Claire Denis: Tribute + “High Life”

“For me,” says master filmmaker Claire Denis, “Cinema is not made to give a psychological explanation; for me cinema is montage.” Those who have experienced works like Beau Travail (Festival 2000), Friday Night (2003), The Intruder (Festival 2005), or her debut feature Chocolat (1988), know the singularity of Denis’ work. None of her films resembles one another, and yet there’s no one else on earth who could have made them. This very special tribute to a filmmaker long beloved by SFFILM audiences will feature a highlights reel from her career, an onstage discussion, and a presentation of her astonishing new film High Life. When asked about her new film’s look and design, Denis commented, “My aesthetic was simple: it’s a jail. I wanted the interior of the spaceship to look like a prison. That was my only radical beginning in terms of aesthetics.”

This tribute to Claire Denis includes a conversation with the director and a screening of High Life.

High Life
Claire Denis, France/USA/UK/Poland, 2018
Anyone familiar with her work knows that a Claire Denis sci-fi film will not be like any other sci-fi film, but High Life is even stranger, bolder, and more sexual than expected. Set aboard a ship populated with death row inmates employed in dangerous space exploration, this masterwork is more concerned with internal galaxies and the black holes of man than interstellar wonders. Starring Robert Pattinson, André Benjamin, and a magnificently tressed Juliette Binoche, High Life also features a mesmerizing score by Denis’ frequent collaborator Stuart A. Staples of Tindersticks.