Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Titane Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf January 19, 2022

Writer/director Julia Ducournau made quite a stir with “Raw,” her 2016 ode to the pleasures of the flesh. She created a film that disgusted quite a lot of people, making a name for herself as a genre moviemaker to watch. And there’s been quite a wait for a follow-up, with “Titane” finally emerging as the new vision from Ducournau, who returns to the darkness for another story of corporeal corruption, this time mixing the limits of denial with a pregnancy story from another world, going high fantasy with the grimy particulars of “Titane.” It’s another rough one from the helmer, but she digs a little deeper into the psychological depths of her characters, constructing a compelling study of broken people mixed with Ducournau’s love of extreme body horror.

Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) has a metal plate in her head from a childhood car accident, and she loves taking lives, becoming a secret serial killer between gigs as a model at car shows. After enjoying a sexual experience with a Cadillac, Alexia is left pregnant and exposed to a manhunt, forcing her to alter her looks and hide her femininity, hoping to pass herself off as the older version of Adrien, a boy who was kidnapped years ago. Her plan isn’t perfect, and it grows increasingly complicated when Adrien’s father, fire chief Vincent (Vincent Lindon), claims the stranger, hoping to create a new life with his long lost son.

Much like “Raw,” “Titane” is a carefully paced endeavor that enjoys blasts of macabre events to keep things interesting. It’s enough to have Alexia thrill-kill during her down time, but she’s also pregnant, and the father is a car. Ducournau stages the sexual experience, asking the audience to go with the concept, and she doesn’t ignore the details, as Alexia deals with vaginal motor oil discharges throughout the movie. It’s wild stuff, and exceptionally photographed by Ruben Impens, who provides style and visual intensity to the effort, creating an edgy unreality that helps to digest the bizarre ideas found in the writing.

“Titane” takes a detour in its second half, examining the complicated relationship between Alexia-as-Adrien and Vincent, with both characters trapped in a pursuit of physical transformation. There’s a potent psychodrama in the middle of “Titane,” studying a grieving father and the power of his imagination, dealing with someone who eventually finds a brief moment of emotional balance being someone else. This is where Ducournau scores highest with the endeavor, clearing away all the outrageousness and bloodshed to deal with a tale of traumatized people eager to avoid reality.

Titane Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.39:1 aspect ratio) presentation is certainly working with a textured feature in "Titane." Detail comes through with clarity, exploring rougher skin surfaces and oily wounds. Facial particulars are crisp, and various interiors retain depth, visiting auto shows and fire department emergencies. Colors are explosive, handling the extreme lighting of the film, which explores fire truck lights, convention shows, and mood hues. Skintones are natural. Delineation is satisfactory. Encoding has issues, with banding periodically flaring up.

Titane Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix delivers a heavy sense of soundtrack selections, bringing some low-end thump with dance music, and roaring engines offer power. Dialogue exchanges are sharp, but conversations are somewhat limited in "Titane," which deals mostly in atmospherics and sound effects, adding some surround presence, joining musical selections.

Titane Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Q&A (23:41, HD) was recorded at the 2021 New York Film Festival, and features writer/director Julia Ducournau, and actors Vincent Lindon and Agathe Rousselle.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:47, HD) is included.

Titane Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Titane" is an improvement on "Raw," with the helmer offering a more refined sense of madness, also dealing with stronger actors and technical credits. There's a limit to the film's shock value, almost reaching ridiculousness in the finale, but Ducournau commits in full to the bizarreness of "Titane," and her enthusiasm for this messy offering of blood, oil, and mental illness is something to see at times.