‘Titane’ Director Reveals the ‘Disturbing Recurring Nightmare’ That Inspired the Car
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It isn’t every day that moviegoing audiences see a horror drama film like Titane. It shocked the film festival circuit and quickly dominated conversations. However, many of the debates around Titane involved its shocking involvement with a car that quickly generated polarizing opinions. Writer/director Julia Ducournau explained that she came up with the idea through a “disturbing recurring nightmare.”
‘Titane’ includes an intense car sex sequence
Titane follows a criminal named Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who develops an infatuation for cars. She leaves a trail of bodies in her path. However, law enforcement is onto her. Alexia decides to take the identity of a young boy who went missing 10 years prior. His father, Vincent (Vincent Lindon), brings her to live with him as his son. As a result, their lives are on a path to change forever.
Meanwhile, Titane shows Alexia enter a mysterious car, where an intense sex sequence takes place. She ultimately gets pregnant, but quickly realizes that the pregnancy isn’t typical. Alexia gives birth to a titanium-hybrid baby with the help of Vincent. The bonkers narrative takes audiences down a twisted, yet tender tale about love.
Writer/director Julia Ducournau revealed the ‘disturbing recurring nightmare’ that gave her the idea of the car
The Film at Lincoln Center YouTube channel shared a post-screening Q&A with Ducournau, Rousselle, and Lindon. Ducournau talked about how she originally conceived the idea of the Titane car and the path that the film sets upon.
“Actually, the idea of the car is consequential to a nightmare that was definitely not a dream,” Ducournau said. “It was definitely a nightmare that was recurring for years. That nightmare actually inspired the last scene of the film and coincidentally, in my head, in the building up of that story, I started with the end and I worked my way back to the beginning.”
Ducournau continued about the Titane car nightmare: “So, that nightmare was that I was giving birth to parts of a car engine. There was something absolutely, for me, disturbing in it. I couldn’t pinpoint right away, but that having it and thinking about it, I realized that it was the collision between this act of life and this engine of life and this metal that was dead and cold.”
“This is obviously something disturbing, per se, but also what it says about your psyche at that moment,” Ducournau said. “What it says about yourself, as well. So, this helped me for the ending, also helped me for the building of Alexia’s character. Also, it led me to the car, because when you think about that ending, you think about the nightmare. I mean, where does that baby come from? The car.”
‘Titane’ dominated non-English language film conversations
Titane made a big impact at the Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the top prize of the festival, the Palme d’Or. It was also up for the Queer Palm, but The Divide took the win. Nevertheless, Titane created a lot of chatter that wasn’t necessarily only about the car. The film’s use of violence creates a shocking contrast with the tender story that looms through the second half of the movie.
The Oscars 2022 missed out on giving Titane a single nomination, which sent social media into a frenzy. After all, it didn’t even make the short-list for Best International Feature Film. However, it earned a BAFTA Film Award nomination for Best Director.
Vote for the 2022 Isaac Awards here now through Sunday, March 20. Winners will be announced on March 24.
