#You Owe It To Yourself To See Titane Knowing As Little As Possible [Fantastic Fest]

Here’s what I knew about “Titane,” the winner of this year’s Palme d’Orr at the prestigious Cannes film festival, when I sat down to watch it during the opening night of Fantastic Fest. I knew many critics and journalists were over the moon about it. I knew it had elicited some very strong responses due to its content. And I knew it was the new film from director Julia Ducournau, the French filmmaker whose 2016 debut “Raw” bowled me over when I saw it (and you should see it, too — it’s the sweetest cannibal movie ever made).

Heck, another editor even took on /Film’s review of the film, so I didn’t even read that. I won’t link it here because that would defeat the purpose of this article. Sorry.

I had also seen the trailer, which was cleverly cut by distributor Neon to not feature any dialogue or even tease the plot, instead leaning entirely on unusual, out-of-context imagery. I didn’t realize until after the credits rolled on “Titane” how effectively spoiler-free this trailer really is, and how it left me throughly unprepared for what was to come. I tip my hat.

And since I had seen “Raw,” and since I had seen the visceral reactions out of Cannes, I knew this was a film that would test the nerves and stomachs of even seasoned genre fans. Consider that a warning for folks who don’t like to indulge in boundary-prodding cinema.

That’s it. I didn’t realize how powerfully unprepared I would be for the actual movie.