Watch the first trailer for the Robert Pattinson-starring High Life
The great Claire Denis ventures into sci-fi with this space-bound film starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche and Mia Goth
French auteur Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, White Material) might be the finest director working right now, so it goes without saying that her first English-language feature, High Life, is one of the most anticipated films of the year. It’s also another first: Denis’s first sci-fi film, and early reports suggest High Life is as strange and mesmerising as we’ve come to expect from this one-of-a-kind filmmaker.
It stars Robert Pattinson as a convict who’s now part of a space crew traveling the cosmos on a mysterious mission. “We were scum,” Pattison’s character says in voiceover on High Life’s first trailer, “trash, refuse that didn’t fit into the system, until someone had the bright idea of recycling us to serve science.”
That someone with the bright idea is Juliette Binoche, who appears to be a scientist in charge of the space vessel. Binoche starred in Denis’s previous film Let the Sunshine In and she’ll also be reuniting with Pattison, whom she acted with in 2012’s Cosmopolis.
The atmospheric trailer, released today, cuts between Pattison alone on a spaceship with an infant child and the earlier goings on involving strange experiments Binoche’s character is doing on her crew, who include ethereal young actor Mia Goth and André Lauren Benjamin (AKA André 3000). Get a flavour of what to expect from this fascinating sci-fi by taking a look in the player above or on YouTube.
High Life is due for release in the UK in 2019