In 2021, three years before the Cannes Film Festival was thoroughly shaken up by Coralie Fargeat‘s The Substance last year, it had already been taken by surprise by another body horror made by another French director, Julia Ducournau. Her unexpected second feature, Titane, which earned the coveted Palme d’Or, is also an uncompromisingly graphic film that balances horror, thriller, and psychological drama. On the menu, Ducournau is serving: an exquisite scene depicting sex with a car, a resulting pregnancy involving motor oil leaks, lots of maiming, and compulsive murders — all filmed in a deliberately vivid and exuberant, yet stunning way. Much like Fargeat in both her features, Ducournau never shies away from disturbing imagery but never employs violence just for the sake of it or shock value. And as Titane drives along, gradually doing away with boundaries, and preconceptions about gender and bodily wholeness, it actually manages to become a truly emotional journey.
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