Customer Reviews

Trouble Every Day

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, I would have never known about this film except that I happen to like Tindersticks who performed the haunting soundtrack to this equally haunting film. Just knowing that Tindersticks had something to do with it convinced me that Trouble Every Day was probably a worthwhile addition to my DVD collection. And indeed it is.
The first time I watched the film, I found it interesting in a strange way, but did not completely understand it. The clamshell was no help, the seller I bought it from here on amazon sent me a Chinese (bootleg?) edition that nevertheless played perfectly but provided no further information to those who cannot read Chinese. (The film is in English with a smattering of French thrown in. Subtitles are available.) So I watched without really knowing what to expect besides the tidbits I'd gleaned from reading the reviews.
The second time through, I understood it better. Leo Semenau, a renegade researcher into the workings of the human libido, had a wife who was satisfied only by killing and partially devouring her sexual partner. I don't want to give away the whole story, but you'll see that after Dr Semenau discovers his wife's proclivity, he is forced to barricade her in his home whenever he goes to work. Trouble is, she manages to get out and claim another victim. Then, let's just say, there's trouble every day.
Where does the American couple fit in? It seems that Shane used to work with Dr Semenau in French Guyana and had read some of his research and as it turns out at one time was interested in the woman who became Semenau's wife. Shane had the same problem as Semanau's wife and had come while on honeymoon to seek out Semenau in the hope that he had found a cure. Shane is ashamed that he can't consummate his marriage because of his problem, but he dare not tell his demure wife why.
Now Semenau had left the research lab where he had worked and went into general practice as an MD, but at his fortress-like home he maintained a brain research lab and a greenhouse full of tropical plants which are the likely source of the omnipresent pills you see in the movie. Tension builds, the next sex-killing is more graphic and gruesome, and it all ends with the listener wondering whether or not the devouring of the maid has cured Shane, or will his beloved bride June become his next victim?
Confused? You bet! Like a David Lynch movie, this riveting film will have you going back time and again trying to figure out what happened and why. Its brutal, sometimes humorous, and often sexy in its own way. If you like weird films, well here is one you won't forget! And the eerie Tindersticks soundtrack is just one more reason to watch and listen.

This is one of the most beautifully done films that I've ever seen. I wish that more filmmakers had the nerve to make something so emotionally charged and thought provoking. It is certainly one of the best horror films that I've ever seen, (and horror is my favorite genre). Despite some of the naysaying, Vincent Gallo gives a wonderful performance. He barely manages to hold all of his character's extreme tension back, showing us a man who is always on the verge of cracking. When he does crack, there is at least some sense of temporary relief for him. However he is racked with guilt because of his actions. The guilt and self-loathing that are eventually produced by said actions start the cycle of his sad and horrid life all over again. I have to say that I've haven't seen a film that can sicken, delight, provoke sympathy, and excite the imagination quite like this one. It is a unique piece of cinema and I am glad that Denis had the guts to make it. Bravo to her and her crew and cast. A testament to the Theatre of Cruelty.

VERY subtle french horror flick, that's very light on the dialogue
The obscure intricacies of the plot alone make this a film that merits multiple viewings, if just to get the story 100% straight.
Within it's subtlety though, also lies it's violence,
but not so much as to turn viewers away.
American newlyweds visit France,
so the husband can find his colleague;
a scientist he worked with on an experiment involving the human libido.
The scientist (Leo) he is seeking, is secretly keeping his own wife locked in a room, on the second floor of his giant home.
This is due to her hyper-active sex-drive which leads her to acts of murder & savage cannibalism.
Some days while he's at work though,
she just gets out and causes some sultry, blood-spattered mayhem.
Often picking up truckers, to kill & consume in a nearby field.
Not only does the good doctor have to worry about his mentally primal wife,
but he also has to contend with nosey teenage neighbors breaking in,
in an attempt to foolishly rescue the mad-lover.
All of this culminates quite violently in the end.
But once again, though it's gorey, it is quite subtle,
if you can believe that.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Sometimes you love someone so much, you just could just eat them....literally.

Love bites, literally. This utterly disturbing and obscure yet beautiful and tender film tells about people with a deviation - they can't love the way normal people do, they have this obsessive urge to devour their loved ones alive! Just like a female mantis or certain kind of female spiders devour their spouse right after copulating. For them love and sex are impossible without pain, blood and death.
Here we see a mentally-disturbed woman (played by Beatrice Dalle) who preys on men seduced be her sexuality, and a character of Vincent Gallo, who feels the need to bite, to gnaw and to suck blood of a girl he loves but he refrains himself (untill a certain moment) trying to be a reasonable man.
This stylish, wonderfully-paced and delicate movie shows the thin line between true love and sadism, between the desire to caress and to torment. It can have a huge effect on you because this lingering, viscous and sad film at times explodes with truly infernal and disturbing scenes which won't leave you indifferent. Speaking of disturbing images I can tell you "Trouble Every Day" has some of the most thrilling ones among all I've seen. Even if not for the gore itself you would be shuddered watching agony of a man being eaten during a coitus.
This is definately not an exploitation flick, watch it if you like dark and serious movies like "Irreversible".

My first impression was that of disappointment. Trouble Every Day is certainly a loosely presented film. The script is barebones and the acting at times positively atrocious. I extended all of this labor for a mediocre film? It is important to understand its context in contemporary French cinema, though. Trouble Every Day came out during the high reign of "French Extreme Cinema," and it follows many of the implicit guidelines of this sub-genre: Loose structure, shallow characters existing solely as thematic stand-ins, a violent current that strips the viewer of all comfort levels so that the film is viewed in the most vulnerable state. Trouble Every Day certainly delivers on all of these fronts. I had forgotten how graphically violent it was. I suppose because the violence is SO allegorical, I always construe the sequence as a sex scene rather than a killing. But after Core has consumed her victim, you certainly are stripped to a more weary state of observation. It is also a wonderfully critical homage to exploitation horror cinema. It explores, quite frankly, the trouble with the simplicity of exploitation horror with very quiet asides and - in faltering the film's own structure it functions as a larger critique of this genre. The plot structure is so simple that it becomes a mere suggestion. With the whole genre, I joke that you will glean more reading the box cover than from actually watching the film (plot wise). And here, all we ever get are suggestions of a plot that we already know all too well. It's not necessary to the film. The film thrives on our prior knowledge of the horror genre, offering us an explanation for other similar films while poeticizing its use of their structures.

What's funny about Trouble Every Day is how much it pissed off just about everybody. Director Claire Denis' previous film Beau Travail was heralded as a glorious gift to the canon of cinema. People could not stop singing their love for the film. Even today, it is annoying. I am among the few that was completely unimpressed by the film. Aesthetically it was lovely, but... I just wanted more. It is the kind of film that "proper" capital C Cinefiles wet their pants over. I suppose I'm not one of them. These were the people that, when Trouble Every Day was released (out of competition at Cannes, no less) were incensed at the alleged mediocrity of the film. I have never actually read a good review of the film - a review that hasn't called it gratuitous, plodding and such a waste of a good filmmaker. Whatever. If my life has a mission it is that these so called lesser get acknowledged as nothing more than equal to their "distinguished" others. As an aside, there was a fantastic article of some similar topics published in yesterday's New York Times.

I must say that I think Trouble Every Day is a very good film in many ways. It is prefaced with a short sequence of a couple kissing in a car. This is truly all the intro we need to contextualize the film. What we will watch for the next 90 minutes is summed up in this kiss. All of the violence and yearning are contained in this kiss. When Beatrice Dalle starts devouring her victim, it is exposing the line that is everpresent in human carnality. These are, of course, extreme examples, but for god's sake, you are watching a horror film. A horror film is nothing but essentialized examples of the fears that rack our public consciousness. Some critical studies departments teach history through the horror film because the subject/monster of the film is always that thing that is forefront in public consciousness. Trouble Every Day speaks to many fears, AIDS is very present as well as these powerplays and social structures. Vincent Gallo cannot consume his wealthy and pure American wife, but the eroticized foreign maid is below him totemically, and is, therefore, easy prey. It is a social critique as well as genre. When I first watched the film, without understanding the racial politics of french culture, I did not understand the implications that the killing of the maid suggests. This is a common thread throughout most of Denis' films and allows a greater sense of purpose to Trouble Every Day.

Ultimately, Trouble Every Day is a visually stunning (another job well done by cinematographer Agnes Goddard) nod to horror/exploitation cinema that furthers a discussion of just what we are looking at when we watch a horror film. The characters are SO meta that we cannot take them for actual people and this is perhaps the best success of the film. The film presents us with a theory of not only horror cinema, but of the human condition. It's not a pretty one, but it hardly ever is...

Unless you have Netflix, good luck trying to find the movie "Trouble Every Day." It doesn't appear to be available in America, although if it were released in America people would see it due to its synopsis. Watching "Trouble Every Day" I realized the film seemed written by a man that had an idea and an ending. He took what he had, skipped the part about the plot and dialogue, and wrote this film. It's a cannibal movie, a horror film that is in both French and English and stars the most unlikely actor to inhabit it...Vincent Gallo. I like Gallo and wanted to see more of his films, so I looked at his filmography. That's how I wound up with this film. I like horror films and I like Vincent Gallo, so I figure I didn't have anything to lose. Problem is, Gallo sleepwalks through this film. He seems like he agreed to do it for the money and wasn't into it all. He's still good though. Gallo can play a psychopath and had he been given a coherent script and a meaty psychopathic role, he could've done something with it. Love him or hate him, I think anyone could admit that he would make a good psychopath. Some of the scenes in the film prove that. One critic even said (I'm paraphrasing) that Gallo looked so dirty in the film that when he steps out of the shower in one scene he looks like he needs a shower. True, Gallo does seem to be in a permanent state of disarray with his lack of shaving and disheveled hair. Anyway, the movie takes place in France where a medical doctor keeps a cannibalistic woman locked in his house. He seems to let her feed once in a while, but usually he keeps her in. The movie fails to develop either character, explain their motives, or even really explain what's going on. On the other end of the spectrum is an American named Shane Brown (Gallo) who is honeymooning in Paris with his new wife. Shane has recently begun to find himself hungry for humans. The movie, once again, does not develop his character or even give him that much dialogue. If you see this movie and are telling your friends about it, the only seen you'll talk about is the ending. The ending not only has a brutal death (gives new meaning to the term "eating out"), but also a very well filmed shot of a single drop of blood. You'll see what I mean if you decide to watch this. The movie is really dull...So dull that even when blood and cannibalism appear in the movie it only grabs your attention for a few moments. It's like "The Brown Bunny" meets "In My Skin." The movie lacks plot, character development, a coherent script, suspense, and scares. The only memorable scene is the ending. Props to Gallo though for apparently refusing to comb his hair throughout the shoot.

GRADE: D+

I'm into offbeat films, foreign films and all genres of films including horror. I had high hopes for this one, thinking it would combine my likes, but was disappointed. It was shot and acted well, but had no plot and no point. Yes, drugs and sex can be addicting, we know that. Yes, humans eating other humans is creepy, but we've seen that before. Other than the interesting visuals, this film has little going for it and I cannot recommend it.

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. Sadly, most people who watch it will likely wish that they hadn't. It's a hopeless, deeply intense, and horrifically disturbing film that will leave most audiences pretty much polarized. It is a film that brings to mind the style of Michael Haneke and the aesthetic quality and themes of David Cronenberg. It's a jarring film, but quietly so. It is a film that should speak for itself above all because it's a difficult film to describe and to digest, and these words that I am using to describe the film cannot come close to doing it justice. It is like Blue Velvet in that it is impossible to predict what you are really in for when you sit down and watch it. There is no plot. There are actions. A mad doctor keeps his sick wife locked up in her room. She suffers from a deadly cannibalistic zombie disease. Another man has the same ailment and tries to control his urges for flesh while on his honeymoon in Paris. A young maid slowly and unwillingly becomes sucked into his situation. What can I say? This is a very troubling film.

Trouble Every Day requires a lot of patience to sit through. It is slow paced, but very purposefully so. It is minimalistic horror at it's absolute best and most stringent. Somehow, however, it manages to convey nearly every basic emotion while allowing itself to unfold with the utmost simplicity. It's one of the messiest art films that one can come across, but justifiably so. Take, for instance, the early scenes which detail the man on a plane with his wife on their way to Paris and how haunting the scene is. They kiss tenderly and passionately and it is romantic and beautiful. He goes into the bathroom and becomes frenzied, his urges becoming stronger and more prominent and the film becomes psychological in his plight. The film prior to this scene shows a man in a field discovering a devoured corpse, the blood and gore coating the long grass. The scene is handled not as horrific, however, but more eerie and stoic in it's minimal detailing. The scenes in this film unfold in a quiet and suspenseful way that does become incredibly scary. Nothing about the film is outright scary, but the lingering tension and the intensity of the situations as a whole come off all too effective and as a result it becomes one of the hardest films to forget. The film just exists. When you watch it, you will feel dropped into the middle of a film. There is no beginning or end to this story. The film shows a world of desperate craving, inhuman madness, and disgusting behavior.

The only problem I have with this film is it's moments in which is does try to develop the plot rather than the characters. Since there's no plot, the film's attempts to suddenly place one into the film's style come off as a complete failure. Basically the scenes I'm talking about are all the scenes in which the characters have dialogue. Vincent Gallo is a fantastic actor, but his voice is one of the most unusual voices I have ever heard. He sounds high-pitched and shrill, and it comes off incredibly bizarre given his large posterior. I don't fault his voice as being an unneeded aspect of this film, but rather the direction that his character is taken in as a fault. There should be no direction, and that's the problem with those scenes. I say the same for Beatrice Dalle's character. Thankfully her scenes come off completely monstrous and horrible, which is the way it should be. Let the characters be characters, but don't develop them into the plot. Develop them on their own. Thankfully ninety five percent of the film is about character development rather than plot development and the whole film is very haunting as a whole so it is easy to forget what is happening during these scenes and it does not become a problem, only a minor issue. I think the only people who will take more issue with this film are the people who either don't care for the subject matter or don't care for this film's style, in which case they have no reason to watch this film anyway.

Many viewers will walk away not entirely sure what they just watched. There are two scenes (one of them a graphic rape scene) that will cause many viewers to not even finish it. Don't dismiss the film entirely though. It will grow on you soon after you have finished it. It is not the kind of film that asks for the audience's attention. It is the kind of film that simply delivers quality suspense, gore, and romance in equal measure, but develops it all to it's most intense. It is one of the most intense films I've watched, and that is saying something. I think it is films like this that really remind me that the French are making some of the most challenging horror films. Trouble Every Day is a great horror film, but it's intense subject matter and qualities makes it more for the most brave moviegoers.

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.