When it was first announced that French director Claire Denis was shooting a sci-fi movie starring Robert Pattinson, it was hard to predict what kind of film High Life would be. “It takes place far outside the solar system, near the Milky Way,” the 72-year-old writer and director explained to the audience attending a preview of the film in Beaulieu-sur-Mer last October. “But don’t expect to see people floating or looking out a window at the Earth.”

Denis, who had come to Nice to give a series of master classes for art and film students at contemporary art institution La Villa Arson and audiovisual school ESRA Côte d’Azur, had very particular ideas about what a film in English, set in outer space, might represent. Predictably, in Denis’s universe, there are no special effects, green screens or hi-tech gadgets. The vessel is indeed claustrophobic, but looks more like a shipping container than a futuristic rocket.

“I hate the idea of the military in space,” the director says with a shudder when we meet the following day. “The film is not about conquering. There are so many aspects, but my first idea was about isolation, and what it means to be human.”

THE PLOT THICKENS…

We talk over lunch at Chez Pipo (Denis’s choice), a simple eatery on the port that is always jam-packed with locals. “The interior of the spaceship is actually a prison, inhabited by petty criminals who were banished from Earth,” Denis says between dainty bites of socca, a Niçoise crêpe made from chickpea flour. “It’s a floating penal colony and there’s no escape. The mission is doomed from the start.” Her voice is soft, throaty and melodious.