Those who liked it, those who disliked it, horror fans, everybody gets out of the theater shaken and "ill-at-ease".
Titane is a big hyperbole, of which the bizarreness of its synopsis is one instrument out of many. When it screams: "Listen what I got to say", it forces you to listen attentively. The viewer's reaction is an integral part of the experience in the sinister vision of feminism, paternity, gender identity that Julia Ducourneau proposes.
Without restraint or complacency, it will crush your prejudices, shake your vision of the world. That is why the bizarreness is at once essential to itself and the themes. It is at once, the bizarreness to shock, to catch the attention, and the hyperbole to make the themes understood.
In substance, most of the film deals with unconditional love, more precisely with son-father unconditional love. Or, conversely on how the two protagonists, Alexia and Vincent, needed respectively to be given endearment and to give it.
Julia Ducourneau seems to demand a lot of commitment on her actor's part, but it pays off. Both actors, Agathe Rousselle - in her first role for cinema, a role of physicality, nuance, and duality of genders - and Vincent Lindon - also a very physical role - are incredible.
I think lastly, in Titane, we can feel a love for experimental/edgy cinema. Lots of people have cited Cronenberg and body horror as an influence. And, indeed, it is an important part of Ducourneau's artistic style, especially regarding how she deals with gender identity. But, I also see in the opening sequence references to Kenneth Anger's Kustom Kar Kommandos. Anyway, it's a nice bonus that I appreciate.
Titane is a big hyperbole, of which the bizarreness of its synopsis is one instrument out of many. When it screams: "Listen what I got to say", it forces you to listen attentively. The viewer's reaction is an integral part of the experience in the sinister vision of feminism, paternity, gender identity that Julia Ducourneau proposes.
Without restraint or complacency, it will crush your prejudices, shake your vision of the world. That is why the bizarreness is at once essential to itself and the themes. It is at once, the bizarreness to shock, to catch the attention, and the hyperbole to make the themes understood.
In substance, most of the film deals with unconditional love, more precisely with son-father unconditional love. Or, conversely on how the two protagonists, Alexia and Vincent, needed respectively to be given endearment and to give it.
Julia Ducourneau seems to demand a lot of commitment on her actor's part, but it pays off. Both actors, Agathe Rousselle - in her first role for cinema, a role of physicality, nuance, and duality of genders - and Vincent Lindon - also a very physical role - are incredible.
I think lastly, in Titane, we can feel a love for experimental/edgy cinema. Lots of people have cited Cronenberg and body horror as an influence. And, indeed, it is an important part of Ducourneau's artistic style, especially regarding how she deals with gender identity. But, I also see in the opening sequence references to Kenneth Anger's Kustom Kar Kommandos. Anyway, it's a nice bonus that I appreciate.