The overall gesture of the film, consisting of two major acts, is a movement from abject alienation to a strange kind of rapprochement. Up until the end, the film sheds its layers until it arrives at its essence: how can humanity be birthed from a scorched, sterile earth, where there is no love? She creates the baby with her first love: the automobile. A childhood car accident has left her with a titanium titane implant in her skull, and the car remains her object choice thereafter.
She works as an erotic dancer at a car show, where her tall and angular body, as well as the total abandon with which she humps and grinds on the hood of the car, earn her a flock of admirers.
Upon finishing her erotic communion with the show car, a seeming extension of her own body, Alexia hurriedly signs a few autographs and dashes off to the safety of her own vehicle, her metal shell. One determined admirer follows her and forces his head through her car window, professing his love and begging for a kiss. Having violated the sanctity of the car, he must be dealt with. Vigorous car coitus ensues. She later confides in her coworker Justine, a younger dancer who brings Alexia back to her place and makes out with her.
But Alexia, averse to romantic overtures of the human variety, once again applies hair stick to head. What happens next is a kind of interval, a segue. Alexia hits the road, on the lam, and soon finds herself in a train station, surrounded by wanted posters bearing her face. She makes the snap decision to assume the identity of a long-missing boy. In an especially excruciating scene, she disfigures herself in a public bathroom. The film takes on a much tenderer tone in its second act, the Love Story act, and its pace slows considerably.
Alexia, in turn, professes her love for Vincent moments before her death, while delivering the baby. Titane moves one step further in that it has no interest in such likeability gymnastics, no interest in making Alexia charming whatsoever. Identification contingent on likeability is a self-imposed limitation, and an alternative means of achieving identification is long overdue.
