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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 17 april 2019
For Denis and Pattinson, a cosmic connection in ‘High Life’

By JAKE COYLE with delight. “I like that,” his 50s. “High Life” is about tinson. “When I was young- tion, maybe, and the bud-
Associated Press he giggles. “No, I agree. I a space ship, flying far er, you’d go into to start get, of course.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Claire couldn’t agree more.” outside the solar system, something and think every “High Life,” which expands
Denis was guiding Robert Yet it took a lot of effort to populated by a group single scene needed to be in theaters nationwide this
Pattinson through a black Friday, is instead about a
hole. lot of the things that have
The two were on a sound coursed through Denis’
stage in Cologne, Germa- work: violence, sex, colo-
ny, shooting a scene from nialism, isolation, helpless-
Denis’ space oddity “High ness.
Life,” while the revered “I have absolutely no ab-
French filmmaker called stract ideas,” Denis says. “I
out descriptions (“Now it don’t know what I do. I try
splits into a pancake!”) of to do my best. For me, I’m
the time-warping imagery trying to make films without
Pattinson’s character, Mon- concept. Honestly.”
te, might be seeing. Pattin- Denis instead conceives
son was having a hard time of movies instinctually and
keeping it together. physically. Bodies and
“I was literally crying laugh- movement are everything,
ing. Everyone else was as in the shirtless, desert
completely serious and I exercises of the Foreign Le-
just had tears streaming gion soldiers of “Beau Tra-
down my face,” Pattinson vail.”
recalls. “Splits into a pan- “I remember when I was a
cake? I was like, ‘What are child the first time I saw a
you talking about?’” Western with John Wayne,
“I remember ‘spaghetti ef- I had never seen a man
fect,’” adds Denis with a behaving with his hips like
grin. “The spaghetti effect, that. I thought, ‘Wow, this is
it takes place before the something,’” says Denis.
pancake effect.” “I don’t see only face. I see
As willing as Pattinson has a complete person, you
been to be stretched and know?” she continues. “If
contorted by some of the you think of silent movies or
most adventurous direc- This April 4, 2019 photo shows filmmaker Claire Denis, left, and actor Robert Pattinson posing for a Westerns or a Murnau mov-
tors in film, “High Life” — a portrait to promote their film, “High Life” in New York. Associated Press ie, especially like ‘Tabu,’ it’s
cosmic conundrum pulsing so physical. A film that has
with bodily fluids and the bring them together. Pat- of convicts plucked from worked out.” only talking faces, for me,
infinitude of loneliness — is tinson first sought a meet- death row. They are guin- Pattinson, 32, tends to elicit it’s a little bit like TV. Those
a new frontier for him. The ing with Denis after seeing ea pigs for experimenta- grins from Denis, 72, when actors in silent movies were
same could be said for De- “White Material,” her 2009 tion on black holes by Dr. he speaks of his youth like a like great dancers. I think it
nis, the enigmatic and re- film about a coffee planta- Dibs (a long-haired Juliette distant past. After the actor goes well with a movie.”
vered filmmaker of “Choc- tion in an unnamed African Binoche), who’s really using says he was happy it took Seeking that kind of holis-
olat” and “Beau Travail,” country torn apart by war them to try to incubate a years to make “High Life” tic acting was part of what
who is making her English- and colonialism. It was sev- baby. — “I was quite young when drew Pattinson to Denis.
language debut in “High eral years later that Pattin- “High Life” wouldn’t be we first met. I think I was like “My main thing in any kind
Life.” son landed a face-to-face, made for several more 28” — Denis replies, “Yeah, of performance is trying
Together, they are a curi- in Los Angeles. years after their first meet- you look so old now.” to combat self-conscious-
ous, fascinating match that “My agents didn’t really ing, a time during which De- “I think I actually got big- ness,” he says. “It’s so much
despite their vastly distant see the importance that I nis made “Let the Sunshine ger or something,” says to do with using your whole
origins seem to buzz to a had put on it. So when the In,” with Juliette Binoche, Pattinson. “When I saw the body. I was also kind of
similar frequency. meeting came through, I and Pattinson continued movie, it was one of the first scared of doing it, and
“I am lazy. I would love to be was like, ‘Whaaaat?’” says his streak of far-flung indies times I was like, ‘Oh, it looks didn’t really know how to
in bed all the time, to read, Pattinson, turning to Denis. (“The Lost City of Z,” ‘’Good like an adult.’” use my own body. A lot of
to swim, to do nothing. And “You could have been a Time,” ‘’Damsel”), begun If it wasn’t already abun- the movies I’ve done be-
yet making films is the best total (expletive) and I still with David Cronenberg’s dantly clear, “High Life” is fore are quite still.”
thing that happened in my would have wanted to do “Cosmopolis.” It’s been a not your typical science Maybe what Denis and Pat-
life, with love and sex,” says the job.” startling art-house plunge fiction film. Denis doesn’t tinson most have in com-
Denis. “There is something “I am a total (expletive,) by for the actor, one that has even consider it one. mon is a desire to be un-
special in making movies, the way,” Denis replies. “I surely blown the minds of “A lot of science fiction films constrained by prescribed
especially for a very lazy was impressed how simple many a “Twilight” fan. are about conquest. In that contexts: genres, attitudes,
person. If I was a very per- it was to meet with him. Like those films, Pattinson void, that huge universe, expectations. Denis, who’s
formative person, very ac- How gentle it was. Now, I leapt into “High Life” purely there’s not many things to planning to reunite with
tive, I wouldn’t care about cannot imagine anyone on faith in the director. fight, unless you do ‘Star Pattinson for an adapta-
making movies. Movies are else as Monte but Robert. “I remember reading the Wars’ and there’s an alien tion of Denis Johnson’s “The
made for people who want Suddenly the film changed. treatment for the first time living there. But of course Stars at Noon,” says she’s
to do nothing.” That’s it.” and just having no clue. this was not the point,” says increasingly interested less
Pattinson, sitting alongside When Denis finished the It’s so nice to commit to Denis. “Even though I like in even a film’s scene-to-
the director in the Man- script to “High Life” with something knowing you’re those stories, I would not scene cohesion and more
hattan offices of the film’s Jean-Pol Fargeau, the lead a completely empty vessel have been able to do it for in capturing moments, un-
distributor, A24, cackles role called for a man in at the beginning,” says Pat- many reasons. My imagina- tethered and free.q