Mechanophilia. Have you any idea what that is? It was the first thing I looked up before writing this review. According to Wikipedia: “Mechanophilia (or mechaphilia) is a paraphilia involving a sexual attraction to machines such as bicycles, motor vehicles, helicopters, ships, and aeroplanes.”
That doesn’t quite describe Titane (French for Titanium) properly. Not only does Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) have a thing for cars, she gets pregnant by one (?!) and after her murder spree (?!), she/he/they starts passing themselves off as a boy while well into their third trimester (?!)
Welcome to the wonderful world of Julia Ducournau, where no idea is too “out there.” Of course, compared to Raw, Titane looks like a first draft. Alexia may come by her mechanophilia honestly – a car accident during her childhood left her with a titanium plate in her head … but that doesn’t explain the adult version gyrating and grinding at auto shows; you get the feeling she’d do it on spec.
Followed home from “work” by a “fan,” Alexia goes through a series of “back off” emotions before giving in, and kissing the fella passionately, then spiking him in the neck with her hair pin and escaping relatively unharmed… and relatively unfazed. Wait. Has she done this before? Alexia, seriously, stop killing people! Oh, btw, this is the sane part of the film. In between bodies, she sexes up a stick shift without using protection. Hey missy! No driving glove, no driving love.
In the morning, Alexia leaks motor oil from her nether regions. I mentioned this is an R rated film, right?
Titane could easily be described as the film in which Agathe Rousselle slowly loses her head of hair. I counted five (5!) separate scenes in which Alex loses hair. That doesn’t seem even
close to normal. When the writer/director Julia Ducournau got bored or stuck, do you suppose she just opted for hair loss? Was it symbolic to show Alexia’s morph into her masculine persona “Adrien?”
Say, when you’re attracted to cars, is an Edsel like a GILF? Is an 18-wheeler a BBW? If you do not know these acronyms, please, please, please do not look them up. Just consider yourself lucky and move ahead.
This film has continuity problems so profound, they have to be part of the plot, right? In one scene, Alexia is clearly eight months pregnant and about to birth to an engine block; in the next, “Adrien” is a flat-chested, flat-stomached boy grooving atop a fire engine. Sure, why not? It’s not like anything else in this film makes sense.
I was quite taken with Raw. Titane is an inferior film by almost every measure. But a poor man’s Raw is still worth seeing for cinephiles like me. Even so … this is a weird film; don’t say you weren’t warned.
There once was a woman who would
Get turned on by cars something good
Can’t say, sakes alive
That she learned how to drive
She just wanted to get under that hood
Rated R, 108 Minutes
Director: Julia Ducournau
Writer: Julia Ducournau
Genre: WTF?!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Mechanphilics
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The sane
