As with Ballard's previous novels Crash (1973) and Concrete Island (1974), High-Rise inquires into the ways in which modern social and technological landscapes could alter the human psyche in provocative and hitherto unexplored ways. Since its publication in 1975, British producer Jeremy Thomas had wanted to make a film adaptation of Ballard's literary classic, with Nicolas Roeg as director and Paul Mayersberg to pen the adaptation. However, the project fell apart in the early stages and ultimately entered into development hell. In early 2009, Thomas began developing the project again with Vincenzo Natali as director and Richard Stanley to pen the new adaptation, with the film intended as a loose adaptation of the novel. Natali was very happy with Stanley's script. However, the project fell apart once again. In 2013, Wheatley started looking into who held the rights to the book, which led him to Thomas and was ultimately hired to direct, with Wheatley's wife, Jump, hired to pen the new adaptation. In February 2014, Tom Hiddleston was cast in the lead role. By July 2014, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, and Stacy Martin rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place in Belfast and Bangor, Northern Ireland.
The film stars Hiddleston, Irons, Miller, Evans, Moss, Purefoy, and Martin. The film is about characters who entranced by each other sexually. Wheatley has made a film that is pornographic in form, but not in result. High-Rise like a porno film made by a decadent pervert: It unapologetically monologues about class and sex, it discovers our twisted and minds towards class and sex, and it combines them in a mistaken speech. The result is challenging, courageous and original—a dissection of the philosophy of pornography. I admired it, although I cannot say I "liked" it.
Despite the surprisingly distant, clinical direction, High-Rise's explicit premise and sex is classic Ballard territory. It is necessarily disturbing and equally profound inquiry into class and human desire, however self-destructive. Unlike Crash (1996), it's the polar opposite logic of Darwin, where libertarians refused to leave their past behind as if it were dead. The film is a violently rare exception to the continually careful stride of film, and few films have been made with such a conviction to such inherently controversial material. With High-Rise, Wheatley pushes arthouse cinema off the balcony. The film is a mutant work of art - a bracing splash of champagne and cocaine with ice. It's a dark, disturbing, languorous movie, as ludicrous, hermetic and repetitive, perhaps, as Ballard's original, but admirably assured and true to itself. A stylish, intriguing and typically warped vision that hybridises the imaginations of Ballard and Wheatley.
Despite the surprisingly distant, clinical direction, High-Rise's explicit premise and sex is classic Ballard territory. It is necessarily disturbing and equally profound inquiry into class and human desire, however self-destructive. Unlike Crash (1996), it's the polar opposite logic of Darwin, where libertarians refused to leave their past behind as if it were dead. The film is a violently rare exception to the continually careful stride of film, and few films have been made with such a conviction to such inherently controversial material. With High-Rise, Wheatley pushes arthouse cinema off the balcony. The film is a mutant work of art - a bracing splash of champagne and cocaine with ice. It's a dark, disturbing, languorous movie, as ludicrous, hermetic and repetitive, perhaps, as Ballard's original, but admirably assured and true to itself. A stylish, intriguing and typically warped vision that hybridises the imaginations of Ballard and Wheatley.
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