TIFF '18 Film Review - High Life

For centuries humans have sought to separate prisoners from the rest of society. The more distance the better and if you can surround the prisoners with water better still. Rykers Island in New York is still in use. Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay is now a museum and tourist destination. More brutal locations include Robben Island where many South African dissidents including Nelson Mandella were jailed and Devil's Island in French Guiana established by Napoleon III in the 1850's for French prison around the same time as Australia was stopped being used by the British.

In High Life, the penal colony is floating in space also serves as a biological experiment and a vague mission to investigate the energy a black hole might produce. The occupants are not in cells, they have access to the full ship especially the popular garden. But the men have to give up their sperm, women their eggs for the de facto authority figure Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche) to do her studies and report back the results to Earth. Knowing the pension for director Claire Denis to use sensual and sexual imagery you would be correct in expecting that she would be full on given this premise and setting. In fact, a few scenes have sparked strong reactions sessionDr. Dibs close-up  in the self pleasuring room. Monte (Robert Pattinson) being milked for his sperm in his sleep by the doctor who then ijects it into an unspecting Boyse (Mia Goth). Thirdly a tied down Boyse being attacked in bed  by Chandra (Lars Eidinger) until Monte steps in.

On a few occasions, Denis remind us that the action takes place in space; periodic shots of the outside of the ship that looks like a rectangle pencil box; plus a distant black hole that plays a pivotal part during a key moment in the production. Denis and her regular co-writer Jean-Pol Fargeau's put the bulk of the narrative in flashback. Bookended by Monte working outside the ship with a crying baby inside on speaker, and a teenange girl (Jessie Ross) being the sole companion of a greying Monte who kicks her out of his bed because she is gettting too big to sleep with him.

High Life is a sci-fi film that is not interested in typical sci-fi elements.Instead, it focuses on the relationships and interactions between the inhabitants forced to make this journey being guinea pigs for science. Robert Pattinson's Monte stoically removes himself from the group but is drawn back in against his will by the supposed authorty figure Dr. Dibs. It's a strange watch that many of Denis' fans will see elements of the director's other works hidden in the recesses. But if you're looking to see Buck Rodgers you better turn your attention someplace else.

**1/2 Out of 4.

High Life | Claire Denis | Germany /France / U.K / Poland / U.S.A. | 2018 | 110 Minutes.

Tags: Penal Ship, Sperm, Eggs, Masturbation, Restraints, Rape, Murder, Artifical Insemination, Pregnancy, Penrose Process, Black Hole.