‘Titane’ Review: A Mesmerizing Body Horror That Shows True Heart [TIFF 2021]
‘Titane’ shows the ability of a modern day director who is capable of mixing the utter misery of humans with the mindfulness of the world we live in.
It is not often you get a movie that flips a whole genre on its head. The genre of ‘body horror’ usually tends to challenge the viewer to keep their stomach intact throughout as well as their heads. In Julia Ducournau’s second feature length film ‘Titane’ however, the writer/director does more than challenge the viewer to keep their wits, she challenges them to read more into the film than just the surface level horror elements. Topics of gender fluidity, child abandonment, psychological trauma, and a basic need for family is scattered all throughout the movie. And yes, you’re still going to get some disturbing imagery to say the least. If you have seen Ducournau’s first film ‘Raw’, you know basically what you are getting into with Titane. Odd fetishization, hyper sexual imagery, painful acts of self sabotage, and an unnerving feeling throughout that the character may break at any moment. What sets this movie apart from Raw though is it has a surprising amount of heartfelt moments. Ducournau executed a vision of what she wanted this movie to convey perfectly and because of that, we get a final result that is equal parts disgusting, sad, beautiful and surprisingly funny. It can be looked at in two ways. It’s possibly the most disgusting yet beautiful movie about a woman getting pregnant from a car.
The film starts off with a young girl in a car with her father, humming like a car engine, her father gets increasingly annoyed by her behaviour and when told to stop, the girl takes off her seatbelt, causing the father to take his eyes off the road to get his daughter back in her seat. This ends in a car crash leaving the girl in need of brain surgery. A titanium plate is implanted in her skull and the doctor tells the parents to watch out for any neurological signs. They leave the hospital and the first thing the girl does is shun her parents and run up to their car and hug it. This really sets the tone of how the rest of the film is set up. Alexia, played by Agathe Rousselle in her first feature length film (which you wouldn’t notice it by her impactful performance), the girl, now all grown up, shows signs of unusual behaviour but her parents never show any concern for her, causing these signs to turn into full blown psycho killer actions. The neglect that Alexia felt from her parents is a contributing factor to who she becomes, a serial murderer with a taste for titanium, literally. Through all this, as she is on the run from police she hatches a plan and that plan leads her to another broken soul. A man, Vincent, gripping onto the past and not moving forward with his life. Through the disappearance of his son, and the rapid aging he so desperately wants to counteract, the film sets up these two dejected individuals to feed off each other’s needs for someone just being there for them when they need it.
What is most interesting about this film (other than its grotesque sequences of self inflicted pain) is the subtext behind the story itself. Vincent, played by Vincent Lindon, is so desperate for his son to be back in his life after all these years that he will take anybody that is willing to play the part. He is a man wrapped up in delusions of staying young and being in control that it comes through in his work as the captain of a firefighter brigade. He yearns to stay fit and masculine to keep up with his younger, more spry subordinates. His delusion fades away eventually as he sees glimpses into who Alexia really is but his feelings towards his son’s stand-in remain. He cares less that she is not actually his son, but that she could leave him to be alone again. He says the words “I don’t care who you are” to a distressed Alexia who feels like she’s been caught in the act. Even in the most masculine atmosphere, the identity of gender means little to none when it comes to love of a family member. You could interpret Alexia’s parents never accepting her for who she was so when she finally found someone who did, all the pain she felt had washed away as the two misfit toys finally felt like they truly belonged somewhere.
As sweet as all that may be, keep in mind, this film is not for those with weak stomachs. There are many sequences in this movie that will make you wince, shiver and may even give you the need to excuse yourself for some fresh air. It came as a surprise that this film was the winner of the Palme D’Or, which is given to the best film of the Cannes Film Festival, due to its disturbing nature. The previous Palme D’Or winner, ‘Parasite' saw itself as a foreign film that broke through into the western mainstream, that lead up to an awards sweep. Like its Palme D’Or predecessor, Titane is a foreign film that tackles social issues, but unlike Parasite, it is a much more niche film that may not play to a general audience. Don’t expect another cinderella story this year because not only are most Western awards shows biased against horror in general, but also no awards show will give a movie that is so grotesque any time of day.
Julia Ducournau clearly had a concrete idea of what she wanted to put to screen and the execution of her vision was nothing less than a perfect culmination of every aspect of this film working to a tee. The oversaturated yet subtle cinematography, the dreary yet glowing set design, the sickening yet mesmerizing special effects. It all plays a part in carrying out a director’s imagination onto screen. Despite all this film has going for it, the writing does suffer from a vague sense of nothingness towards the end. While that may just be Ducournau’s intent, but as these characters grow closer and closer, we are left to wonder what truly are the flaws of the characters. It is never shown how Alexia’s parents nurtured their daughter or if she is just a demented soul with a soft spot for steroid infused sad saps. There is also an element of fantasy at play that can't go unnoticed throughout as it's (literally) growing as the film progresses but when it finally comes to fruition with the culmination of the film, it may leave more questions than answers. Nonetheless, Titane shines in a genre mostly known for its repulsive visuals as this film give more than just its face value. There is plenty of room for a story like this that doesn't need real world boundaries to tell an excellent modern fable.