Titane

Titane

A woman with a metal plate in her head from a childhood car accident embarks on a bizarre journey, bringing her into contact with a firefighter who's reunited with his missing son after 10 years.

  • Released: 2021-07-14
  • Runtime: 108 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Horror, Thrillers
  • Stars: Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh, Mara Cissé, Marin Judas, Diong-Kéba Tacu, Myriem Akheddiou, Bertrand Bonello, Céline Carrère, Adèle Guigue, Thibault Cathalifaud, Dominique Frot, Lamine Cissokho, Florence Janas, Frédéric Jardin, Olivia Venner, Thibault Villette, Nathalie Boyer, Mehdi Rahim-Silvioli, Théo Hellermann, Anaïs Fabre
  • Director: Julia Ducournau
 Comments
  • ryanpersaud-59415 - 7 April 2024
    Metal, Blood, and Bonding
    This movie is not going to be for everyone. I'm sure that a lot of people will have turned this movie off at a particular scene of human-automobile coitus and shrugged this film off as another "weird foreign movie."

    This is not an easy watch; Titane can be disturbing, violent, gross, and uncomfortable at times. But it's also exhilarating. What I appreciate the most about French (and frankly, international) cinema is that there's comfortability with the uncomfortable. This is not a movie that aims to please everyone, but it has a story to tell and ideas to convey, some of which are complicated and messy.

    And yes, the weirdness is integral to this; Titane seeks to break down and examine societal norms around family, love, identity, and gender roles, and the bizarre storyline is a vehicle (pun intended) that allows us to do that. What's the point of cinema if we can't explore things off the beaten path?

    There's so much this movie is about and so much I could say; but it all starts with the truly INCREDIBLE performances, specifically from Agatha Rouselle as our anti-hero, Alexia. She conveys an appropriate alien like demeanour; clearly disconnected from humanity and unable to connect with others. She's such an incredibly complex and layered character with so many facets. What's remarkable is that she does this with very little dialog. Her two solo dancing scenes as well (I mean, all of the dancing scenes really, and the music) were such excellent ways to convey deeper aspects of her character. She's a person who, as cold and heartless as she is, clearly craves human attention.

    In contrast, Vincent Lindon as Vincent the firefighter is the exact opposite. He plays a character BURSTING with emotion, someone warm and kind, yet troubled and lacking in so many ways. His performance is the heart and soul of this film and many of its ideas are conveyed through him. His character essentially provides the thesis statement for the ultimate message of this film: love is the answer. Stripped away from societal expectations, from changing bodies, from haunted pasts, love is a guiding force that can help us deal with change and those different from us.

    Could Titane's two halves - not literally, but I mean, thematically - have had a BIT more connective tissue? Yes. It does feel like a somewhat disjointed film, that could've had a different first act and been the same film.

    I also felt that while the message and ideas of the film are well thought out, it does forget one kind of huge aspect that I think most people watching this film picked up on without even thinking about it: justice. It's nice that Alexia is loved and accepted? Sure. Is it also true she murders at least three perfectly innocent people in cold blood for no reason and should probably be held accountable? Sometimes, love isn't enough, and I appreciate that the film doesn't ask us to agree with its statement (Vincent is explicitly portrayed as a DAMAGED person, especially in the scene with the forest fire), but the lack of justice does muddy the message a bit.

    Overall though, Titane is a fantastic example of grown up, audacious film making. As odd and off kilter as it is, it's a great example as to why, even if not as commercially successful, French cinema is so valuable to the world. Check this out, and keep an open mind!
  • ZeddaZogenau - 4 November 2023
    Winner of the Palme d'Or 2021
    With Body Horror to the Golden Palm

    We'll be seeing a lot more from this director! That was already an announcement when Julia Ducournau was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021. You've probably never seen a film like this in the Festival Palace before.

    Without giving away too much of the plot: It's about sex with cars, changing gender identities, repressed homosexuality and a serial killer the likes of which the world has probably never seen before. And even those who shy away from body horror, weird sex scenes and eruptive violence should definitely not miss this furiously staged film, which looks like a wild and idiosyncratic mixture of CRASH (1996), FEUCHTGEBIETE / WETLANDS (2013) and ROSE MARIE'S BABY (1968)!

    The actors are terrific: EUROPEAN FILM AWARD nominee Agathe Rousselle (*1988) is probably in the role of her life as the extremely dangerous Alexia, EUROPEAN FILM AWARD nominee Vincent Lindon (*1959) as a muscle-bound hormone junkie with desperate fatherly feelings has never been better seen. Despite his huge muscles, he can no longer really keep up with his hunky firefighter boys.

    And then the great selection of music: to "Doing it to Death" by The Kills you can see protagonist Alexia dancing on "her" car, while Caterina Caselli belts out "Nessuno Mi Puo Giudicare", there is one of the most insane murder scenes, which is also a Tarantino couldn't have done a better job, and to the sounds of "Light House" by Future Islands, the pent-up sexual energy of the lively firemen is released. What a trip!

    In other roles you can see Lais Salameh, Garance Marillier (was also in RAW), Myriem Akheddiou and the scandal director Bertrand Bonello ("The Pornographer" (sic!)) as a stuffy, cold-hearted father. In the box office, the film has so far grossed USD 4.9 million worldwide, including USD 1.4 million in North America (USA and Canada) and 29,919 tickets sold in Germany (sources: The Numbers / InsideKino).

    Rarely has a Palme d'Or been more groundbreaking for the future of cinema; you probably have to go back to PULP FICTION and the year 1994. TITANE by Julia Ducournau can definitely compete with the explosive power that Tarantino's cinema was able to develop back then.
  • Top_Dawg_Critic - 19 May 2023
    When you take poor quality recreational pharmaceuticals and decide to write a movie.
    And you know all three writers shared their stash with all the movie critics that rated this nonsense so high. I love my car as well, but c'mon... I'd at least practice safe sex lol. This almost two-hour long wasted mess is time I will never get back. It was a ridiculously incoherent, overstuffed and over-stylized plot, riddled with holes, that lacked consistency, substance and purpose. It's like all three writers each went to a corner, came up with their own drug-induced ideas, and randomly welded them all together like a cheap body shop.

    This may have worked if there was some parody or comic relief in the story; I would've enjoyed this much more if she gave birth to, say, a Tonka truck - y'all know that would've been a blast. Even the score and soundtrack were annoying. Aside from decent performances and colorful cinematography, this film offers nothing, even to fans of Cronenberg, who I'm sure will feel this is a cheap wanna-be knock off. It's a generous 3/10 from me, all for the colorful eye candy.
  • ElMaruecan82 - 15 October 2022
    New-Age Mythology or a Riddle for Ages?
    It's hard to figure out whether "Titane" is a genuine act of iconoclast filmmaking or if its aesthetic subversiveness is only a flashy hideout for the kind of transgression that became as predictable as it is trendy.

    Anyway, I did not enjoy "Titane" but that doesn't mean I did not like it. Maybe I'm more easily drawn into traditional storytelling or a story that follows a specific direction or maybe I wasn't in the right mood... but I wonder what kind of visceral angst one must feel in order to "enjoy" Julia Ducournau's film. It's not that I wish I could enjoy it but I wish I'll never be able to be turned on by films like these. That said, there's one thing I should credit Ducournau, it's her daringness. Her "Titane" is indeed strange and groundbreaking even by the standards of the day (which say a lot).

    The film opens with Alexia, a girl in the back seat of a car driven by her irritated father (Bertrand Bonello), she keeps titillating him with constant humming and movements to the point that when he turns his head, it's one time too many, the car swerves off the road and a spectacular crash ensues. The girl gets titane-made implants in the head, which naturally should set any viewer for a sci-fi film. However, the film doesn't take that direction (or does it?) just as if Ducournau was echoing the first scene, being both the angry driver and the annoying passenger, once it seems she's taking a specific road, she derails herself from the trajectory... with a death-wish in form of a cinematic crash of creativity.

    Back to the film. When adult Alexia (Agathe Roussel) is revealed to be some sort of striptease dancer in a sort of dystopian cyberpunk present and we see her having some awkward but not devoid of eroticism interactions with another dancer (Garance Mariller) in a shower, I was getting ready for some queer romance. But then came the first act of violence: a man approaches Alexia, claiming he's a big fan, they kiss and then she kills him... and it's not exactly the killing that shocks but the modus operandi and the disturbing sight of a weird foam emerging from his mouth.

    Now, I don't know the purpose of such gruesome details but allow me a confession: I've watched X rated clips in my youth, that was the rise of the Internet and the director is from my generation. I don't think it's a coincidence that the horror reaches a pornographic level very quickly and if you look closely at the way men are killed, the indirect references to porn movies doesn't seem fortuitous. It's just as if roles were reversed and Ducournau made her Alexia a sort of supra-woman inflicting men the symbolic punishment they always kept for women. I would have 100% supported that theory but for some reason she also killed women, starting with her lover.

    I gather that Alexia is beyond genders. And that is both the strength and the weakness of the film. I'm not sure I would have totally embraced a feminist pamphlet, however if it had the merit of consistency and that stylish horror, I might have appreciated the journey despite the destination. But obviously, Ducournau wanted to make her girl not gender-neutral but supra-gender. By the way, it's interesting that the word meaning 'gender' in French is the same as 'genre'. Ducournau oscillates between slasher, horror, sci-fi, romance, drama and countless references to other directors, making her own creation as hard to get as her character. Even harder when Alexia becomes Adrien, a young man,, identified as his son by fireman Vincent (Vincent Lindon). And from the depraved expression of feminity, we get to stereotypical-masculinity embodied by the macho type, the savior and dudes with homophobic humor. Roussel looks quite authentic as a man. Talk about a blessed casting for Ducournau.

    Still, the fireman sequence is where the film started to lose me... I knew violence wouldn't be the same but it's just as if it was aware of its own climax and how spectacular it would be, Ducournau injected some filler scenes like Vincent with his own steroids during his morning rituals. Soft-porn lightning, luscious dances, playful ambiguity, the codes are distorted like a metal under a high temperature and it's so dizzying we wonder if "Titane" was about the metal indeed or some New-Age mythology. Or is it that Ducournau's inspiration peak so very soon with the early scenes that the whole middle-act could only strike as felt like that moment when you start driving in autopilot mode, not totally aware that you are in command. I gave up shortly before the explosive climax.

    I saw Ducournau in an interview, she struck me as a spontaneous, young woman, with more ease with a camera than words, she didn't have much vocabulary, and she's certainly in her element when she films... I'm sure she could materialize the idea she had but it would be one she couldn't verbalize. "Titane" is a film that gives you an idea of her intentions, maybe her aim, but I defy anyone to bring some definite answers. Maybe that's the secret of its Golden Palm, maybe it felt transgressive enough but in such an original way that it wouldn't even be accused of being 'woke' cinema. I mean, she also killed the girl, and somehow the film can be regarded both as abortionist or pro-life and it's as much about motherhood as patriarchy. The duality is present and left enough food for thought.

    But at times, the film reminded me of that ad clip in "Boomerang" with Grace Jones literally defecating a glass of perfume, it was absurd and pretentious but like.... "it stinks so good". "Titane" is no stinker, it's quite unpleasant but there's an aesthetic for unpleasantness that Ducournau admitted and I wholeheartedly agree with her about ugliness being hypnotic, maybe I did enjoy some bits after all.
  • lekeule - 6 August 2022
    It does not make sense
    A lot of character choices do not make sense. Why does Alexia kill that girl she was hooking up with? Why would she think it is a good idea to try to pass as a long lost son while she is pregnant? How could you not see that it is not your son in front of you but a damaged woman? Why would you choose to take care of a woman which deceived you? Why would you damage your trusted co-worker for them?

    And do not let me get started on the whole car-pregnancy thing, because it is just plainly ridiculous.

    I feel like this movie could have went two ways - a ridiculous murder story with car-babies or a touching story of finally finding parental figure. It seems like the director could not choose and got lost between these two options. This led to a nonsensical movie, which is edgy for the sake of being edgy.