What鈥檚 on the other side of a black hole and other existential questions are at the heart of High Life, a sci-fi psychosexual drama set in the not too distant future and directed by Claire Denis.
Robert Pattinson plays Monte, a prison inmate selected to take part in a program where prisoners are sent to outer space to participate in 鈥渞adical鈥� experiments to save the planet. 鈥淲e were trash, refuse that didn鈥檛 fit in. Until someone had the bright idea of recycling us,鈥� Monte says.
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Many missions
The mission is to harness a black hole鈥檚 energy, and provide humanity with almost boundless energy through the Penrose process. Named after mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, the theory contends that it鈥檚 possible to extract energy from a rotating black hole if you slingshot something (in this case, a spacecraft) around the black hole and steal a little bit of its momentum so that it comes out at a faster speed than it went in.
It takes the space ship 鈥� a surprisingly flimsy looking cube 鈥� eight years to get there, and we learn that after leaving the solar system, the prisoners adapt to the physical stresses of space because the 鈥渃onstant acceleration creates artificial gravity, freeing us from the discomfort of weightlessness鈥�, a state in which the body handles better.
The astronaut prisoners are monitored by a doctor, played by Juliette Binoche, who medicates them with sedatives and controls their sexual activities. She also has her own mission: to create and then harvest healthy foetuses from the female inmates.听She鈥檚 eventually successful, and much of the rest of the film tells the story of how Monte and the baby girl we see together in touching early scenes came to be all alone on the spaceship.
Park the CGI
This film is definitely a slow burner 鈥� don鈥檛 watch expecting explosions and big-budget CGI effects. Instead Denis sets a slow and contemplative pace as she explores the nature of human existence and social interactions.
There鈥檚 the question of how much of what we consider human we can, or should, control. Binoche鈥檚 doctor oversees when her charges sleep, their sexual urges, with whom and where they reproduce, and fundamental aspects of who we are. She proudly boasts that she has turned one inmate from substance abuser into a flawless 鈥減hysical specimen鈥�.
Another theme is the long journey to seek redemption from a dark past. One inmate describes how he is willing 鈥� literally 鈥� to go to the ends of the earth to redeem himself for his crimes, and as he says 鈥渢o turn his shame into some type of glory鈥�.
Missing questions
While the psychology and moral philosophy is fascinating, there鈥檚 not a great deal of Martian-style science here, and I was left with lots of questions. How can life at the edge of our galaxy space be sustained for that amount of time? Why are the life support systems on board maintained for only 24 hours at a time? Why does the spacecraft apparently never need refuelling, despite Monte having to jettison cargo to save fuel? Who did that disembodied hand belong to?
The astro-physics does eventually come when we see the black hole for the first time. Denis has her characters describe it as either 鈥渓ike a crocodile鈥檚 eye鈥�, or 鈥渁 giant mouth that wants to swallow us up鈥�. Given that High Life was released in the UK a month after the world got to see the first image from the Event Horizon Telescope, that鈥檚 not so very far out.
Maybe the film is an allegorical tale of our current predicament 鈥� bound to run out of energy and with no option but to launch ourselves into oblivion to either save humanity or wipe ourselves out. If so then Denis鈥� vision of our future may be a bleak one, but High Life鈥檚 ending hints towards the hope and inspiration we can draw from the enduring spirit of humans.
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