SPOILER WARNING FOR BOTH MOVIES
The films created by Julia Ducournau & Shinya Tsukamoto seem to share much more in common than we might think.
On Halloween 2021, I got to see the film at Home Theatre with members of Manchester’s queer group. Needless to say, it holds the title for the most WTF film of the decade so far. Originally premiering in July of that year, the plot focuses on a woman named Alexia, who has a titanium plate fitted into her head after being in a car accident as a child. However, this plate awakes something within her that makes her develop a fetish for, you guessed it, metal, more specifically, cars. This newfound fetish awakes in her adulthood when she becomes a stripper turned serial killer. It represents the beginning of a deeply disturbing journey / transformation that will most likely leave you absolutely speechless. What made this film garner so much queer attention were the exploration themes of sexuality & gender identity, but the latter’s much more complicated than what we might assume. Alexia’s reasons for radically changing her physical appearance is not because of any discomfort with her gender, but because she’s on the run from the police. She finds inspiration from a missing kid, who turns out to be the son of Vincent Legrand, a firefighter captain who sufferers from severe trauma & steroid abuse. He takes her in believing that he’d found his son despite their profiles not matching at all. What makes this even more tragic is the truth behind what really happened to Vincent’s son & how Vincent’s decision to take Alexia & refer to her as male was an act of deep denial. Where the film is at its most connected with trans audiences is the depiction of the body horror, how Alexia tries to deal with it & how it gradually changes her as a person. Trans people often state that the reminder of their birth sex is debilitating, so much so that it makes them depressed & suicidal. Titane is that painful & depressing reality brought to film.
The day after I saw Titane, I got to watch Tetsuo: The Iron Man at home. I already knew what it was about on the surface, but like with my Titane experience, I wasn’t ready for what I was in for. Released in the same month as Titane in 1989 (a coincidence I find highly fascinating), the plot focuses on a metal fetishist who, after attempting to insert a large metal rod into his thigh wound, he gets hit by a car after running out into the street due to the horrific sight of maggots in said wound. He then undergoes a transformation that, after the couple responsible for the accident attempts to get rid of the body, the businessman also experiences. After his family are also turned into monstrosities, the fetishist goes to seek revenge on the now transformed businessman for what he did. The cinematography was definitely a key stand-out, as instead of filming in colour, Tsukamoto chose an entirely black & white colour scheme. To further the 1940s / 50s / early 60s aesthetic, there was even an added grain. By far one of the most experimental elements of the film is the editing. Not only is the use of stop-motion is also used affectively, even the things happening that seem incomprehensible at first find a way to make sense with the unfolding of the narrative. There’s not much I can say about industrial soundtrack because it’s absolutely perfect due to how it adds to the overall aesthetic of the film.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Ducournau was heavily inspired by this film, as most of the exploration of body horror, psychological horror, sexuality & fetishism can be found in Titane. Also, like Tiane, there’s a moment where the film introduces trans symbolism, specifically in one of the nightmare sequences. The businessman’s partner has a long phallic-like metal object, which can easily be interpreted as a trans woman who hasn’t had bottom surgery & also happens to be quite the top. However, the biggest difference is how the metal's depicted. On one hand, Titane emphasises on the sexual aspect (I mean, the film's concept of literal car sex speaks for itself) while on the other, Tetsuo: The Iron Man (while it does have a few sexualised moments) focuses on the horrific realities of the transformations.
In conclusion, I highly recommend both films.
Comments
Post a Comment