On Hulu, I watched Titane, Julia Ducournau's 2021 film and her follow-up to her cannibal film Raw. I generally liked it, going into it cold and going along with the weird turns the film took. I felt the first half is a lot more loud and busy and more like an exploitation film, and the second half is a lot slower and feels more like a family drama about grief and loss. I don’t think the two genres really went together, as it had a weird tonal shift, but I did like that the film didn’t hold back in its emotional and physical rawness.
Alexia (Agathe Rouselle) is a dancer/car model in the South of France who survived a car accident as a kid, had a titanium plate put into her head, and develops an erotic fixation on cars. She’s a serial killer who stabs people with knitting needles, and is on the run, and, in the second half of the film, ends up in a situation under false pretenses, and the film takes a slower turn from the bloodiness and synth music stings into something more sad and emotional. There’s a lot more unusual details, but I don’t want to give away too much.
I preferred Raw more, I liked the dark comedy with the bloody cannibal stuff and expressive colors in a giallo kind of way, and felt more connected to that story, as it’s about a shy young woman in veterinary school who goes from being a vegetarian to craving raw flesh, undergoing a huge transformation as a person coming of age. Whereas this one felt a little more remote because Alexia essentially feels empty, and doesn’t seem to have much purpose in her life beyond mere survival. She obviously has mental health issues, and seems like a sociopath or psychopath, whichever one. So it’s more like watching her from a distance rather than really understanding what’s going on with her emotionally.
I’m not as into the hype as this being one of the best films of last year, but it’s very good, and stands out as being weird and naked and unique. I’m glad I finally got to see it when it hit Hulu.
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