Extremely long-term anticipation thread for Claire Denis, Zadie Smith and Olafur Eliasson's Sci-Fi film, High Life

I think he is lazy and owns a dozen black baseball caps tbh

he can look at me with those lazy eyes all day long.

that distant “just rolled out of bed at 5pm and it’s raining outside but A24 is making me show up at the AMC” stare

I liked this interview w/ Pattinson and Denis

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/interview-claire-denis-and-robert-pattinson-on-the-making-of-high-life/

If I had to ask a question I'd ask about how RP's buzzcut helped him inhabit the character. RP has amazing hair but he is very connected to it, which you can see in the interview. He's always playing with it, pulling it and smoothing it, I'd do the same if I had that hair. His hair helps him find the answers. What did no hair do?

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Friday, April 5, 2019 1

otm, been thinking about this for days

he mentions in that intvw that he wanted to go completely hairless!

I misread the question originally and must admit it is good

I think he is lazy and owns a dozen black baseball caps tbh

I heard an interview w/ the tech consultant for vampire baseball in Twilight, and he said Pattinson was by far the least athletic cast member involved. Chain-smokin' away...

I should have said baseball-style caps, they're just all black without logos

sorry for false deployment of the baseball signal

i understand, just cuz he played a guy from Queens for the Safdies i didn't expect logos

i really hate that High Life is being called a "masterpiece." Insane.

can't wait to see Stuart and the boys play the Osc*rs next year

Staples has directed a film that opens here shortly

goin to the Angelika screening tonite

i really hate that High Life is being called a "masterpiece." Insane.

I would reverse that opinion lol, no idea what the appeal of LTSI was meant to be and am utterly mystified by its following

Woodshock in Space

To my surprise, a success, albeit a limited and uncharming one. The translated English sounds like translated English; if I feel generous in my review, I'll say this works coming out of the mouths of people who've been in space too long and have forgotten the rhythms of their own language.

the dialogue struck me as considerably less awkward than some other first English features I've seen tbh

It's fascinating how the Twilight stars made their first films with French directors who also wrote stilted scripts for'em.

their first films for Assayas and Denis, if it's not clear.

I'm almost sad that Pattinson is going to be in the new Nolan opus, he made so many Twilight fans sit through so much arthouse fare over the last few years in an unbroken streak

High Life isn’t her first film in English, at least half of Trouble Every Day is too

Oh, come on. TED was, iirc, broadly marketed, produced, and consumed as a French feature -- to the extent that it got swept up in that whole New French Extreme horror wave of the period.

ok but what does that have to do with Denis making a movie in English

"he made so many Twilight fans sit through so much arthouse fare over the last few years in an unbroken streak"

This is good not bad.

I agree!!!

He sounded like he was speaking a different take on English in Cosmopolis, but that was just DeLillo dialogue that made it intact from book to script

When I asked Claire Denis why the bodies in space fall "down" even though there's no gravity she said, "you don't have an engine in your ass!" https://t.co/IiaK9yI8lz

— Cameron Scheetz (@cameronscheetz) April 22, 2019

I have no idea what this means but it's hilarious

should've been the tagline

There was a line about the ship constantly accelerating to create the illusion of gravity but this film was never about accurate physics. I don't have an engine in my ass.

A good film imo.

I sorta figured maybe the idea was they were close enough in proximity to a black hole at the time that it might be pulling them down. But clearly I overthought things.

Loved this conversation: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/movies/claire-denis-barry-jenkins.html

JIZZ

IN

SPAAAAAACE

IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU COME.

So "dystopian" is barely adequate to describe this world. I had thought Let The Sunshine In slight and unworthy of Denis and Binoche. (The only other Denis film I had seen was 35 Rhums.) Unquestionably both women have considerable depths.

As for the interview on the train, I'll accept it as a window into what people on Earth (civilians and insiders) know about Ship 7 (and presumably other ships in the program). I know throughout I was wondering about 1) the technology that could create that vessel and 2) the political setting that would allow prisoners to "volunteer" for this mission, and let Binoche conduct her "research" program. Any institution review board worthy of the name would recoil from what we see here.

I saw High Life a few weeks ago in NY at the Angelika, it's been on my mind ever since

I had a hard time not comparing this to 2001, my above-every-other-film favorite, but it had so many beautiful scenes I felt like it came within shouting distance

the score by Stuart Staples was great I thought

Having not seen the film yet, I just read a review and is this film really about convicts in space with a dildo in a box?!?

the body horror in this film was something

xp there's some other stuff but more or less yea

I was surprised when someone that works at the one theater showing this here that there have been a notable number of pissed walkouts & refunds, mostly older people obviously

oscar voters, no doubt

they should give em passes to An Elephant Sitting Still

that there have been a notable number of pissed walkouts & refunds, mostly older people obviously

oh i'm absolutely dreading showing this, believe me.

these people got pissed about gloria bell.

why is this a surprise, flappy? I was the only one at my screening ("And you might be the last one," the ticket person said).

It didn't seem that graphic to me, and one would think - or hope - that MOR art house audiences could go with some weird sex shit

it's not reactions to the sex i'm dreading (tho someone did try and get their money back from me for the favourite lol). it's people saying the following: "that was COMPLETELY POINTLESS!"

haven't seen the movie; haven't read that much about it; just get the distinct vibe that it's gonna be COMPLETELY POINTLESS

will report tho