Titane

If you believe all the hype and the award-givers...this is one of the best films ever made! It's not.

Despite winning the Palme d'Or...this mighty fine looking film is a bit of a tangled mess...à les modes des Messieurs Cronenberg, Carpenter et Lynch. There nothing really original here, just a mish-mash of apparent [second-hand] shockers...sex with a car, oil leaking from orifices, potential car pregnancy...oh my!

But...the biggest shocker of all is the audacious and somewhat misguided move to pass Agathe Rousselle off as a young man!

We've all heard about facial feminisation surgery...well, according to Ducournau, facial masculinisation surgery is a whole different kettle of fish...for one, it's free, almost instant and ludicrously painful...it involves just one drastic action...smashing your face into or onto a hard surface...in this case, a sink did the job rather nicely. Hey presto, now you're a man!

And now...with her/his new and assumed identity, she/he steps into the shoes of a missing boy and reconnects with his [now, her] father. You really couldn't make this garbage up...but, Julia Ducournau did and she got away with it...spectacularly so!

Sooo...apart from the many shovels of salt needed, the complete suspension of disbelief is not only vital...but, crucial. Without these accomplices, the film collapses into unbridled and relentless nonsense. However, if you pack enough salt, suspend yourself until you're dangling on a thread...then, and only then, are you in for an unforgettable, violent and hallucinogenic trip of not so much of a lifetime...but, for a good 108 minutes!

We took salt and dangled...and loved the pure escapism of it all!

Trailer...