Titane (2021) - Julia Ducournau’s murderous return

Credit: allocine.fr

Julia Ducournau returns after her cannibalistic masterpiece Raw (original: Grave, 2017) with Titane, a racy breed between crime thriller, erotica and body horror that doesn’t fail to captivate, or at the very least induce possible mass fainting sessions. Newcomer Agathe Rousselle plays deadpan, seductive Alexia, a woman who works nights as a showgirl at a motor show and kills the occasional fan in her spare time. Her job is no coincidence: as a child, she and her father had a car crash, resulting in her having a titanium plate fitted into her head. Now sporting an impressive scar, Alexia has developed a fixation, an attraction to vehicles, resulting in some rather graphic, brutal and very unprotected sex with one. Pregnant and on the run after her killing spree attracts media attention, Alexia disguises herself as fire captain Vincent’s (a heart-wrenching Vincent Lindon) missing son Adrien in order to seek last-minute shelter and anonymity. Thrown together, Alexia and Vincent learn how to grieve and suffer, how to live and how to be themselves, during one of the most vulnerable moment of their lives. Ducournau’s most recent, for which she won the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, is perhaps not as sharp and as well-rounded as her debut. But Titane nevertheless packs a punch: between Ducournau’s graphic depictions of the female body undergoing extreme changes and her exploration of belonging and desire, her new film both foreshadows a promising and exciting career and future for the horror genre.