Claire Denis: Physicality, Sexuality and Breaking Taboos in Space

Claire Denis, the ultimate femme auteur of French cinema, is not unfamiliar with provocative taboo breaking and pushing social boundaries to extremes. Despite a big and costly production and celebrity names that make High Life (2018) her most ambitious film so far, this work stays faithful to her comprehensive film oeuvre that is largely based on the exploration of human connections, relationships and insightful dives into the dark realities of family dysfunctions. Yet this film’s focus primarily lies on the human body, its gestures, movements, looks and touches, the coexistence of bodies trapped in small, enclosed spaces and, finally, the biological functions of the imprisoned bodies that bleed, masturbate, urinate, rape, kill, orgasm and lactate, and, in one instance, due to the closeness of the black hole and according to the principle of “spaghettification”, gruesomely explode.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!