Titane

Titane (, lit. 'Titanium') is a 2021 body horror psychological drama film written and directed by Julia Ducournau. The French-Belgian co-production stars Agathe Rousselle in her feature film debut as Alexia, a woman who, after being injured in a car crash as a child, has a titanium plate fitted into her head. In adulthood, Alexia becomes a murderous car model with an erotic fascination with automobiles, leading to a bizarre sexual encounter that sets off an increasingly outlandish series of events. Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier and Laïs Salameh also star.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 13 July 2021, where Ducournau became the second female director to win the Palme d'Or, the festival's top award, as well as the first female filmmaker to win solo. It received critical acclaim and was selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, but did not make the shortlist. At the 47th César Awards, it was nominated for four awards, including Best Director for Ducournau and Most Promising Actress for Rousselle. At the 75th British Academy Film Awards, Ducournau received a nomination for Best Director. At the 11th Magritte Awards, Titane received five nominations and won two awards, including Best Foreign Film.

Plot
A little girl named Alexia annoys her father during a drive. As she removes her seatbelt, her father turns around to scold her, causing a car crash. Alexia suffers a skull injury and has a titanium plate fitted into her head. When she gets out of the hospital, she shuns her parents and embraces their car passionately.

Years later, Alexia, now an adult with a large scar on the side of her head, works as a showgirl at a motor show. One night, after a show, a male fan follows Alexia in the showroom's parking lot, declares his love to her, and forcibly kisses her; she then brutally kills him using her large metal hair stick. As she returns to the showroom to shower, Alexia finds that the car she modeled with earlier has turned on by itself. She enters it naked, has sex with the car, and climaxes.

It is revealed that Alexia is a serial killer who has murdered several men and women in the past few months. She still lives with her parents, who seem unaware of her connection with the crimes and with whom she has a distant relationship.

Alexia attends a house party, where she starts to have sex with her coworker Justine. However, motor oil begins secreting from her vagina. She takes a pregnancy test, which returns a positive result, and tries to perform an abortion on the spot, using her hair stick, but fails. She comes out of the bathroom and murders Justine and the other guests, but one woman manages to escape. Alexia returns home and tries to burn a bloodied blanket, which sets the house on fire. She locks her parents in their bedroom and leaves.

Now wanted for murder, Alexia alters her appearance to pretend to be Adrien Legrand, a young boy who had disappeared ten years before, at age seven, by cutting her hair, taping down her breasts and pregnant belly, and breaking her own nose. She then goes to the police claiming that she is Adrien, where his father, Vincent, a fire captain, accepts Alexia as his missing son and refuses to do a DNA test.

Vincent takes Alexia to the station where he lives and works, and introduces her to his men. The firefighters are puzzled by the mute, androgynous, and apparently traumatized "Adrien", but they refrain from questioning the captain's behavior. Alexia becomes an apprentice at the station, under Vincent's supervision. As Vincent gives more responsibility to his "son" over the other experienced firefighters, one firefighter confronts Vincent about "Adrien's" identity. However, Vincent immediately shuts him down and tells him to never speak of his son.

Vincent tries to preserve his strength by injecting steroids into his aging body, but he finds that he seems to be building an immunity to them. Alexia is increasingly disturbed by his possessiveness and considers escaping from the fire station. However, after Vincent experiences an arrhythmia after injecting a large dose of steroids, Alexia decides to stay with him.

Vincent's long-estranged ex-wife comes to see her "son", and ends up discovering a now-heavily pregnant Alexia without her body taped down. She nevertheless keeps the secret for herself, not wishing to interfere with her ex-husband's delusion, and begs Alexia to take care of him. Vincent eventually acknowledges his delusion, telling Alexia that "whoever you are, you are my son." When he inadvertently uncovers her breasts, he is shocked but continues caring for her.

At a party at the fire station, the firefighters urge "Adrien" to dance to the music. Alexia performs her showgirl choreography, confusing everyone. Vincent, disappointed, walks out of the crowd. After the party, Alexia has sex with a fire engine.

Alexia's body gradually breaks down, as the skin of her stomach tears to reveal new metal plates. When her pregnancy comes to term, Alexia reveals her real name to Vincent, briefly attempting to seduce him and then begging for his help. Vincent helps Alexia give birth, the titanium side of her skull splitting open on her final push, killing her. The newborn's body appears with patches of titanium on its body. Vincent says repeatedly to the baby, "I'm here."

Production
In September 2019, it was announced that Vincent Lindon and Agathe Rousselle had joined the cast of the film, with Julia Ducournau directing the film from a screenplay she wrote. Neon distributed the film in the United States.

Production was initially set to begin in April 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Principal photography eventually began in September 2020.

Release
Titane had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 13 July 2021, where it received the Palme d'Or, the festival's top award. The film also screened at New York, London and Toronto.

Altitude Film Distribution and Film4 jointly acquired distribution rights for the film in the UK and Ireland in June 2021, prior to the film's Cannes premiere. It was released in France by Diaphana Distribution on 14 July 2021, in Belgium by O'Brother Distribution on 28 July 2021, and in the United States by Neon on 1 October 2021.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 249 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Thrillingly provocative and original, Titane reaffirms writer-director Julia Ducournau's delightfully disturbing vision." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 75 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Nicholas Barber from BBC gave the film four out of five stars and called it "the most shocking film of 2021." In his review for Variety, Peter Debruge called the film, "a cross between David Cronenberg's Crash and the uterine horrors of Takashi Miike's Gozu," and praised Ducournau for her handling of the film's themes. In The Observer, Mark Kermode also compared the film to Crash whilst praising its cinematography and emotional depth, and listed it as one of the best films of 2021. Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent praised Rousselle and Lindon's performances and Ducournau's direction. In NME, Lou Thomas gave the film five out of five stars and called it a "masterpiece". In a more negative review, Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, gave the film two out of five stars and compared it unfavorably to Ducournau's previous film, stating; "...everything is so laboured and crudely directed, without the style and sympathy of Raw." Jude Dry in IndieWire was also critical of the film, calling it a "deeply misogynist movie with a healthy side of transphobia".

Accolades
Titane had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 13 July 2021. During the beginning of the closing ceremony, jury president Spike Lee was told in French to reveal the "first prize", but misinterpreted the phrase to mean "first place". As a result, he prematurely revealed that the film had won the Palme d'Or. Ducournau is the second female director to win the award after Jane Campion in 1993 for The Piano, the first to win not jointly with another director (Campion had won jointly alongside Chen Kaige, who won for Farewell My Concubine), and the fourth woman overall to win after Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux won in 2013 for their performances in ''Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

At the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the film won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness. On 12 October 2021, it was selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, but did not make the shortlist. At the 47th César Awards, it was nominated for four awards, including Best Director for Ducournau and Most Promising Actress for Rousselle. At the 75th British Academy Film Awards, Ducournau received a nomination for Best Director. At the 11th Magritte Awards, Titane received five nominations and won two awards, including Best Foreign Film.