Titane

The winner of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or, Titane is Julia Ducournau’s second jaw-dropping feature after her cannibal coming-of-age debut Raw (LIFF 2016). A violent car accident leaves long-lasting repercussions: a child carries a titanium plate in their skull; a car-showroom model exhibits sexual attraction to a different kind of body; later, an unexpected pregnancy escalates to a horrific massacre; and a firefighter is reunited with a brutally bruised man who claims to be his long-lost son. ‘Titane is a transgressive blast of energy.’ (The Film Stage)

‘Titane is concerned with metal and fire, so the cold/hot relationship had to be ever-present. We were constantly flirting with the limit, the limit being the cartoon: one step further and we could fall into cartoonish. I wanted light to spring from the shadows in the same way emotion gushes after an initial shock. I also wanted lots of colors, to break with the darkness of the story and avoid an impression of inescapable sordidness. For the many nude scenes, which I wanted to be as non-sexualized as possible, I tried to use lighting to reinvent the skin each time. Our work with color made it possible to bring new textures, meanings and emotions to the skin itself.’

Julia Ducournau, Director