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Julie Ducournau's wild Palme d'Or-winner gives 'only connect' an automotive spin. Film review by Graham Fuller

The restrictiveness of conventional gender identities explains the extreme body horror of Titane, in which a pregnant rookie firefighter frequently invoked as Jesus bleeds car oil from her vagina and the stigmata that split her stomach. The miracle of Julia Doucournau’s luridly beautiful Palme d’Or-winner is that the memory of the violence puncturing the film's first half recedes as loving tenderness takes hold.