Trouble Every Day (2001)

Saw this last night and was blown away by it. For me it played as an intense psychological study of infidelity and addiction. The performances are taught and understated, as is the direction, with attention often focused on minute details.

I've seen negative reviews of this film from two different perspectives. One is the art-house maven who feels the scenes of sexual violence are gratuitous and in poor taste; Kevin Maher's comments in the Guardian are an example. Once these reviews have had an airing they tend to attract gorehounds, some of whom (going by online reviews) had been led to expect a genre movie and were disappointed. Hence you get a lot of complaints about slow pace, unresolved endings, lack of gore etc etc.

The movie does contain some quite disturbing scenes, but they serve to heighten the emotional drama that the film's really about rather than being an end in themselves. You've probably seen plenty of things more graphic than this without straying into the outer reaches of the horror genre. The sexualisation of the violence does make it more potentially upsetting, as does the psychological context Denis so delicately builds up.

As other reviewers have said, this isn't supposed to be a plot-driven action movie, but the storytelling is impeccable. The ambiguous ending is absolutely logical, and people who say it "doesn't end properly" astonish me. The ending makes perfect sense in light of everything that's gone before.

The back-story about the pharmaceutical company etc is pretty cheesy, but it helps to have some kind of nod towards an explanation for what's happened to the lead characters, and that's really all it is.

I think this one is going to stay with me a long time and I'd definitely re-watch it.

Fmovies: "Trouble Everyday" has been criticized a lot because of two scenes. Two very hard scenes to watch, which caused two women to faint at the Cannes Film Festival screening . Those scenes are not necessary in the film to understand it or enjoy it. The suspense is extremely well held during the whole movie and it didn't have to be so violent. So, the question is "why?". The story would have interested people like Hitchcock or Polanski, and they would have been more subtle and cautious. Claire Denis is not a cautious director. She likes to approach her films with honesty and courage. She chooses to tell a story and wants to tell it as frankly as possible. She did a rational choice that is very modern. Her film is complete, and absolutely credible. She shows us some things that have never been shown before. She explores cinema with anxious desire and rage. That's what makes her film so moving and realistic. As a conclusion, let's say that Beatrice Dalle gives the most incredible performance as a woman who feels like an animal but yet wants to die.

This slow moving horror movie might ignite some viewers to herald it is a misunderstood, haunting masterpiece of contemporary horror to place alongside Don't Look Now or, rather, The Addiction. This movie is no masterpiece. Clair Denis seems to be so full of her recent addition to the ranks of European auteurs, that she has seen fit to make this pretentious, preposterous mess. Certainly some directors can pull a "style-over-substance"-strategy off (e.g. Baz Luhrman), but Denis' refusal to give Trouble Every Day meaning is so frustrating that eventually you can't hold on any more. In a not so academic point of criticism, the film is 1) very boring, and 2) very gross. It seems, that Denis is never quite certain what the film is really about. Lust? Love? The dangers of biological tampering? Existential loneliness among modern city-dwellers? To this viewer it seems to be all about Clair Denis wanting to make a very "arty" horror movie. Well, she succeeded. This film is arty beyond the point of redemption.

Trouble Every Day fmovies. This movie is up until now the dullest and most boring movie of the Stockholm Film Festival. It is not touching, not moving, not repulsive, not anything, just boring. Slow and completely void of story and character development, it leaves me feeling empty. Lesson for the movie-makers: Just throwing in some blood and unnecessary rape doesn't take away that this is 100 minutes of nothing.

Crap I say.

The provocative cover image of a blood-spattered Beatrice Dalle only hints at the ferocity within Claire (Chocolat, Beau Travail) Denis' sad, haunting study of sex and cannibalism that caused record walkouts and faintings at its Cannes screening.

The voracious, predatory Core (Betty Blue's Dalle) is boarded up in a secluded Paris house by her husband, the errant scientist Leo (Alex Descas). She periodically escapes, seduces passing motorists and in sickening detail, methodically consumes her prey. Her fate is connected to a visiting American doctor Shane Brown (a seedy, unshaven, troubled-looking Vincent Gallo) on his honeymoon in Paris, apparently a test subject for Leo's experiments in unleashing the libido, and who is already having violent masturbatory fantasies of his gorgeous new bride (Tricia Vessey) covered in blood. "I will never hurt you," he whispers to his concerned wife, already showing a tell-tale bite mark on her shoulder.

Trouble Every Day is simply and beautifully shot, and while not as blatantly pornographic as Romance or Anatomy Of Hell, it has a dangerous and electric eroticism that's hard to shake. Wide-eyed Dalle says little yet conveys an air of both tragedy and primal appetite and doesn't overplay her animalism, while Gallo (Buffalo 66) is at his greasy, neurotic best. Its slow pace and spare action deliberately unfold the story in a distinctly European fashion; at the one hour mark the film switches from carnal to charnal, spiraling toward a grotesque and shattering crescendo worthy of the great excesses of the 70s art film. Stunning.

I can see why 'Trouble Every Day' divides viewers. Some find it slow, pretentious and boring, and I totally understand why. It certainly has moments that fit those adjectives, but then there are scenes of great power that really impress. It's difficult and sometimes frustrating viewing, sure, but very beautiful and brutal, and ultimately an extremely fascinating film. 'Trouble Every Day's arthouse approach to horror themes reminded me a little bit of both Abel Ferrara's 'The Addiction' and Jean Rollin's 'Night Of The Hunted', but that's just to give you an idea of the strange territory the movie enters. I can also understand where the David Cronenberg comparisons are coming from, but Claire Denis is a lot less clinical and detached. It's a very emotional movie, and a lot of that has to do with Vincent Gallo's subtle performance. Gallo ('Buffalo '66', 'The Funeral') is a controversial figure as a person, but as an actor there's no disputing his talent. His wife, played by 'Ghost Dog's Tricia Vessey, is also excellent, and Beatrice Dalle ('Betty Blue')'s performance is way out there, but it's Gallo's movie as far as I'm concerned. This movie is not to everyone's taste (no pun intended!), but if you are looking for something different and are willing to put some effort in, I highly recommend this film. There's nothing quite like it.