Titane
Year: 2021
Directed by: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Vincent Lindon & Agathe Rousselle
Runtime: 108 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 22/12/22
Directed by: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Vincent Lindon & Agathe Rousselle
Runtime: 108 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 22/12/22
Julia Ducournau’s 2016 Raw was one of the most arresting horror films I had seen in quite some time. Drawing in elements of the New French Extremism wave whilst blending it with a modern ‘elevated horror’ (I hate that expression) tale of sisterly competition and dependency. It showed that Ducournau was one to watch going forwards and when her follow up film, Titane, received the Palm d’Or at Cannes in 2021 I was immediately interested. A year late I managed to catch the film on MUBI, and despite getting off to a roaring start, for me Titane stalled somewhere around the beginning of the second act and failed to ever get the engine running again.
Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) is a dancing showgirl at motor shows. When not scantily clad and simulating sex on top of cars, Alexia’s favourite hobbies are murdering people and having actual intercourse with automobiles. Following a murder gone wrong, Alexia decides to go undercover posing as a seventeen-year-old boy, Adrien, who has been missing for a decade. Returning to live with Adrien’s father Vincent (Vincent Lindon), Alexia forms a symbiotic bond with him, providing emotional support whilst posing as Adrien in exchange for asylum.
Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) is a dancing showgirl at motor shows. When not scantily clad and simulating sex on top of cars, Alexia’s favourite hobbies are murdering people and having actual intercourse with automobiles. Following a murder gone wrong, Alexia decides to go undercover posing as a seventeen-year-old boy, Adrien, who has been missing for a decade. Returning to live with Adrien’s father Vincent (Vincent Lindon), Alexia forms a symbiotic bond with him, providing emotional support whilst posing as Adrien in exchange for asylum.
Titane and I got off to a great start, with it being exactly the film I was expecting with it ticking all the right boxes for another great film from Ducournau. It was extreme, it was uncomfortable, it genuinely made me squirm and look away from the screen at times. I was having an absolute blast. But then Alexia became Adrien, and the film shifted gears so hard it gave me whiplash; no longer being about this insane serial killer that has sex with cars, turning into a film harmfully touting the transexuals are dangerous trope, and about a group of men who seem to be unable to understand what trauma is.
If you get down to it, Titane is actually about unconditional love. But it goes a funny way about getting there. Vincent is a genuinely pathetic man, driven to this point by the disappearance and lack of closure from his son’s disappearance ten years ago. He is a fire chief whose body is failing him and relies on steroids to continue doing his job. He takes one look at Alexia (who looks nothing like Adrien might I add), and immediately begins insisting that she is indeed his son and refuses any tests to definitively prove it. Then he can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether he’s going to be patient and allow what he believes to be his son to settle in and open up to him, or force him to be a ‘normal person’ when he quickly becomes frustrated that Adrien won’t speak. This is the same for his colleagues at the fire station who find it weird that Adrien doesn’t want to get drunk and talk about women with them. I mean, do none of these people realise that Adrien, judging by Alexia’s physical state, was probably kidnapped, tortured, and made a very traumatic escape from that lifestyle? What makes any of them think that he would just waltz back into a normal way of life. He’s going to be traumatised! Of course, he wouldn’t want to be around people, or trust people he doesn’t know. I found it so hard to get on board with this portion of the story because of that barrier, I didn’t believe for a second that these characters genuinely thought that Adrien could just return to normal life that easily and quickly.
I can understand why Vincent accepts Alexia as Adrien despite her not bearing any resemblance to him, but all of these people that clearly see through the poor disguise Alexia has crafted don’t feel the need to report this to the police. Especially one of the firefighters who puts two and two together, realising who Adrien really is.
Then there’s a whole thing about Alexia being pregnant with a baby that she got from having sex with cars, and I just didn’t get it…I couldn’t wrap my head around what it was supposed to mean.
Maybe there is a good film in Titane that I just don’t understand, and I’m happy to hold my hands up and say I don’t get it so maybe take my negative review with a pinch of salt. But for me, Titane had a good thing going with its first act, but the second and third acts felt like an entirely different film and one I simply couldn’t buy into because of the amount of contrivance surrounding the situation. I’ve not been this disappointed by a film in a long time, I was at times fighting myself not to just give up on it altogether. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. But maybe, hopefully, you’ll see something in it that I didn’t.
If you get down to it, Titane is actually about unconditional love. But it goes a funny way about getting there. Vincent is a genuinely pathetic man, driven to this point by the disappearance and lack of closure from his son’s disappearance ten years ago. He is a fire chief whose body is failing him and relies on steroids to continue doing his job. He takes one look at Alexia (who looks nothing like Adrien might I add), and immediately begins insisting that she is indeed his son and refuses any tests to definitively prove it. Then he can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether he’s going to be patient and allow what he believes to be his son to settle in and open up to him, or force him to be a ‘normal person’ when he quickly becomes frustrated that Adrien won’t speak. This is the same for his colleagues at the fire station who find it weird that Adrien doesn’t want to get drunk and talk about women with them. I mean, do none of these people realise that Adrien, judging by Alexia’s physical state, was probably kidnapped, tortured, and made a very traumatic escape from that lifestyle? What makes any of them think that he would just waltz back into a normal way of life. He’s going to be traumatised! Of course, he wouldn’t want to be around people, or trust people he doesn’t know. I found it so hard to get on board with this portion of the story because of that barrier, I didn’t believe for a second that these characters genuinely thought that Adrien could just return to normal life that easily and quickly.
I can understand why Vincent accepts Alexia as Adrien despite her not bearing any resemblance to him, but all of these people that clearly see through the poor disguise Alexia has crafted don’t feel the need to report this to the police. Especially one of the firefighters who puts two and two together, realising who Adrien really is.
Then there’s a whole thing about Alexia being pregnant with a baby that she got from having sex with cars, and I just didn’t get it…I couldn’t wrap my head around what it was supposed to mean.
Maybe there is a good film in Titane that I just don’t understand, and I’m happy to hold my hands up and say I don’t get it so maybe take my negative review with a pinch of salt. But for me, Titane had a good thing going with its first act, but the second and third acts felt like an entirely different film and one I simply couldn’t buy into because of the amount of contrivance surrounding the situation. I’ve not been this disappointed by a film in a long time, I was at times fighting myself not to just give up on it altogether. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. But maybe, hopefully, you’ll see something in it that I didn’t.