Jack later says, "Didn't they teach you that in finishing school", the idea just stuck with me.

So, I thought Rose was off in Paris at finishing school, probably feeling rather free, and then Mom and Cal appear and all the fun is over. School finishes and home she comes to be his wife.

Just my 2 cents of course...

 

[João Carlos Pereira Martins]

But as you'll find in the link below, the idea of a trip in Europe, is intensified:

http://www.back-to-titanic.com/fic/cont/?

If you do some research carefully, you'll find a story of Rose being in England and France, visiting art galleries and cathedrals.

João

 

[Mary Hamric]

Interesting take on the finishing school, but normally finishing school was something that very young ladies went to...like early teens. Rose was supposed to be 17. It was where a young girl learned how to act like a woman in social situations.

It was apparent she and Cal had been together for some period of time before this as they were going to be married. One would have to complete finishing school before courting.

At least that's my take! I could be totally wrong.

 

[Vitezslav Ivicic]

Wealthy people of that time were going in winter to Europe for holiday.

 

[Kayla Marie Demers]

It's okay Andrew, it wasn't a dumb question. Actually the reason they were in Europe was for an engagement honeymoon or something. If you buy the special DVD(I own it) and go to special features on the third disk and go to film role from 1912, it shows the actors portraying their 1912 counterparts. It says something about that.

 

[Andrew Y Liu]

hello all,
I kind of think they went to Europe because Rose and Cal probably wanted to spend time with each other. I mean, they were engaged to each other. In the movie, they were to be married when they went back to the US.

Andrew Liu

 

[Donna Grizzle]

I read somewhere that they went on a shopping spree, and by that I mean it was the purpose of their trip, to celebrate the engagement. Certainly they would have traveled to France since in those days it was pretty much the fashion capital of the world. Where do you think Rose got all her nifty new outfits?

 

[João Carlos Pereira Martins]

Hey Donna, hello again!

"Where do you think Rose got all her nifty new outfits?"

Well, I'm quite sure Worth had some of the most fashionable and modern patterns of the Era, and it's ready-made dresses combined with the high-quality fabrics were amongst the choices of Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (In the beginning of the century she bough an entire haute couture collection to use during a state visit to Britain and Germany). Maybe she bough also some new clothes from Paul Poiret or LDF (although this two fashion designers hated each other). A pair of handbags from Louis Vuitton and a fragance from Hermès were certainly on the list too..

João

 

[Robert T. Paige]

In that "Other Titanic Movie" (1953), Richard makes a point of going through Annette's and Julia's wardrobe and making a comment about some of the items "from Lucile."

 

[Peter Barr]

In the movie, doesn´t Brock Lovett say something about Cal buying the necklace to Rose the week prior to the departure? As it took at least a week to get to Europe, he must have brought it in Europe. Maybe that is a reason, at least for Cal, to be in Europe.

 

[João Carlos Pereira Martins]

Actually, Brock Lovett said that the necklace's insurence was made one week before the departure. Nobody really says when the jewel was bought but it's probably that Cal brought it from Europe as it was part of the Blue Diamond of the French Crown.

Best wishes,
João