Talk:High Life (2018 film)

Untitled

The plot description has several factual inaccuracies. I tried to fix them, but (my changes were reverted due to a lack of concision)[1]. I don’t mind losing my revision, but the plot summary is now incorrect and misleading.

Filming dates

At the time of writing the article claims that principal photography took place in Germany in September 2017. Four sources are listed.

References

The first source dated June says production begins next month, implying July. No mention of Cologne or Germany. The second source dated July says Pattinson has just started film, so again July. No mention of Germany. The third source dated August says Clare Denis is currently filming, so August. No mention of any location. The fourth source finally says principal photography was to take place in Cologne, Germany. No mention of any dates.

Somehow three vague sources that imply filming during July and possibly August, was for no apparent reason used to say filming took place September? {{Not in source}}

Later in the same paragraph the source that says filming in Poland has completed is dated November. The last source in the paragraph says High Life was due to finish filming "this month" in an article dated October. It seems unlikely but not impossible that production took place in July, August, September, October, and November, but the sources are confusing and do not adequately explain. I was trying to find out more about the production of this film, I'm unsure how to best fix this mess. -- 109.76.134.87 (talk) 20:20, 13 May 2019 (UTC)

Audience score not allowed.

An editor has been trying to add audience scores to the article. WP:UGC user generated content such as user voted web polls, or content from other wikis are not reliable sources and are not allowed.

The film received positive reviews from critics, but as the Rotten Tomatoes summary says "it's everything film fans expect from director Claire Denis" and most reviewers knew what they were getting in to, but audiences not already familiar Claire Denis not so much. This is not a mainstream film, it is very much an arthouse film, and the critics were very much reviewing it on those terms. Maybe the article should to do more to make that clear.

Even though the reviews were mostly positive, it might be a helpful to readers if the article included some negative counterpoints, and even some of the positive reviews called it "repulsive".[2] Critic Danielle Solzman put it nicely "I'm not denying that there's an audience out there for High Life but it certainly is not me."[3]. Rex Reed was very negative in his article titled: ‘High Life’ Proves Critics Still Love Deeply Pretentious Movies. But there's no good reason to include audience scores, an almost arbitrary number, when there are so many critics and reviews that we could use[4] to better express different reactions to the film. -- 109.78.222.222 (talk) 20:09, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Genre

The primary genre of this film is sci-fi (or at least various sources describe it that way). The article included the genre "horror" since April 2019 and it was recently removed. The film is weird but it isn't entirely accurate to describe it as horror, although according to Variety magazine the film contains elements of the body horror.

I do not think it is necessary to mention anything other than the primary genre in the the intro. -- 109.79.190.28 (talk) 09:42, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Of course Denis herself says it is only set in space but it not sci-fi.[5] Pattison even described High Life as a comedy because of the insane absurdity of the film.[6] The New York Times describes it as "[a space drama about convicts sent to a black hole]" which might be a better way to describe it. -- 109.79.190.28 (talk) 10:11, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Lists

• 94 out of 100 https://filmschoolrejects.com/best-movies-of-the-decade-2010s/ -- 109.77.205.158 (talk) 23:57, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Genre revisited

I would like to challenge the use of "erotic" as a genre for this film. The primary genre certainly isn't erotic. It's sci-fi, or horror, or both. Since it is essentially impossible to prove a negative, I must resort to consensus to challenge the opinion of one or two editors that the film's genre is "erotic". The film may have some erotic moments, but that does not make the genre erotic any more than a few brief mysterious moments in a film make the genre "mystery". The film also has some moments that are very much not erotic, including rape. For the consideration of anyone who wants to join this discussion, here are a few well respected sources that cast doubt on generalizing a few questionably erotic moments into a genre of "erotic". I found these in a couple of minutes. I'm sure there are others.

• https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/a27027929/high-life-proves-robert-pattinson-is-the-most-daring-movie-star-of-his-generation/
• https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/high-life-2019
• https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/high-life-reviewed-claire-deniss-disappointing-journey-into-space

Thanks. 75.191.40.148 (talk) 01:35, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I agree, almost none of the sources cited refer to it as part of the erotic genre, some even deny it's erotic at all. El Millo (talk) 02:06, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

No support for "erotic" genre for over three weeks. Removed. 173.209.178.244 (talk) 20:08, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

I raised the difficult issue of genre above, the director and the star contradict (but implicitly acknowledge) the idea the idea that it is a science fiction film. Most sources agree that the primary genre is some sort of sci-fi. Even the source being used to claim it is erotic calls it "an Erotic Space Odyssey" [7] so I repeat what I said earlier, I think the most appropriate thing would be to only include the primary genre, namely sci-fi. I would prefer not to even include the secondary genre of horror but there are at least more sources that support that than the one source suggestion the film is erotic, so I fully agree with removing it. This is such a weird film. -- 109.79.76.133 (talk) 23:45, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

I barely understand why anyone even defended including that genre, it was added without explanation by an anonymous editor.[8] -- 109.79.76.133 (talk) 00:55, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

The BFI lists Science Fiction as the only genre for this film.[9] -- 109.78.196.233 (talk) 17:50, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Poster

Someone changed the film poster, apparently without any explanation. When I saw the film the poster was of a gloved hand reaching out and holding a baby's hand. The article was changed to use another poster consisting primary of a profile of Pattison's face. It seems this was the French language poster.

It is not clear to me why the poster was changed, or what poster is the most appropriate one to have in the article. -- 109.79.68.156 (talk) 16:05, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

"Claire Tran" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Claire Tran. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 July 11#Claire Tran until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:17, 11 July 2021 (UTC)