S4E42.5: Titane

I'm super late to the party but I wanted to add to the "this shit is trans" evidence pile-- The ending to Titane reminds me immensely of the beginning of the novel Lost Souls by PZB. Splatter/body horror vamp book from the early 90s, gay and absolutely radiating egg particles (was written and released before the author came out and IT SHOWS). Opens following the protagonist's mother as she encounters a group of vampires, expressing deeply that she wishes to be one. In the universe of Lost Souls vampires operate on similar but divergent biology from humans, so people cannot 'become' vampires. So vamp's like I can't turn you but we can definitely fuck, and she's like okay sure that's an acceptable second option so they do. She gets knocked up and dies giving birth to our very much a boy vampire protagonist, who is named Nothing and is sent off to grow up death dysphoric in the burbs. Like no way in hell that the director even knows about this fairly niche book but I find the similarities in the maternity horror/rebirth theming Very Interesting. Maybe Lost Souls was about 9/11 this whole time idk.

I know I'm a bit late on this, I'm just catching up to the present episodes, but after listening to the body horror / tech horror parts of this i would love a companion episode on either David Cronenburg's Crash or Tetsuo The Iron Man

A really mecha movie

That intro scene happened to my family except my dad didn't swerve and hit a cement wall like an idiot, he just drove slowly and then stopped suddenly so my brother hit his head a little on the seat and learned to not unbuckle his seatbelt

Thank you, November, for cluing me in on Maidens. Amazing piece of literature.

Also about the inherent horrors of the heteronormative family structure. Ok, I’m done.

So, so many horror / sci-fi films use women to represent an idea of the purity and hope of maternity / motherhood. LOVE how this films subverts that.

It’s got to be crucial that all the characters in Julia Ducournau’s films are named some variation of Alexia / Adrain/ Justine. And they all transform somehow.

Is there a KJB PO box I could send my Tummyache Survivor hat to

My brilliant friend Sian’s piece is a great companion to this outstanding fucking episode. https://www.room207press.com/2022/07/the-question-in-bodies-46.html

When they first announced this film I misheard it as Tintin and got excited. Not that the film wasn't fascinating but now I really want to hear the KJB asking "what do Thompson and Thomson say about masculinity?"

The whole car-pregnancy thing is so extreme visually and so studiously ignored by the rest of the characters that I think you can make a very robust case that it's metaphorical the entire time, a growth of an undeniable new sense of self. I'd compare it to the violent scenes in American Psycho and how that character's absurdity going unnoticed is also a hint that not all events are literally real as depicted.

Maybe the first time I can remember vehemently agreeing with an Abi Take about the movie of the week: I 100% took the final scene as a metaphor for rebirth, which really recontextualises the name drop right beforehand. It's like in this final moment as our protagonist leaves their identity behind for a new one, sponsored in a way by the unconditional love of this father figure, they feel safe enough and trust him enough to say "this is who I have been" and let go of it.

This and 'Martyrs' are the films I have to bite my lip on recommending to people when they tell me French cinema is boring. Coincidently both are absolute bangers for getting high and watching with 3 of the most fucked up trans fems you know.

I like that the film establishes that before Alexia fucks a vehicle she must first dance upon it. Feels like she understands and respects their culture in this way. Also, her firetruck dance is to a sexy version (with a female singer this time) of the song playing when her dad crashes the car at the start (the accident which makes her part metal). Felt like a full circle moment, and the gender swap was interesting

COCK UP CASCADE! YHATZEEE CROSHAW MENTIONED!!!!

*someone's who's only seen the documentary 'The Imposter'* getting a fucking SHITLOAD of The Imposter vibes from this one

Okay, anyone got a reference for that Frankenstein speech Abi mentioned? Love me some thoughts on monsterous gender.

"Cock up cascade" it's ok abigail, they don't get the reference but I do.

...okay but why did he have to be a serial killer?

What is the work Nova mentions called Maidens? Haven't found anything that seems to match Also, the piece mentioned near the end is called My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix by Susan Stryker

I’am once again asking for an episode on “Hell or High water” since we are still in heist season

I feel like the general lack of transmasc representation is becoming more of a topic of conversation recently

I can't wait for one of my favourite films ever that was very important to the founding of my politics growing up to be reviewed next bonus! Thankfully all of the hosts will love it seeing as it's such a good quality fun film! Yes!

what jason momoa evil river movie are they talking about???

Gabriele D'Annunzio FURIOUSLY cranking his gear stick to this movie.

Second podcast episode this week with November calling Maidens real!

I'm relieved that Abi and I both agree that Blues Brothers is a boring, infuriating movie. I only conceptually understand the nostalgia for it. I'm very excited for next week's episode.

As a trans woman, this film definitely did push me further into the closet for the same reasons the podcast mentioned. It did make me feel that I could make being a guy work if I tried harder despite me being miserable. I also left the screening with a deep sense of unexplainable yearning, so it definitely did also nudge me in the right direction.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." -HST

kind of an unhinged read but if you want to get really symbolic about it, i think you can read the car that alexia has sex with as itself a kind of penetrating feminine like. the penetration part is obvious but to be penetrated alexia first has to not only penetrate the car but enter it completely, which means car-as-womb is a necessary precondition of car-as-impregnator (what a weird phrase). and like, that first half (you enter car) is not only normal but kind of what cars are designed for — to contain something — whereas the second half (car enters you) is not just an inversion but something surprising and strange and potentially threatening. a feminine object that, against assumed norms, has the capacity to penetrate. (also not to be vulgar but it’s sooooo gay sex coded that alexia is like i will ONLY get fucked if i’m inside a pussy first. okay fruit)

Car fucking aside, I can completely and totally relate to the feeling of gender being related to an inanimate object. I’ve always related to the sentiment that I’m a “she” in the same way men call boats “she”. Which is to say, I’m not a woman or “she” at all. But I don’t think I’ll ever be fully understood as something other than “she”

Currently recovering from top surgery and i‘m gonna skip this one about body horrors for later.

as a trans man, the idea of getting pregnant was unbelievably horrifying. that inside my body was this THING that could, if i wasn't careful, harbor a parasite. getting a hysterectomy gave me such intense gender euphoria. anyway i can't wait for Ducournau to figure himself out. every movie he makes seems to be about the horrors of girlhood. started strong with Junior and has not left that theme since.

This was a difficult one for me (not that I didn't enjoy it, I'm just very squeamish.) I'm glad I didn't listen when they said we had to watch this movie, because I'm a widdle baby and I would not like all this body horror at all. Also, as a cis-guy, I kept thinking about when Abigail said that "male is the gender that commits violence" and how this features the very rare AFAB serial killer, and if the serial killer in question is a trans man that his some /implications/ that just makes me feel sad for how maleness is (often accurately) perceived, plus I think is unfair to project onto trans men. AFAICT patriarchal violence is not coming much from them as a demographic. Kind of funny that the main character self-orphaned by fire and then adopted themself at a firefighter. The bit about how fascists hate their flesh and want to become the machine reminded me of a meme where someone put an audio clip of a tech priest from Warhammer 40K over a clip from a Youtube video where a guy made a quadrupedal mechsuit for his pet snake. I love the idea that being murdered is a type of being an accessory to murder, lol. Devon saying that flame decals are sexy, along with a long documented history of saying men with a bit of a belly are sexy, makes me think maybe Devon might physically enjoy Guy Fieri given the chance. I'm looking forward to the Blues Brothers episode, that was my favourite movie as a kid.

Imagine you find out your girl cheated on you with your car and the Monday morning you've still gotta drive to work, silent, resentful, betrayed.

oh my gosh Abi, i just got to the end and. you gotta watch El Jockey. this is not even me begging for an episode, this is me suggesting Abigail Thorn specifically watch El Jockey (Kill the Jockey in english)

The part about firefighters in France is not really accurate: military firefighters are a thing (in Paris and Marseille as November said, and special units for natural disasters) but it's less than 25% of professionnal firefighers and less than 5% of all firefighters (the majority are volonteers, they train part time and are called in case of emergency), and they are not conscripted : France abolished the mandatory military service in 1997, even if Macron wants to try bringing it back. There are barracks for the non-millitarized professionals units (they are commonaly named the same as military barracks, "caserne", but their official designation is rescue center - "centre de secours") , but volonteers have two types of watch duty: in the barracks - "garde casernée" - or at home - "astreinte" . There is a military influence even on the non-military units, that's true, and they have grades inspired by the army, but most firefighters are civil servants.

Putting "Femboy Firefighting Simulator 2026" on my Steam wishlist.

The implications about the father "believing" in his child's gender in spite of the evidence reminds me of something Hbomberguy said in the aftermath of the DK64 stream, which I've not seen discussed elsewhere since but I do think is valid. He quoted someone on the stream who put forth that, even if trans identities weren't "real", it would still be the fair and polite thing to do to validate them, since all the hypothetical negatives that bigots imagine are just that. That trans identities *are* objectively, empirically real, the lived experiences of millions now backed up by modern science eg the brain scan tests, makes this a moot point, but it's worth recognising that even if you were to accept the bigots' false reality, their reactions to trans folks are still evil. This just reminds me - as many things do - of the belief passage from Hogfather; I know Abbie's said she's not too familiar w/it whereas Nova and Devon very much are, but it makes me wonder whether you could fudge things a little and count the omnibus cut of the Hogfather miniseries as a movie for the purposes of discussing it here.

You gotta turn yourself into a car, Morty

Person who's only seen Dogtooth: "im getting a lot of Dogtooth vibes from this." (This is me)

Can anyone help me find Abi's quote about facists wanting not to be men? I wanted to research it further it but can't find where it was and who it was from!

The director's answer is so "you don't understand conciously how trans people work, you only managed to stumble into writing about it because transness is derived from common elements of the human experience". Which is how so many movies are about being transgender.

The way vehicles are often gendered as women is something I find so interesting philosophically because of it being an implicitly trans metaphor as well as what it says about masculinity: woman as freedom, the fantasy of being one with/piloting a woman, woman as an ensouled type of matter without agency, woman being bigger, enveloping and protecting as a mother might...big intersection here with my current special interest in boat magic. Apropos of nothing I just realized I have automatically gendered catbus from Totoro as male which, in light of what I just wrote, is interesting

"the Top Gear stig is the half-car half-human amab reincarnation of his serial-killing transmasc parent" is not the take i expected to walk away from this episode with but hey i'll integrate that into my belief system

This episode gave me a flashback to the time I realized my marriage was over whilst changing an alternator because my ex-husband took offense to the telephone response, "Hey, babe. Can we talk later? I'm elbow deep up this Altima's skirt right now..." For whatever that's worth to ya.

...well. Is this a transmasc movie as you claim, or is it transFEM? There's something intriguing to me about the idea that Vincent's son was transfem, and his replacement goldfish is a "man" who is literally so feminine that she can give birth. From Vincent's perspective, his dead trans daughter resurrects from the dead, and she's EVEN MORE a woman than before, back when he could deny it.

Oh my god I HATE PROMISING YOUNG WOMEN.

Oh, is this the one where they fuck the car and get pregnant?

SHOCKED November didn't mention the Italian Futurists

Jesus H Chrysler, what a movie

I think name dropping Jiminy Cricket was actually really insightful, because I think as well as the religious stuff it is in conversation with Pinocchio as a story also very much about father-son relationships as formative to “real” masculinity

When I saw this movie in the cinema, some people walked out during the slasher sequence. Not only did they miss the more important part of the movie, because of this they ironically missed the far more uncomfortable and visceral aspects of the movie. Also it completely baffled me that this movie is supposed to be not about being transgender.

fun story: my then-to-be gf a few years ago showed me this movie through a south korean imported blu-ray

The thumbnail kills me