French filmmaker Claire Denis swings completely unrestrained between genres and subjects, in addition in a very own way. Like in 1999, Beau Travail paid tribute to her, where she quietly pulls down the tricks of war film, militarism and cadaver discipline. Or Trouble every day (2001) a meaty flirt with the vampire myths that, as far as I remember, did not come to Swedish cinema and which also did not make any great success in the home country.
Now she goes into space and brings with her stars like Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche. The former makes the only survivor on a research trip into space, the latter plays the leader of the expedition and chief scientist Dips who performs reproduction experiments on the crew, which consists of a gang of death-doers who more or less voluntarily act as guinea pigs. In short, Dips takes their eggs and sperm to try to create new life. So no, Pattinson's figure is not alone, not from the beginning, and now he hangs outside the space shuttle and repairs a broken panel, while trying to calm a screaming infant inside the ship via communication radio. There seems to be a teenage girl there too. No, okay, it's the baby that grew up.
Confused? Good . Then you are ready for the movie. The chronology is broken, no: fragmented. It takes a while to get into the story, grab the premise, but then, if you manage to acclimate to the atmosphere of the doomed ship, the puzzle pieces slip into place. Maybe not entirely, the finished image is probably only in Claire Deni's own brain but enough to trigger the engagement.
Like other (more lavish) cinematic trips into space, such as Interstellar and now bioactual Ad astra, High life wants to say something about human existence, but where the first mentioned well-polished works provide an idealistic image of the searching man, Claire Denis caves down in less honorable aspects such as lust, abuse of power and general ethical revelation. Thus, a journey into the lurid space that is the human psyche - which also reminds us that despite all technical advances we still consist of sweaty body and fragile soul.
It is cryptic and challenging, the only constant is human suffering. In various forms. Some scenes are poetic and insinuating. Low-melting alarming. Others brutally violent.
A sci-fi for adults who think a little brain gym enhances the cinema visit.
Pretentious or thoughtful? Somewhere in between. In other words, a split experience, which nevertheless grows over time.
Sometimes it is interesting to think about what it is that remains of a cinematic experience, in the long run. Here remains a sense of claustrophobia and some scathing memories of Juliette Binoche's obsessed professor who at one moment rides a mechanical dildo and in another rapes a dormant Robert Pattinson - but at the same time says to work for the family's best.
High life is meaty and organic existentialism, like a neurotic meeting between David Cronenberg and Andrei Tarkovsky, though in Claire Deni's most personal way.