Direction: Julia Ducournau
Country: France
Titane is a shocker of a film, yet more dejected than astute. This French psychological body horror film seems self-satisfied about selling a paroxysm of violence and artsy gore and mixing it with a sense of emotional degradation.
Julia Ducournau's sophomore feature - following the controversial Raw (2016) - attempts an ambitious combination between the sci-fi horror of David Cronenberg, the neo-noir underworld of Abel Ferrara, the dark inner burdens of Nicolas Winding Refn and the maddening dysfunctional families of Takashi Miike. Not only the film fails to reach their qualities but also becomes ridiculous whenever it tries to alleviate the pressure accumulated by the two protagonists. They are sick, repulsive characters who bond at their own convenience.
Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) is a nightclub dancer turned psycho killer who was implanted with titanium in her head as a result of a car accident, and Vincent (Vincent Lindon) is a delusional firefighter commander on steroids. As the police tightens the circle to catch Alexia, she finds the perfect hideaway by disguising herself as a man and assuming the identity of Vincent’s missing son. They play this stupid game for a while, but worse than that, she’s about to give birth to something grotesque, the fruit of a ludicrous sex episode with… a car?!
Whether in agony or incomprehension, I resisted until the end, just to conclude that this indigestible film - assembled with an array of sordid, pretentious and imbecilic ideas meant solely to disturb.
