LeCadavreExquis — 9 years ago(August 02, 2016 02:21 AM)

I was pondering what
High-Rise
was about and the fact that it's hard to pin down, seems convoluted, erratic, might be a clue to its meaning.
If I recall correctly, Royal, the architect of these modern high-rises, states at one point that he is a 'modernist' and I suspect that the collapse of the project of modernity is what this film is about. The movie shows the elite trying to come to terms with the masses and (a) growing (demand for) democracy - and failing miserably at that. After the faillure of modernity we enter the era of post-modernity which would explain the incoherence, the lack of a clear, unified thematic core, which is a characteristic of post-modern art.
There's another aspect: the power has shifted from men to women. The emancipation process of women starts in modern times. And at the end of the movie women have replaced men at the top of the tower. The intellectual male, Royal, the architect, part of the elite, is dead; the beastly male brute, Wilder, is dead too (both very much have speaaking names, btw). This explains Thatcher's very real speach in a movie that takes place in a world that resembles ours, but that in no way adheres to the mimetic ideals of realism
.
Ghosts and lovers, they will haunt you for a while