High Life (2018)

Directed by: Claire Denis | 110 minutes | adventure, drama | Actors: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin, Mia Goth, Lars Eidinger, Agata Buzek, Claire Tran, Ewan Mitchell, Gloria Obianyo, Scarlett Lindsey, Jessie Rosse, Victor Banerjee, Juliette Picollot, John Kimani Njeri, Mikolaj Gruss

A spaceship floats silently through the universe. A young man and a toddler girl on board. The spaceship is self-sufficient: an artificial piece of nature on board provides fresh food. The water supply seems endless, life on board can continue for years to come. But who is that man, who is that girl and what are they doing on that ship?

Intriguing questions, which we are not going to answer here. After 25 minutes in ‘High Life’ it becomes clear what is going on. We also understand that there used to be more people on board. In a long flashback we look at what happened on board and where the other passengers have gone. After that, time jumps about 15 years, and we see that our astronaut and the (now) adolescent girl are faced with difficult dilemmas.

Science fiction drama ‘High Life’ by veteran Claire Denis has two faces. On the one hand, the film deals with a theme that we have encountered before, such as in the classic ‘Lord of the Flies’ and in the unsurpassed ‘Suske en Wiske – The mini-ant’s nest’. It is about the dynamics of a group of people who are suddenly dependent on each other. Usually the mind quickly goes overboard and an animal survival instinct takes over.

In addition, the film is a kind of philosophical space essay, in which we skim past all kinds of major and minor issues. As befits an essay, this does not lead to a conclusion, but we do pick up all kinds of fascinating thought crumbs along the way. Poetic images and atmospheric music (Stuart Staples) complete the picture.

It would have been nice if those two elements would flow into each other effortlessly or if one would integrate smoothly into the other. Unfortunately that is not the case. Precisely when we are in a wonderfully poetic flow, we are faced with an outburst of violence or a brutal attempt at rape. And just when those confrontations whip up our adrenaline levels, we fall back into poetic musings.

That doesn’t make ‘High Life’ a bad film, but one that is somewhat out of balance. The acting is excellent (Pattinson, Binoche), there are some bizarre erotic scenes and the images are beautiful and atmospheric. But a film that aims to bring the worlds of ‘Solaris’ and ‘Lord of the Flies’ together might be aiming just a little too high.