Trouble Every Day

Plot synopsis:
An American couple, Dr. Shane Brown and his wife, June, go to Paris, supposedly for their honeymoon. In reality, Shane has travelled to Paris to hunt down neuroscientist Dr. Léo Sémeneau and his wife, Coré, whom he once knew and was obsessed with.
Despite having once had a prolific career, Léo is now working as a General practitioner to keep a low profile. He locks Coré up in their house every day but she occasionally manages to escape and violently murder men. To protect her, Léo buries the bodies.
A couple of men who have been casing the Sémeneau home eventually break in where one of them finds Coré in a boarded up room. After she seduces him, they start to have sex, but she violently bites him to death, ripping out his tongue with her teeth.
Meanwhile, a doctor who once worked with Léo gives Shane the couple's address, explaining that Coré is unwell. After Shane rushes to the house he discovers that the house has been broken into and that Coré is covered in blood. He watches her light the house on fire and when she finally becomes aware of his presence she tries to bite him. However, Shane is able to overpower her. He strangles her and leaves her to be consumed by the flames. Just after he leaves, Léo arrives and witnesses the carnage and the dead Coré.
After Coré's death, Shane becomes strange and distant, stopping in the middle of sex with his wife and finishing by masturbating, running away from her, and adopting a puppy. Finally he returns to the hotel where he has sex with a maid, eventually biting her to death.

Tags: violence, suspenseful, murder, romantic

Review:
You've got to hand it to Claire Denis - it could have all gone horribly wrong were it not for her ability to set just the right poetic tone and mood.This film is lovely to look at and the camera work is captivating.
There was not a moment that I didn't fully believe Core's plight and pity and fear her.When the movie begins Core has already completely succumbed to the unexplained sickness that Shane spends most of the film trying to suppress.
Core is locked indoors all day in an attempt to prevent her from killing but she finds her way out and eventually the prey comes to her.The two much talked about cannibalism scenes occur pretty late in the film and are worthy of the fuss -they are stunning.There isn't enough plot development to figure out exactly what is happening to these people or why.
There is something gratuitous about the scenes of explicit violence in "Trouble Every Day" but I see no reason why this is grounds to reject the film outright.
'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.
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.
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).
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.
Although I liked Claire Denis' "Trouble Every Day" even more on this second viewing, I can fully understand why many hate the film.
It is also moody, brilliantly photographed by Agnes Godard, excellently-acted, and genuinely unsettling, and not just for the much-talked about gore (which takes up around five or so minutes of the film over two scenes).The film's thin plot is based around dark scientific secrets and is more than a little reminiscent of one of David Cronenberg's sexually-charged horror films, but Denis' approach is completely different.
We don't find out very much about these experiments, but we don't need to; the film is about the characters, especially Shane (played brilliantly by Vincent Gallo), and the film is ultimately more about Shane's struggle with his condition and his love for his wife (girlfriend?
There are two scenes of gore, both far from the worst anybody well-acquainted with horror films has seen in terms of the actual on-screen violence, but it is testament to Denis' great skill as director and the actors' great conviction that they feel so hard to watch, in particular the latter scene.
The brilliant photography and Denis' wonderful mise-en-scène capture this warm feel very well, especially during the sex scene between Shane and his wife .The critics who almost unanimously lambasted the film in 2001 raise some good points.
Perhaps "Trouble Every Day" is under-written, although I enjoyed the fact that the film let me piece things together rather than tell me precisely what was going on.
He hopes to rid himself of the bloodthirsty urges that have always plagued him.The real shock found in this film is my surprise introduction to Beatrice Dalle, who I have never before seen in a movie and near whom I hope to be wearing football gear inside the Batmobile if I ever see her in person.
It was clever of writer/director Claire Denis to cast two notoriously wild atypical people of extremity in their roles.Denis's scenes of gore, which due to her focus on the morose feelings of the characters, mainly Gallo, his wife, and Dalle are intermittent and often difficult to anticipate, are extremely disturbing.
His searching involves a lot of really bad acting; staring bug eyed at people while he delivers his lines as if he is reading them straight from cue cards and having a hard time making out the words.
I was hoping to see Beatrice Dalle show some of her considerable acting talent, but each time she got started there was a scene cut back to Vincent trying unsuccessfully to be an actor.If you have to watch this, I hope the popcorn is good.
The plot has something to do with Vincent Gallo and some woman in France that eat people and get messy with the blood whilst making new orafices in their victims for god knows what!
boring story (is there really a story, anyway), terrible acting (except for José Garcia, in two shots, which was a complete and pleasant surprise, especially at that time, while he was only acting in comedies), horrible camera and lighting.I really can't understand who could ever give money to produce such an awful thing one could hardly call a movie.Avoid at all cost..
I don't know where to begin with this movie, it's just such a drag of a movie that seemingly goes on forever and focus on all the wrong things for the more part.I tried watching it one 2 other ocassions but I just couldn't get into it so I switched it off and put on something else.On the third I decided to just stick with it so I've at least watched it once, and kinda wished I hadn't.A lot of long boring everyday scenes of people doing much to nothing or walking from point a to b or Vincent Gallo playing the fiddle (metaphorically speaking...
yes just that, not once but twice in the movie we witness this, luckily nothing too graphic there at least).There is a little gore but only in a couple scenes so the poster if a all bloody woman is a little misleading if you ask me.And those scenes tbh feel a bit random, but then I suppose everything in this movie does, and there doesn't seem to be much point to anything (although I'm sure it does I just didn't have the patience or desire to translate some potential symbolisms as it was just boring simple and plain).Beatrice Dalle is the only redeeming factor and why I give this a 2 instead of a 1..
I also don't mind if a film moves relatively slowly, but it takes a few morsels of plot along the way to smoulder my interest, Trouble Every Day fails to keep that interest and it's almost as if the director thought he could pad out 90% of the film with any dreary old shots because we wanted to see the reported shocking ending.
This is really a slow-paced and mostly boring film with mainly sexual-cannibalism as it`s focus.The actual storyline is quite intriguing and beautiful,pity then that this french director does`nt do it justice when it comes to convey it on screen.Well,you may ask;are`nt there any redeeming qualities about this film?As I said,this is a film that is MOSTLY boring,well when director Denise goes for the jugular,she truly does!!There are two flesh-consuming scenes here that,in my opinion,could be deemed to be very realistic,and I am especially referring to the burglary-scene.Seldom have I witnessed a more graphic presentation of love-bites,he,he.Nice set of teeth there!!Is this really worth a buy?Yes and no.If you,as I do,cherish mayhem and gloat over the macabre scenes portrayed here,wanting to show it to everybody(hoping they`ll vomit eventually,he!),then yes.On the other hand if you are looking for a remotely exciting film,then better avoid.Better still,rent it and copy the two scenes worth watching.Well,that truly was some expert advice,don`t you think?You`re welcome!.
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.
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..
It is a love story, like "Realm of the Senses," or "Pillow Book," but instead of allowing us the safety of "watching," it forces us to inhabit the fear of passion.And. And it is from a woman who, for instance, knows that when you photograph skin, it is the movement of hair that matters, and when you get intimate, the hairs must be those finest, those ones that only a lover sees and makes move.
In the background are clueless beauties, men and women, who are destroyed, like the cars in an action movie's chase scene.Dalle made this the same year she made "H Story," which I count as one of the purest of film abstractions.
Beatrice Dalle does "unhinged" as well as Vincent Gallo does "creepy", and Tricia Vessey does the whole doe-eyed tortured gamine well, but there's just not enough plot to carry the implausible story line (ousted doctor tweaks plants in Africa that somehow leads to at least two people who may or may not have been lovers becoming sex-triggered cannibals).
It's easy to see why some people hate Trouble Every Day. It's very slow and the characters don't act like you or I (i.e. Normal.
Trouble Every Day is a film in which you need to get into the right frame of mind before or as you watch it.
It's "art" and is aware that it's a film, thus it thrives on its unsettling atmosphere and if you let that engulf you then you're likely to become strangely engrossed in its weird characters and mysterious plot.There are some moments of brilliance.
The story is a fairly simple one that takes forever to unwind: a former doctor (possibly current doctor, details are kept sparse) honeymoons with his new bride, and uses their trip to track down another doctor who is treating his wife for some sort of sadistic vampirism or something of that sort.The movie, like sex caught on camera, is both disturbing and beautiful, visceral and permeating, yet somehow lacking.
the scenes of sexual violence and cannibalism are some of the most brutal I've ever seen and the images truly stay with you long after the movie is over.
Trouble Every Day. Claire Denis' work, Trouble Every Day is An example of a strange mix, as a horror film, it supplies prodigious amounts of sex and gore with a wildly over-the-top mise-en-scène.
Voodoo-practitioner  Afro-French male doctor's sex-toy creature allowed leaving her locked room by a hypnotised curious intruder being consumed during copulating, is overpowered by a strong American happened to drop in into a doctor's house at the timing, who had since then fallen into her footsteps of a thirst for blood and flash during orgasm.A perverted love of "Dracula" mixed with an unstoppable quest for sadist sex of "Frisk", framed with Parisian charm makes this terrific film realistic to a degree of a potential usage by anti-AIDS and pro-obscenity campaigners.Highly recommended..
You'll only know this though if you've read the back of the video box, at no point in the film is this made particularly clear.The two main characters are the french woman and American man who are the product of the bizarre medical experiment, destined to carry out similar acts of sexual violence on the unsuspecting population.
The Male has recently married and returns to Paris for his honeymoon and to track down the doctor responsible; the strong point of the whole film is his struggle to balance his sexual aggression with his fear of hurting his new wife.The Female in contrast embraces her role as sexual predator and her first scenes are the most interesting, being at one and the same time horrific and erotic.The whole film takes form of a character study rather than one with a plot as such, its more of how these two people interact with the people around them, how they view the rest of the world who are essentially incompatible with their way of life.Thought provoking and unsettling, this is not a film for those who want a good story, its more an exercise in acting, cinematography and an examination of the sexual rage which is inherent in the human condition.
Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day is a film that probably shouldn't have been made, but now it exists and it is out in the open ready to be watched.
Trouble Every Day is a great horror film, but it's intense subject matter and qualities makes it more for the most brave moviegoers.(For an extended version of this comment, as well as other comments like this, visit www.cuddercityfilmchronicles.blogspot.com)..
The last scene is testimonial of the whole mood and story of the film.Well giving anything away in this movie would be bad, but just for the comment sake its "a love story with a bizarre twist to it".
"Trouble Every Day" has to be one of the most surprising horror movies I have ever seen.Newlyweds Shane and June(Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey)arrive in Paris for their honeymoon,but Shane seems to have other motives for the trip.He leaves his wife and goes looking for someone named Leo(Alex Descas).Leo has an apparent research subject and possible lover(Beatrice Dalle)locked up in his attic:Dalle is very dangerous because she has the unfortunate habit of luring young men to her bed and then killing them as she has sex with them.She bites their necks and smears their blood on herself(for example in one truly unpleasant scene,she actually chews off one's face).The film is monotonous and slow-moving,so fans of Hollywood's horror tripe will be disappointed.Still it's a great piece of thought-provoking cinema so if you're a horror fan give this nasty little gem a look..
Two of the characters (Vincent Gallo and Beatrice Dalle) are affected by a strange illness: they need to have violent sexual relationships with unknown people and to kill these people by biting and eating them during the sex act.
While the film does take place in France, the director, Claire Denis has made the fate of the characters so realistic and haunting that it's hard to shake off.
Luckily for us all, the marriage is unconsummated; if not, there wouldn't be much point in a script -- or a film.This whole feeble conceit strains what little credulity this movie has -- a seemingly sweet, intelligent, sensitive and sensible woman falls in love and marries an extremely creepy guy (Gallo) who just happens to be a conflicted cannibal.
Disclaimer: I find that writing these things is pointless but something happens to me when I see love/hate reviews by people who watch art house and horror films.
Here we have a French horror film, directed by Claire Denis.
In one way this must have surprised Claire Denis as "Trouble every day" deals with the same subject matter as her other films (at least the ones I've seen), i.e. desire.
Don't throw in awful scenes just to make the film partially coherent, don't CYA, don't bore me with Vincent Gallo attempting to read dialogue.
Such an interesting relationship should have spent more time on screen than anything with Gallo having his "headaches."I think this film would have been quite good had the back story just been absent.
The possible answer: People realize that in "Salo", the director actually meant what he was showing and telling his audience, while in Claire Denis' movie, the bloody, brutal, dark and somewhat cold pictures sometimes strike a humorist dimension - however, in a place where humor normally is absent."Trouble every day" with his completely misleading title, possibly also inspired by humor, shows a highly artistic way of dealing with subjects that we have no chance to meet in this form in our world, thus disclosing by the signs of the pictures which constitute this film a metaphysical reality which is a fully imaginary as well as imaginative construct.
However, in exactly this way, Claire Denis meets with Pasolini, and hence the intention of the two directors is the only thing that differs basically (abstracting from the different superficial story-lines of the two movies, of course).
Like another recent film of Dalle's, 'Trouble Every Day'f features an extremely cringeworthy scene that sent chills up and down my spine.
Claire Denis' "Trouble Every Day" stars Vincent Gallo as Shane, a scientist who once worked in South America.
I was pretty excited to get my hands on a copy of TROUBLE EVERY DAY, as I am a fan of Vincent Gallo's works that I've seen so far, and also as a horror fan, this one slipped under my radar.
On one hand - the story seems interesting and I liked the way that the plot and characters were exposed a little bit at a time...it made everything that transpired in the film feel sort of "mysterious".
Some more confusing things happen upon and after this "meeting", and then the film ends abruptly with no real resolution...The good thing about TROUBLE EVERY DAY, is that all the way through it, it was really interesting.