'High Life' Teaser Trailer: Claire Denis Goes On A Space Odyssey With Robert Pattinson

There’s good news and bad news. Good: Claire Denis‘ upcoming sci-fi film “High Life” with Robert Pattinson that recently screened at the New York Film Festival is phenomenal. Bad: It’s not coming out until TBD 2019 in North America. Good: It is coming out in France on November 7 and so the long wait for footage from the film is over. The first teaser from the film has been revealed and the full international trailer should be here soon.

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Starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, André Benjamin and more, “High Life” is a kind of enigmatic, kinky, freaky existential sci-fi film. Imagine Claire Denis version of “2001: A Space Odyssey” with a seriously twisted fetish thing going on. It’s mesmerizing and a bit repellent, and beautiful and so, so much more.

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Our TIFF review of the esoteric movie by Jason Bailey says, “‘High Life’ is the kind of movie where you may spend some time puzzling over the images, trying to unlock their meaning before it’s revealed, but eventually giving up and giving yourself over.”

Here’s the official synopsis if you must know, but as someone who has seen it, I urge you to not read it and know as little about it possible before you see the movie—just know freaky Claire Denis space movie and that should be enough (I’d say “Interstellar” meets Andrei Tarkovsky, but that doesn’t really do it justice).

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Deep space. Beyond our solar system. Monte and his infant daughter Willow live together aboard a spacecraft, in complete isolation. A solitary man, whose strict self-discipline is a protection against desire – his own and that of others – Monte fathered the girl against his will. His sperm was used to inseminate Boyse, the young woman who gave birth to her. They were members of a crew of prisoners: space convicts, death row inmates. Guinea pigs sent on a mission to the black hole closest to Earth. Now only Monte and Willow remain. And Monte is changed. Through his daughter, for the first time, he experiences the birth of an all-powerful love. Willow grows, becoming a young girl, then a young woman. Together, alone, father and daughter approach their destination – the black hole in which all time and space cease to exist.

READ MORE: ‘High Life’: Claire Denis Makes Strange, Scary, Kinky Sci-Fi With Robert Pattinson [TIFF Review]

I’d probably tell you to not watch the full trailer when it arrives either, but this brief teaser—with just flashes of the first footage—is just evocative and won’t spoil the breathtaking experience.

high life poster