High Life

Comparisons between High Life and David Cronenberg's Crash (1996) are apt in several ways and if Patricia Arquette had taken the role of Dibs as originally planned then the echo of her sister's performance 20 years earlier would have been another link. As is it, Robert Pattinson carries the Cronenbergian torch via Cosmopolis and Maps to the Stars to new heights with his stunning performance as Monte, one the last survivors on a distant starship performing a highly unusual mission.For those not around in 1996/7, especially in London, Crash caused a huge moral panic for British newspapers on its release, with the Daily Mail and London Evening Standard running relentless damnation pieces both on the movie and its director, demanding that the film should be banned outright across the UK. But like J.G. Ballard's 1973 original novel of the same name, by the late 1990's Crash proved a difficult film to ban and a difficult film to allow, as although the story contains some violent sexual imagery within a carefully constructed and highly unsettling demi-monde morality, there wasn't really a specific scene or image which could be pulled out and made to stand in front of the class. Indeed the empowered, youthful, anything goes audiences of the nineties (not least David Cronenberg fans) wanted to know exactly *why* the film should be banned, a question that the authorities found difficult to answer. The problem for the BBFC, as with films like Peeping Tom and The Devils, is less one of specific images or ideas, which potentially could be cut, but something more general, nebulous and distasteful they vaguely referred to as 'tone'. In the end, only Westminster Council banned the movie, an area which included London's West End cinema's, but Camden did not, meaning a couple of tubes stops and you could see it. One nil to the demi-monde.Twenty years on and High Life from Claire Denis is provoking a similar but perhaps lesser version of the same disquiet. It is a remarkable film, beautifully shot and cleverly structured with many homages (that garden has to be from Silent Running) with some extraordinary performances, especially from Pattinson, but like Crash, might not be the ideal Christmas movie to watch with the family.Without giving the slowly unfolding story away, High Life creates a similarly uneasy moral and unfixed physical universe where unending isolation and extreme ostracisation leads our protagonists to make up the rules for themselves, and although there are nods to a Lord of the Flies anarchy, our disturbed crew are more interested in their own troubled psychological obsessions than the more familiar tropes of taking over the ship or forming factions. Like many have said, it's more Solaris than Star Wars.Denis remains vigilant about staying this side of pornography, and despite raised eyebrows from viewers and critics, there are few actual images of raw nudity or steamy copulation. Instead she highlights the usual sensuality born of the characters' predicament rather than the unfettered sexuality of a lawless community. It's a laudable ambition on her part, and fits the film's premise, although casting beautiful people like Robert Pattinson, Mia Goth, Ewan Mitchell and attractive supporting actors means long lingering close ups of eyelashes, mouths, body hair, muscles and fluids certainly draw the eye, and it might end up being a matter of opinion just how deeply affected by this sensuality the audience is. There are certainly some uncomfortable scenes and there's no doubt that these images, both beguilingly attractive and darkly repellant mixed together, are designed to get under the skin, although this never feels cheap.Like Solaris there is not a massive load of Science Fiction here, it's not that kind of story, and criticism has been made of the details surrounding the artificial gravity produced by constant acceleration of the ship (they would be going much faster than the story admits) and I agree with harsher critics that the Black Hole subplot could have been removed (although it's a nice analogy for invisible horizons) and the fact that they are slowly but surely reaching the speed of light would in itself produce the plot, as it is something no human would have ever experienced and would be interesting to watch from a distance. It also would have cured the constant acceleration scientific blooper by turning the fact of their ever increasing speed into the ticking clock of the story itself, but this is more of a nitpick than a serious flaw.In all, it's a terrific, iconoclastic film, certainly in the top ten for 2019 and Pattinson should get an Oscar nod for such a direct, focussed, unhinged performance, although as we know, genre pics don't win awards, and this film would probably be hard to stomach for the Academy.For film fans however it's a peach. A superb piece from a master film maker at the top of her game with riveting performances and which deserves wide acclaim and to be long remembered.

... And a bit porno.Mostly weird tho ...

I really wanted to see this film. I still do.I’ve bought it twice. The blu-ray. Both times I was sent a 4K HD, which is incompatible with an ordinary blu-ray player. So both times I sent it back.This is my plan: I’m going to wait 3 months in the hope they’ve emptied the shelves of all the 4K HD copies. Then I’ll chance another order.Then maybe I’ll write another review.

Brilliant film, so atmospheric and amazing acting. Robert Pattinson acting with the baby was so powerful... and then seeing the whole story unfold, was mesmerising. I haven’t seen something that stayed with me so long in an age.I preordered this and it arrived before it was out in the shops.

A group of small time crooks, losers and law-breakers volunteer for a deep space mission to look for energy sources in black holes. In a brave and ambitious attempt to convey the boredom of long distance space travel, this film is boring. Nothing much happens. ..... and when it does happen it's eh.... either weird or shows an alarming element of violence towards women. There is a brooding sense of foreboding.... which is very brooding. It's well done but it broods for an awful long time. There's also a lot of self-pleasuring. Overall, there's never really any explanation for what's going on (or at best totally minimal explanation). The things that happen during the film seem unrelated to each other and of no relevance to the narrative (which doesn't really exist). There's a also a complicated non-linear narrative things going on.... in fact, there's an astonishing moment at the end where we jump forward in time by about 10-15 years...... This is done with such little fanfare that I watched the film for at least another five minutes without realising it had happened! So, thumbs up for trying to do something a bit different but, sorry, the tedious weirdness and disjointedness of it all just overwhelms.

I read many positive reviews about this movie and I'm always on the lookout for low budget, highly rated independent movies so I gave this a go. I'm very tolerant and patient with movies and appreciate weird or arty films (I'm thinking The Lighthouse, The Witch and Annihilation) so by no means is my review motivated by lack of attention.I just found the movie very nihilistic and depressing (something I'm normally not bothered by - Alien 3 anybody?) But something about the story and the very slow pacing really had me losing interest. I almost gave up halfway through but persevered. Then, there is the weird sex room scene that goes on and on - you'll know it when you see it.I gave it two stars because I appreciate some aspects of them movie - the acting, cinematography, etc are all pretty good. It just falls short compared to many other indie movies I've watched

Thought this was amazing. Thoughtful, evocative and deliciously ambient. And so, so sad. Haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Also adored Willow's Lullaby at the end. Robert Pattinson has such a plaintive voice.

Es una excelente película, cine de arte de alto nivel con grandes actuaciones de Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Gothy la magistral dirección de Claire Denis.Contiene material especial extra.El producto me llegó bien y en la fecha indicada.

Película rara y poco conocida. Una joyita personal e independiente. Película del espacio muy diferente a todo lo demás. Pone de manifiesto, el lado más primitivo del ser humano y la esencia de las personas. También, trata el tema de la propia existencia y de la vida. No te deja indiferente, la disfrute muchísimo, una joyita. Tiene escenas que te impactan y además algunas con una carga erótica nunca vista. Buena película, algo pausada y tranquila pero muy buena, el papel de Patison le va como anillo al dedo.

Claire Denis in outer space. A true space oddity.

Pedí un cambio debido a que no venía con su slipcover así como en la foto se muestra pero me enviaron uno igual sin slipcover :( solo porque si quería la película no la volví a devolver.

Non è ben chiaro che il film è in lingua originale e non è prevista la lingua italiana, solo inglese e francese .