''Titane'' (, "Titanium") is a 2021 body horror

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

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 accident as a child, has a

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

plate fitted into her head. Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier and Laïs Salameh also star. The film had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

on 13 July 2021, where Ducournau became the second female director to win the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

, 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 The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to ...

at the 94th Academy Awards, but did not make the shortlist. At the

47th César Awards The 47th César Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, took place on 25 February 2022 honouring the best French films of 2021. Screenwriter and director Danièle Thompson presided the ceremony that was host ...

, 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 The 11th Magritte Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie André Delvaux, honored the best films of 2020 and 2021 in Belgium. It took place on 12 February 2022, at the Square, in the historic site of Mont des Arts, Brussels. It was the first c ...

, ''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

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 murders him using her large metal hairpin. 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 Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, deterg ...

begins secreting from her vagina. She takes a pregnancy test, which returns a positive result, and tries to perform an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

on the spot, using her hairpin, 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's 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 Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

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 arrhythmia from 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 breaks out her showgirl choreography, confusing everyone. Vincent, disappointed, walks out of the crowd. After the party, Alexia has sex with a fire truck. 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."

Cast

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 Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypt ...

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 The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

eventually began in September 2020.

Release

''Titane'' had its world premiere at the

on 13 July 2021, where it received the

, the festival's top award. The film also screened at New York,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

. 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

on 1 October 2021.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 248 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 Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, 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 is a 2003 Japanese horror comedy crime film directed by Takashi Miike and written by Sakichi Sato. The film blends yakuza stories with ghost stories, bizarre vignettes, and urban legends. Plot Ozaki (Aikawa), a mentally unstable yakuza, kills a ...

,''" and praised Ducournau for her handling of the film's themes. In ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'', 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 ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and compared it unfavorably to Ducournau's previous film, stating; "...everything is so labored and crudely directed, without the style and sympathy of '' Raw''." Jude Dry in ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

'' was also critical of the film, calling it a "deeply misogynist movie with a healthy side of

transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

Accolades

''Titane'' had its world premiere at the

on 13 July 2021. During the beginning of the closing ceremony, jury president

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

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

. 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 Adèle Exarchopoulos (; born 22 November 1993 in Paris) is a French actress. She is best known for her leading role as Adèle in '' Blue Is the Warmest Colour'' (2013), for which she earned international attention and critical acclaim; at the 20 ...

and Léa Seydoux won in 2013 for their performances in ''

Blue is the Warmest Colour ''Blue Is the Warmest Colour'' (french: link=yes, La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2; ) is a 2013 romance film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and starring Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The film foll ...

. At the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the film won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness.Steve Pond
"‘Belfast’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award"
'' TheWrap'', September 18, 2021. On 12 October 2021, it was selected as the French entry for the