Titane

Directed by Julia Ducournau (2021)

Film Review by KM, Movie Lightbox

Seated near the middle section of the theatre during the midnight screening and I could hear the collective gasps, the squirms, some people trying to cover their faces, veering away from the images on screen - and that is just barely twenty minutes into Julia Ducournau’s raw and unflinching body horror film, Titane.

Resistance and aggression writ large in Alexia’s character played by Agathe Rousselle, a woman with a titanium plate fitted on her head after a traumatic car accident back in her childhood. The series of grisly crimes and fetishism with cars led Alexia to meet Vincent, a father on the lookout for his son who disappeared ten years ago. Within the confines of their “father - son relationship” is a sensitive affection and tenderhearted gestures for each other. Both Vincent and Alexia are discreetly looking for that connection and redemption, the same way the film discreetly explores gender fluidity, with Alexia’s androgynous nature and Vincent’s motherly instincts wrapped around his aging masculine physique.

There is a sustained level of anticipation towards something frightful within the film, the pacing and lurid lighting gears and calibrates your senses towards Alexia’s headspace. Though the root of anger or impulse is not fully explored, the film excels in exposing the tenderness within the steel hard layer of its gory and provocative narrative. Julia Ducournau establishes a rigorous style and a tightly controlled tempo that by the end of the film you are assured that she is a budding master of the form.

Titane is now playing in theatres.
*Palme d’Or , Cannes Film Festival 2021