Happy first day of VIFF everybody! Before I see my first film of the festival I have a couple things to cover including what films you can expect me to write about and a big out of festival film. All this coming up as soon as I take the ice pick out of my hair…
So what films should you expect me to cover? My lane tends to be more in the realm of the international offerings at the festival big and small. So expect me to stick to the Contemporary World Cinema and Gateway sections of the program (with some docs sprinkled in here or there). I love and appreciate the people who are able to really dive deep into the realm of Canadian and BC film (and when I read things throughout the festival I will try to link them here) I just can’t really give you a great perspective on those portions of the festival so I tend to leave them alone. My festival starts with Memoria this evening (Friday) and I see afternoon and evening films Saturday and Sunday so expect a few posts over the weekend. After that things get more evening heavy so expect a single wrap up piece either at the end of the night or the early the next morning throughout the mid week portion of the festival.
Now on to Titane which is perhaps the highest profile art-house picture not playing at VIFF. As for why it’s garnering so much excitement, for one it’s from Julia Ducouranu who burst on the scene with the bizarre cannibal coming of age film Raw. For another Titane won the Plam D’Or which is kind of a big deal. It’s also an utter shocker some critics going as far to call it the wildest thing they had scene at Cannes.
Calling Titane wild almost does not do it justice. Any sort of description of the events that occur throughout the film don’t really describe the true extent of its insanity. This is strange given the film’s plot description involves its central character Alexia (played pitch perfectly by Agathe Rousselle) having sex with cars, murdering many people, and disguising herself as a broken fireman’s (Vincent Lindon) long lost son to try to escape the police. Yes Titane is wilder than that plot description, and yes somehow it all works perfectly.
Ducouranu’s chief specialty through two films has been mining intense tension through discomfort. Titane never shies away from making the central character do unseemly things and never tries to justify any of them. Titane asks the viewer to accept all of the murder and dubious intentions then asks the audience to go along with a relatively sweet found family story in its back half. It’s audacious to say the least, especially in a world where there are so many big American movies (including one that opened just last weekend) that are so desperate get you to like their central characters that they jump through endless hoops to justify all of their terrible actions. Ducouranu does no such thing and her constant commitment to the bit makes Titane a marvel by the time it succeeds at connecting its seemingly disparate halves. Even as the film feels close to loosing control Ducoranu never backs down and as Titane speeds towards its stunning, if not strangely optimistic conclusion it all comes together magnificently.
The filmmaking on display in Titane is almost as impressive as the audaciousness of its storytelling. Ducouranu’s camera mines truly thrilling sequences, including an intense and uncomfortably intimate dance sequence, by just letting the camera follow the action without cutting. Just like her storytelling Ducouranu’s camera never let’s her audience off the hook leading to the most intense film going experience of the year.
Coming out of a film like Titane in broad daylight is a strange but exciting experience. It’s the kind of film that makes you excited about the possibilities of the art even as it’s also made you feel like you have been run over by a truck. It’s so explosive and unafraid that you wish that ten percent of its audacity would rub off on other filmmakers and maybe just maybe American movie studios. The world would be a better place if that happens this much is for sure.
That’s it for now! See you later this evening.
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