Titane – An Unflinching and Exploitative Thrill Ride

This year’s Cannes Film Festival had one of their most diverse and stacked lineups in years, boasting many new films from acclaimed auteurs all over the world. Despite increased competition, at the end of the day, only one movie can go on to win the prestigious “Palme D’or”. Many awards pundits expected it to go to a film by an established filmmaker, such as Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero. However, in an interesting turn of events, the top prize ended up going to Titane, the sophomore effort from French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, best known for 2017’s Raw, an unflinching look at growing up, self-discovery and peer pressure, told through the lens of a cannibal-oriented body horror. The film infamously made several people faint at the Toronto Film Festival, which gave the film a commercial boost and put Ducournau on many people’s radars.

Raw seems relatively tame compared to Titane, which is easily one of the most explicit and disturbing films to ever win the Palme D’or. The film stars newcomer Rousselle as Alexa, a woman who suffered a tragic car accident as a child that left a titanium plate lodged in her head. Fast forward several years and Alexa is working as a showgirl at a vehicle showcase and has become somewhat of a local sensation, to the point where she has many admires those who take their fascination a step too far. Alexa doesn’t tolerate this and turns her predators into prey. After a murderous spree and a bizarre sexual encounter involving an automobile, Alexa goes on the run, where she winds up crossing paths with a grieving father named Vincent (Lindon) who mistakes her for his deceased son. As the two unexpectedly fill gaps in each other’s lives, the consequences of Alexa’s actions start to come into play.

While he previous film flirts with extremity in several respects, it never crosses the line. Every frame of the film (despite how explicit and shocking many scenes are) is necessary to telling that story. The same could not be said about Titane. While it is certainly daring and unconventional in its presentation, to call this messy would be a grand understatement. Ducournau throws every demented idea she has at the wall within the first thirty minutes, in an attempt to disorient and shock audiences. However, in doing so, she completely loses sight of the fundamentals of storytelling and creates a film that is far more frustrating and exploitative, than enthralling and poignant.

The main issue with Titane is that Alexa is not fleshed-out enough as a protagonist. Her motivations frankly make no sense whatsoever and there’s virtually nothing compelling or fascinating about her as an individual character. That being said, the central relationship the film explores is complex and explores love in a very unconventional way that shows that Ducournau is capable of telling a story with a real sense of depth.

It’s just unfortunate that she spends a large portion of the runtime completely focused on inconsequential shock value.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Tristan French