Review of Titane, directed by Julia Ducournau

Something I’ve brought up repeatedly during my time as a blogger, specifically as one who produces reviews, is how I end up procrastinating so hard on a lot of movies, books, television shows, etc. When things are coming out, I become obsessed with them, but then I never end up watching them until years later.

As you can imagine from this prelude of sorts, Titane was one of these movies. I remember when it was getting a ton of hype in the film festival circuits, as I was just starting to work in industry at the the time, and I wanted to watch it.

But back then I did not have a car, nor did my local movie theater show a lot of foreign movies, so I ended up just seeing the movie years later when I spotted it on my Kanopy account. Thankfully my local library system gives us Kanopy for free, so I’ve been finding a lot of movies on there that I’ve also procrastinated on.

And man, I knew the very basic premise of this movie, but I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I pressed play on that fateful Tuesday morning.

Let’s get into the review, shall we?

After a car accident as a child, Alexia’s life completely changes in bizarre ways.

Our main character in this movie is Alexia, who, at the beginning of the movie, is part of the reason why everything happens. She’s in the car, her father driving, when she distracts him and causes an accident. This leads to a titanium plate being installed inside of her head, as she had a major injury to her head and skull.

Upon the installation of this, her personality changes. We pivot to the present day, where she works at a motor show as a show girl. Something big happens on duty when a man follows her into the parking lot and forces himself onto her. Before he can do anything beyond kissing, she kills him with her metal hair stick.

We realize not long after this that Alexia is actually a cold blood killer with a decent victim amount, especially in the past few months. She doesn’t just go after men—she goes after women as well. After all of these years, she still lives with her parents, despite not really having a relationship with them.

She goes back to shower after murdering him, then realizes the car she modeled earlier has turned on. She doesn’t know why, but she decides to go into it naked and have sex with the car. Not long after this, she begins a relationship of sorts with her coworker: Justine. But when they have sex, oil comes out of Alexia’s vagina.

Things turn when a pregnancy test reveals she is pregnant, and she fails to give herself an abortion, leading Alexia to kill Justine and other guests at a party they’re at. She then goes home, locks her parents in their room, and sets the house on fire. A victim escape from her party rampage, and the cops are now after her.

So Alexia decides to become Adrien, a boy who disappeared years prior. She changes her appearances by cutting her hair and hiding the pregnant belly. Adrien’s real father accepts her as his son without a DNA test, and he brings her back to his workplace, where he happens to live as a firefighter.

The other firefighters are suspicious of Adrien, as they notice the father also gives Adrien more jobs than everyone else. Alexia becomes disturbed at how possessive he is of her, but decides to stay when she notices that he injects drugs into himself to keep going. Her secret is found out when the real Adrien’s mother catches her withouth the taped down belly.

The mother begs her to take care of the father, and he eventually finds out the truth himself. He accepts it as it is, but then she angers him when she does a show girl dance for the firefighters. Right after, she has sex with a fire engine.

However, it’s time to give birth, and her stomach tears open. We see there are metal plates in their, and Alexia reveals her reality to the father. When she gives birth, the plate in her head kills her, and the father takes her child, who has titanium all over his body.

Overall Thoughts

This is definitely a body horror movie, and while I had no idea about this to begin with, I found myself grooving with it throughout the course of the movie. I couldn’t see anyone else in my family wanting to watch this movie though, as it’s pretty out there in some ways.

That said, I don’t know if I would return to this movie. I can say I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but I didn’t think that I was raptured by what I was watching. There are some thought provoking moments, but it isn’t my cup of tea.

I can see how others might really enjoy this film though! Taste is extremely subjective, so it’s really up to the person watching the movie to make a decision for themself.

Go watch it if you haven’t already and want to experience it for yourself.

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