PERFECT ORGIES OF DESTRUCTION

The sensual dishevelment of a Roeg shoot (diaphanous dresses, cascading hair, and cloaks of cigarette smoke- Elisabeth Moss's pregnant Helen Wilder puffs away with the fragile, permanently distracted air of a borderline-psychotic living in a shaken state of denial) is suavely draped over the ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Film comment 2016-05, Vol.52 (3), p.52-57
Main Author: HAMPTON, HOWARD
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Architects
AUTEUR DYSTOPIAS
Behavioral psychology
Buildings
Cronenberg, David
High rise buildings
Middle class
Movies
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The sensual dishevelment of a Roeg shoot (diaphanous dresses, cascading hair, and cloaks of cigarette smoke- Elisabeth Moss's pregnant Helen Wilder puffs away with the fragile, permanently distracted air of a borderline-psychotic living in a shaken state of denial) is suavely draped over the hard concreteand-plastic edges of Kubrick's architextural spaces (halls like gauntlets, kitchens like mini-operating theaters, an autopsy of a human head staged like a cooking demonstration). Looking at forward-facing auteurs from Ballard's perspective on the building and its architect, High-Rise is a distillation/ culmination of a host of doomstruck thought experiments.\n Wheatley handles it with an offhand glee, as in staging a costume party of the upper echelons as a Clockwork Barry Lyndon soiree, with a bewigged string quartet gamely playing "Waterloo" by ABBA.
ISSN:0015-119X