Originally released in 2018,High Lifeis Denis' first English-speaking film.
Or it tells the story of a group of prisoners turned into astronauts through a strange sentence commuting program.
What Is ‘High Life’ About?
Image via A24
Despite still receiving televised images from Earth,they have lost all contact with their home planet.
These scenes are intertwined with shots of two children and a dog playing in an earthly forest.
They seem to be memories of Montes previous life, but its hard to tell for sure.
A father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.
Its a suicide mission, but they dont know that.
Let’s head to the cosmos.
Despite being an extremely sexually charged movie,High Lifehas no sex scenes.
It is implied that the ships crew is forbidden from having sex with each other, even for procreation.
The only intimate contact they have with one another is through violence.
To satiate their sexual desire, they have access to an intricate masturbation machine dubbed the f–kbox.
From this non-consensual union, Willow is born.
The birth of Willow is both preceded and followed by the death of most of the ships crew.
Still, two extremely important deaths do take place before Monte is left alone with Willow.
The second is Dibs, who locks herself out of the ship after being severely injured.
Thus, both Montes monastic abstinence and Boyses obsessive douching are ways of showing agency and control over themselves.
This is one of the reasons why the discovery of the dog ship is so impactful to Monte.
However, these are not the only issues brought forth by the discovery of the dog ship.
While the population of ship number 7 dwindled, the pack of feral dogs continued to reproduce.
There are puppies among them, possibly feeding on the corpses of those that died.
Unlike humans, dogs have no concept of cannibalism or incest.
(…) Willow, do you feel the sun upon your back?
A lover’s hand.
Image via A24
Its a jump into the unthinkable, and theres no knowing what lies on the other side.
Her extremely sensual, often laconic and slow-paced films are seen by many audience members as boring and pointless.
This makes her one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of her generation.
These horrors are not of the Lovecraftian key in, nor of the face-hugging variety.
Instead, they are the horrors inflicted on us by the impact that space may have on our psyche.
Who knows what we might find, or even what lies on the other side of a black hole?
Who are the victims of humanitys so-called progress?
Thats whatHigh Lifeseems to want us to consider as it portrays the misery of humans treated as beasts.
“Also, I don’t understandCosmopolis.But I mean, I’m not interested in understanding, honestly.
It has this much in common withDavid Cronenberg’sCosmopolis.
Well, that and the fact that both movies helped Robert Pattinson redefine his career.
Granted,Cosmopolisdid it first.
High Lifeis currently available to stream on Max in the U.S.
WATCH ON MAX
