Titane

"Once you get pas the car sex, surprisingly heartfelt story about grief" This is what @Shubham? said to me about the movie. And that Once is a very big instance to get past when you actually view the movie. If I had watched this movie 4-5 years earlier, I would have just watched it for the gore and just went back to sleep without going through a single sheet of this lasagna called **Titane. Titane* is a body horror psychological drama about a girl- who has an erotic fixation for cars and a titanium plate in her- running from the police and poses as the son of a firefighter, and the drama that ensues. Let me just say this, if David Cronenberg invented this genre called body horror, Julia Ducournau perfected it. I'll be honest and say it even though there shouldn't be a comparison here - this* film has more depth than any Cronenberg film that I have seen. He is one of my favourite directors but it is just true. I also don't remember a movie turning my stomach this much before. Closest was I think Videodrome (that hand was disgusting), but this had me squirming. It just made me so uncomfortable in the first thirty minutes I was wondering how am I gonna sit through the whole ordeal. However, then came the genre switch - Oh Vincent. Again, such a good juxtaposition of violence with love throughout the whole movie. This is one of those movies that you see and immediately know that the director loves their work and knows exactly how to treat it. The film is layered like a fucking lasagna, and I enjoyed each layer. There is just so much in this film, in every little scene and it all fits perfectly. Father-daughter relationship, loss and acceptance, unconditional love, queer/trans identity, mechaphilia and objectification of women are the themes that I could pick out from the movie. The best part is all of them are given equal importance. The fuck-load amount of surrealism paints the symbolism beautifully. I do feel there is also a theme of sexual assault and incest. I feel at some point she was raped by her own father and the baby having a titanium spine is an indication of incestuous deformity. I also loved how Alexis' character, although highly unlikeable, generates sympathy in the viewer's mind. The only other time this has happened with me was when I read Lolita. Fuck you Nabokov. Vincent has an interesting arc as well. I think the queer angle is explored wonderfully here. I see the burning boy in the cabinet as a moment of truth for Vincent- he either couldn't save his son or killed him due to the latter's sexuality. I could go on and on but it won't do justice to this masterpiece. A perfect production in my opinion - especially the use of colors, the mise-en-scene and the sound design used to change the mood. The performance of each character is fantastic too. Just watch this. It is not for the faint of heart by any means. But if you have a strong stomach, you'll come out happy knowing you watched this beautiful story about love.