10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

High-Rise (2016 Feature Film)

Ben Wheatley | United Kingdom | 2015 | 119 min | English | d.s.

Stylised, virtuoso drama by Ben Wheatley (Sightseers). A doctor moves into a luxury apartment building, an autonomous community where everyone knows their proper place. Then a class rebellion develops and the residents unite in murderous gangs – with surrealist, hysterical and post-apocalyptic consequences.

High-Rise, based on the novel by J.G. Ballard (whose Crash was filmed earlier by David Cronenberg), is set in a retro-futurist version of the 1970s. Doctor Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves to a luxury high-rise apartment building that forms an autonomous community, complete with supermarket, swimming pool and modern lifts. He makes friends with his attractive neighbour Charlotte (Sienna Miller) and the building’s architect, Mr Royal (Jeremy Irons), who lives at the top. He gradually discovers the complex class relations between the floors. Things are brewing in the ‘lower’ floors and this results in a rebellion against the elite and their exclusive cocktail parties (that usually end in orgies), after which the inhabitants group themselves into murderous gangs, with bloody, violent and apocalyptic consequences. The meticulous and exuberant art direction ensures a beautifully stylised, dystopic and occasionally hysterical parable by the director of Kill List (IFFR 2012) and Sightseers (IFFR 2013).

Place: CINEMA 2

Date: 8 April 2016

Time: 21:30

Duration: 2:00

Place: CINEMA 2

Date: 9 April 2016

Time: 16:15

Duration: 1:45

Place: CINEMA 2

Date: 10 April 2016

Time: 21:30

Duration: 2:00

Year in
Festival

2016

Director

Ben Wheatley

Camera

Laurie Rose

Cast

Tom Hiddleston
Jeremy Irons
Elisabeth Moss
Sienna Miller
Luke Evans
James Purefoy
Keeley Hawes

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English

Length

119 min

Music

Clint Mansell

Producer

Jeremy Thomas

Production Company

Recorded Picture Company

Production Design

Mark Tildesley

Sales

HanWay Films

Scenario

Amy Jump
based on the novel by J.G. Ballard

Sound Design

Martin Pavey

Year of Production

2015

Filmmaker and animator Ben WHEATLEY (1972, UK) started his career in commercials and made several television series for the BBC and Channel 4. Together with his wife Amy Jump, he founded Mr and Mrs Wheatley, a production company for directing, editing and writing. Down Terrace (2009) was Wheatley’s debut feature, followed by his second feature Kill List in 2011. High-Rise (2015) is his fifth film. His work has received numerous international nominations and prizes.

 

Filmography

(selection) The Wrong Door (2008, TV series), Modern Toss (2004-2006, TV series), Down Terrace (2009), Kill List (2011), Sightseers (2012), A Field in England (2013), High-Rise (2015)