108 mins |
Rated
R18 (Violence, sex scenes, nudity & content that may disturb)
Directed by Julia Ducournau
Starring Garance Marillier, Vincent Lindon, Dominique Frot, Myriem Akheddiou, Nathalie Boyer, Agathe Rousselle
The shock 2021 Palme d’Or winner... Wild, outrageous, unruly, hallucinatory, body/machine-modification-run-amok, masterful, cartoonish, genre- and gender-bending Titane was awarded the 2021 Palme d’Or, only the second time in Cannes Film Festival history that a woman director has received the accolade (28 years after Jane Campion’s The Piano).
It was probably also the first time that a so-called “genre” film, especially one that ups the ante to such a degree in “horror” movie stakes, scooped the top award. Julia Ducournau brazenly smashes the mould with this twisty tale about Alexia (a thoroughly committed performance from Agathe Rousselle), an erotic dancer with a peculiar penchant for muscle cars, who also happens to be a serial killer when the random urge takes her, or people pests provoke retaliation. When a murder goes awry, Alexia must go on the run, and her path leads her to a fire station populated with hunky young firemen and their steroid-consuming aging chief (a stunning turn from Vincent Lindon). Prone to doubts about his masculinity, he’s also grieving for Adrien, a teenage son who disappeared years earlier. Alexia, binding down her breasts and her burgeoning, unwanted pregnancy sired by a Cadillac, becomes an improbable Adrien... — Sandra Reid
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The shock 2021 Palme d’Or winner... Wild, outrageous, unruly, hallucinatory, body/machine-modification-run-amok, masterful, cartoonish, genre- and gender-bending Titane was awarded the 2021 Palme d’Or, only the second time in Cannes Film Festival history that a woman director has received the accolade (28 years after Jane Campion’s The Piano).
It was probably also the first time that a so-called “genre” film, especially one that ups the ante to such a degree in “horror” movie stakes, scooped the top award. Julia Ducournau brazenly smashes the mould with this twisty tale about Alexia (a thoroughly committed performance from Agathe Rousselle), an erotic dancer with a peculiar penchant for muscle cars, who also happens to be a serial killer when the random urge takes her, or people pests provoke retaliation. When a murder goes awry, Alexia must go on the run, and her path leads her to a fire station populated with hunky young firemen and their steroid-consuming aging chief (a stunning turn from Vincent Lindon). Prone to doubts about his masculinity, he’s also grieving for Adrien, a teenage son who disappeared years earlier. Alexia, binding down her breasts and her burgeoning, unwanted pregnancy sired by a Cadillac, becomes an improbable Adrien... — Sandra Reid