"Titan": why watch body horror, where the heroine gets pregnant from the car

If you read the description, the plot seems to be complete insanity. The film tells about Alexia, who was in a car accident as a child, after which a titanium plate was sewn into her head. 15 years later, the heroine works as a stripper, clearly not getting pleasure from this. After one of the performances, a fan harasses her and the girl kills him.

Then the heroine has sex with a car, becomes pregnant from it, tries to bite off her friend's nipple with piercings, and kills many random people. Then Alexia gets her hair cut, breaks her nose and tightens her chest with an elastic bandage, after which the foreman of the rescue team takes her for his son. And that's not all of the oddities that happen in the film.

Conservative viewers immediately started talking that the prize was given to the tape not for art, but for sociality. Allegedly, "Titan" is dedicated to rape, the right of women to control their bodies and the search for gender identity. But the picture deals with current topics very ironically, catching just with its abstractness.

It's worth making a reservation right away: if you are not ready for experiments, then it is better to skip the film. But for those who love body horror, symbolism and movie breaking all the rules, he may like it.

So does Titan have a social agenda?

Yes and no. And this is its main charm. Of course, conversations about sexual harassment, gender identity and the prohibition of abortion are heard, so in "Titan" you can see hints of relevance.

But in fact, Ducourneau made a trick film, a kind of Rorschach spot, in which everyone will see what he wants or what annoys. This becomes clear already in the first half of the film, where the theme of violence is literally turned inside out. Yes, the heroine kills the fan because of the fact that he pesters on her. Although here one can argue about the proportionality of her cruelty. But then they do not even try to find an excuse for Alexia's actions: she deals with innocent people.

In the second part of the film, the atmosphere changes altogether: the new father of the heroine (now her name is Adrienne), Vincent, is strange but caring. He saves people and helps his fake son with all his might, even when the deception becomes obvious.

Needless to say, pregnancy from a car does not fit into any of the social themes at all.

But it is precisely this - insane and sometimes illogical - combination of characters and actions that allows you to find literally anything in "Titan".

Is this a movie about finding gender identity? It looks like it. No wonder the main role was invited to the non-binary model Agatha Roussel. But the heroine poses as a man only out of necessity.

Is this a story about finding a soul mate? It seems like yes. Vincent is looking for a son, Alexis - for a father. But they hardly talk about their previous problems.

Does pregnancy from a car hint that men have degenerated and need to look for other ways of procreation? Perhaps. So Vincent injects himself with some kind of drugs: either testosterone, or drugs. He seems to only pretend to be a real man, weakening inside.

Or maybe this is a film about how, after being harassed, a girl cannot go to the police and is forced to commit crimes? Or is the story about the invasion of technology and metal into our lives?

The picture, when viewed, does not clearly answer any question. But she makes the viewer himself ask these same questions. And then endlessly comprehend, decompose the plot into its components and try to explain everything.

Is the Titan really that nasty?

Yes. Especially impressionable people are better off not watching it. Well, or at least not while eating. Moreover, in this case, this is a deliberate provocation: literally every next scene of the picture seems to be trying to interrupt the previous one in terms of disgust.

Sophisticated and not so murders almost do not count: all fans of horror films have long been accustomed to violence on the screen. And here the director adds the necessary share of irony, perfectly defusing the situation. So, in the scene of the massacre, the heroine will begin to complain that she is already tired of killing, and will go hugging a stranger.

In general, there is a lot of humor in the film - from the first meeting of Alexia with her friend to the notorious sex with a car. Deliberate exaggeration and absurdity make Titan almost like teenage slashers. Which is quite logical, since the character is made a maniac.

But in the picture, it is the body-horror that catches - the relationship of the heroine with her body. And not everyone can stand it. Here one can only hint that they will show an attempt at an abortion in the toilet, and then Alexia will disfigure herself for a long time and diligently. And the way she scratches her belly is literally physically unpleasant. Even realizing that all this is a production and special effects, the viewer will involuntarily want to wrap himself up in something warm.

But, before scolding the "Titan" for such abominations, it is worth considering two factors. First, it would be strange to expect something different from Julia Ducourneau. In her debut "Raw", the heroine became obsessed with human flesh, biting off her partners' lips and biting off their legs.

And secondly, all these techniques are not something new in cinema, but rather a return to the classics. When watching "Titan" it is simply impossible not to recall the paintings of the legendary David Cronenberg - the master of body horror. In his 1996 "Car Crash", the heroes had a fetish - broken cars and fixators for broken bones. And in the "Videodrome" of 1983, they showed the mutations of the body associated with technology. Ducournot, in the best traditions of postmodernism, takes ideas from old works, compiles them and updates the presentation language.

Therefore, for those who like Cronenberg's body-horror films, the film will surely be to their taste. Still, it is also a great talent to cause physically unpleasant sensations in the viewer. But if you cover your face with your hands when blood is shown in the movies, then you can immediately come to the Titan session with a mask in front of your eyes.

What was this film awarded for?

In fact, there is no clear answer to this question. And is he really needed? After the announcement of the results of the Cannes Film Festival, it was rumored that the prize was given only because the director was a woman. And at the same time it was emphasized that Julia Ducourneau was a Frenchwoman: she allegedly received an award at home because of the patronage of the organizers. And of course, they blamed everything on the social agenda, the illusion of which we have already said.

In fact, "Titan" is simply a shining representative of festival films, which are designed to expand the boundaries of cinema. In Cannes, such works are often celebrated: mass films like "Parasites" or at least "The Tree of Life" by Terrence Malick are rather exceptions. But the Swedish "Square" by Ruben Estlund was hardly watched by many spectators. Namely, he took the Palme d'Or in 2017. And by the way, this is a great painting about art.

Titan is a complex, obscure and often unpleasant film. But this is precisely its merits. He reminds that the action is not obliged to be built according to the rules of blockbusters, that the director should not force the audience to love his character and is not obliged to explain anything to anyone. For example, Ducourneau deliberately refuses explanations in the dialogues: most of the conversations in the film are almost meaningless, and from about the middle of the action, the main character is completely silent. This is literally the apotheosis of the transition from words to film language. The character tells about himself by a change in movement - from a clamped pose under a blanket to a sexy dance in the finale.

The film encourages to look, feel and think. That is why its description in the form of text seems to be complete nonsense: it is not words and actions that are important here, but feelings and thoughts. This is the essence of cinema, and "Titan" reminds of this. It is rude, deliberately unpleasant, but very effective.