Directed By Julia Ducournau

Starring – Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier

The Plot – Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father (Lindon) is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years. Titane : A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys.

Rated R for strong violence and disturbing material, graphic nudity, sexual content, and adult language

TITANE – Redband Trailer. In Theaters 10.1 – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Fearless direction. Between “Titane” and “Raw”, Ducournau has carved out a reputation as a contemporary visionary, whose various shock factors and artistic impulses make for mind-bending cinema of the most thought-provoking kind. For this turn, the interpretation is once again abstract through the eyes of its audience, but I found the trio of gender identity, toxic masculinity, and shape-shifting grief to be most of the woven themes to the movie’s storytelling tapestry, and ones that are explored in such a creative manner that reaches for the bizarre, and often pulls back brilliance in the ways it’s able to flesh these matters out in the most metaphorically malevolent way possible. This is made all the more endearing with a woman’s perspective throughout both of her first two films, but not one that ever uses it as a gimmick to alienate the other half of her audience, instead incorporating vulnerability and empowerment in a way that crafts tender empathy for her protagonists, despite them carrying out the visceral exercising of Julia’s devious wishes.

– Tonally eclectic. As to where most films fit into one or two respective genre’s, where it remains dormant throughout the consistency of its run time, “Titane” prescribes to a deeper enveloping that incorporates as many as five genre’s as spontaneously as it sees fit. This element of creativity would often condemn a film’s direction, leaving it feeling like a scatter-brained hodgepodge of indecisive juxtapositions, but it surprisingly serves advantageously for the integrity of the film, especially in its unpredictable factor, where quite literally anything feels possible at any given moment. The horror elements are obvious, primarily in the bodily captivity and ruthlessly visceral opening act, which kickstarts things with some of the most brutal and creative uses of practical effects that I’ve seen in quite sometime. Sprinkle this in with the occasional science-fiction spin on the expanding psychology, and you’ve reached Cronenberg levels of nightmarish fantasy that rivals his “Crash”, in terms of approach. From there, her escape route pairs her with Lindon’s Vincent, bringing to light feelings of dramatic longing and occasional romance between a relationship that redefines the meaning of the latter, while feeding in to the deeper backstory of its respective characters. Finally, the occasional awkward humor is used sparingly enough for the moments it enhance the provocative of what we’re seeing, all the while attaining a self-aware tag that is refreshing for a film this thematically important.

– Shape-shifting. This is another one of those films that is best to approach it with as little knowledge or background insight as possible. I say that because it feels like every fifteen minutes or so, this film incorporates another in the laundry list of twists and contradictory directions that avoids red herrings and conventionalism with regards to where you may have felt this film was headed, and instead taking a sharp left turn for what feels like a test of attention on its audience. Even halfway into the film, I still felt I didn’t have even a momentary grip on where the film was headed, and with as many internal and external conflicts that the script conjures up for Rousselle’s Alexia, produces an operatic climax that deconstructs logic for a terrifying take on the full circle of life, with all of its self-deprecating ironies.

– Stylishly entrancing. One element of production that does manage to exceed Julia’s spellbinding work on “Raw”, is the three course dinner of visual intoxication that leads to one of the more seducing presentations of the entire 2021 movie year. The cinematography allures us with as many meaningful shots that elicit deeper meaning, and movements of the camera that is often influenced by the energy of the environment that it is depicting. Equally resonating, the color coordination proves a nourishing growth for Julia’s layering as a visual storyteller, painting as much unnerve and artificiality in the settings that directly contradict and manipulate the inviting nature of its beauty. Finally, the lighting itself feels like a character of its own in the movie, providing variation and subtleties in a way that not only brings to life the splashes of color previously mentioned, but also in the conjuring of its atmospheric tension, which never overstays its welcome.

– Gravitational leads. What a fierce and frenetic introduction to Agathe Rousselle, and the captivating turn as the trivial Alexia, which might as well be titular, for the way her resiliency is continuously tested. Aside from Rousselle’s minimal use of dialogue painting an intriguing mysterious aura to her many cryptic actions, it’s the physicality and bodily investment to the role that is most rewarding, all the while sifting through an emotional evolution that serves as a product of her ever-changing environment. She’s simply the show-stealer in every measurement of the engagement, but not the only one who continuously held my attention for spans of gut-wrenching emotionality. That sharing would also go to Vincent Lindon, who as an ailing father supplants one of the more honest and trivial depictions of grief ever bestowed to cinema. When his character isn’t juggling the front of maintaining toxic masculinity in his firehouse, he peels the layers back with a vulnerably complex frailty that I coherently interpreted despite his movements being as occasionally ambiguous as the aforementioned Alexia.

– Consequential strokes. One element of production that I feel isn’t being discussed enough in the continuous praise for the film, is that of the make-up and prosthetics work, which are out of this world, in terms of believability. The bruising and scarring are enough to competently articulate the many confrontations within Alexia’s own tortured and mentally debilitating life, but it’s in the donning of a particular body suit that completely transformed her in ways that cohesively played into the passage of time while in the context of the story. What’s impressive about it is the level of focus that is consistently called upon in its depiction, leading to many sequences of nudity, but ones that vividly paint a picture of her bodily evolution along the way. It’s daring enough to include it in so many sequences, if even just for the allowance it affords the audience to pick apart any semblance of imperfections, but they simply aren’t there, and it proves that the minimal budget was spent in all of the right places, with respect to the integrity of the film.

NEGATIVES

– Momentary distractions. If there were one or two of these, I could forgive the film a lot easier, but the mounting problems within the visual spectrum led to an occasional sloppiness that I wish was fixed with reshoots or re-edits. The first, and bigger, problems come from the work from various extras, who are there to serve as a victims for a particular character, but instead result in unintentionally laughable instances where they are so obviously still breathing with the angle used for the depiction. Hell, this even happens with two actors used in the same frame, leading me to wonder if there was a purpose for their bodily movements, but answers that never came to the forefront of an explanation. In addition to this, there are some messy edits in the film that occasionally look like flashbacks, but are instead used to transition to the next scene. This is a problem for me personally because they happen abruptly while in the middle of various dialogue and pivotal tidbits of information that we could honestly use more of, but never receive. This brings me to…

– Minimal exposition. I’m fine with a movie that leaves the interpretation up to visuals and body language of its characters, but there’s matters in the film that simply don’t add up with what we’re asked to go along with. (SPOILERS) For instance, why is Alexia a killer in the first place? Is it as a result of the accident? When did this start? (END SPOILERS) Other matters pertain to an overall lack of characterization for the film, which I feel is gravely consequential for the honesty in their depictions. Because of such, the bad people or “Occasional antagonists” of the film feel like one-dimensional tropes inside of a Stephen King film, who are only evil for the sake of being evil. For my money, this script could’ve used an additional 10-15 minutes as breadcrumbs to tying everything together. I’m not saying “Titane” is a confusing film. I found it easy enough in its approach. It’s just that there are moments of traits within Alexia that aren’t fully explored to their thorough potential, and because of such lend itself to several conveniences that we’re forced to believe.

– Suspension of disbelief. (SPOILERS) I myself have never been pregnant, but I can’t even entertain the idea for a second that an eight month bump could be suppressed even slightly with body tape. This is the case during scenes with Alexia, where she is presented as skinny as she is at any point in the film, during moments she is among her general public. This is made even sillier when she takes her shirt off, and you see the size of her stomach, even with the body tape on it. In addition to this, “Titane” is the latest film where a woman passes herself off as a man, and it never coming close to believable in the visuals of her appearance. If her big pouty lips and feminine lashes aren’t enough to break your believability, consider her absence of an Adam’s apple most condemning to her portrayal, or the fact that she looks nothing like the person she is trying to pass herself off as being. It results in canyon sized moments of disbelief that have to be suppressed for your investment to the film, and the kind that Mrs Doubtfire would laugh at with disrespect.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-