The release of Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winning “Titane” has resulted in polarized reactions. Even the Telluride Film Festival rejected the film this past summer. Not surprising.
At Cannes, I described s as a “midnight movie.” There’s also no reason to fault the Spike Lee jury for giving it the top prize. It was a ballsy move and Ducournau’s film does feel like something we have never seen before. As Lee stated at Cannes over the summer: “I’ve never seen a film in my life where a Cadillac impregnated a woman.”
So far, “Titane” has an 83% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 74 Metacritic score. Not somersault-worthy reactions by any stretch of the imagination, but the film does go along with recent Cannes tradition of not rewarding the Palme d’Or to the best-reviewed movie (safe for “Parasite”). If it were up to critics, the 2021 Palme d’Or would have gone to Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s “Drive My Car” or Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria.”
The Palme d’Or winners of the last 30 years can be put into four distinct categories —
MASTERFUL, FULLY DESERVING:
The Tree of Life, Pulp Fiction, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,
The Piano, Secrets and Lies, Wild at Heart, Dancer in the Dark, Barton Fink, Elephant, Uncle Boonmee
NO COMPLAINTS:
The Pianist, Blue is the Warmest Color, The Class, The Son’s Room, Amour, L’Enfant, Parasite
FINE, BUT THERE WERE MUCH BETTER MOVIES:
Fahrenheit 9/11, The Square, Titane, The Taste of Cherry, Rosetta, Dheepan, The White Ribbon, The Best Intentions, Winter Sleep, Underground
NO, JUST NO:
Eternity and a Day, The Eel, I, Daniel Blake, The Wind That Shakes the Barley