Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2001
Trouble Every Day (film)
Buy Trouble Every Day (film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Trouble Every Day
| image = Trouble every day ver2.jpg
| alt =
| caption = French theatrical poster
| director = Claire Denis
| producer = Georges Benayoun
| screenplay =
| starring =
| music = Tindersticks
| cinematography = Agns Godard
| editing = Nelly Quettier
| production_companies =
| distributor =
| released =
| runtime = 101 minutes
| country =
| language =
| budget = $3.8 million
| gross = $800.000
}}
'Trouble Every Day' is a 2001 French erotic horror film directed by Claire Denis and written by Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau. It stars Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Batrice Dalle, Alex Descas and Marilu Marini. The film's soundtrack is provided by Tindersticks.
Alice Houri, who starred in Denis' previous film 'Nnette et Boni', has a small cameo as a girl on a metro who watches Shane.
Plot
An American couple, Dr. Shane Brown and his wife June, go to Paris, ostensibly for their honeymoon. In reality, Shane has come to Paris to hunt down neuroscientist Dr. Lo Smeneau and his wife, Cor, whom Shane once knew and was obsessed with. Despite having had a prolific career, Lo is now working as a general practitioner to keep a low profile. He locks Cor in their house every day, but she occasionally escapes and initiates sex with men before violently murdering them. To protect her, Lo buries the bodies.
Shane begins investigating Smeneau's whereabouts. A doctor who once worked with Lo eventually gives Shane the couple's address, explaining that Cor is unwell. Meanwhile, two young men who have been casing the Smeneau home break in, and one of them finds Cor in a boarded-up room. After she seduces him, they begin to have sex, but she violently bites him to death, ripping out his tongue with her teeth. When Shane arrives at the house, he discovers Cor covered in blood. She tries to bite him, but Shane is able to overpower her. As he strangles her, she drops a match, setting the house on fire. Shane leaves her to be consumed by the flames. Just after Shane departs, Lo arrives and witnesses the carnage and the dead Cor.
After Cor's death, Shane becomes strange and distant. While having sex with his wife, he stops and finishes by masturbating, then runs away from her and adopts a puppy. Finally, he goes to a hotel where he brutally rapes a maid and bites her to death, then showers and washes the blood from his body. His wife enters and the couple agree to return home.
Cast
* Vincent Gallo as Shane Brown
* Tricia Vessey as June Brown
* Batrice Dalle as Cor
* Alex Descas as Lo Semenau
* Florence Loiret Caille as Christelle
* Nicolas Duvauchelle as Erwan
* Raphal Neal as Ludo
* Jos Garcia as Choart
* Hlne Lapiower as Malcot
* Marilu Marini as Friessen
* Aurore Clment as Jeanne
Release
'Trouble Every Day' was screened out of competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
Reception
The film received mixed reactions from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 49% rating, based on 49 reviews. The site's consensus states: "An erotic thriller dulled by a messy narrative." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Derek Elley of 'Variety' wrote that it is "over-long, under-written and needlessly obscure instead of genuinely atmospheric." Chris Fujiwara of 'The Boston Globe' was more positive, but concludes by calling the film "a success in some sense, but it's hard to like a film so cold and dead."
Later, the film developed a small following who admire it for its themes of existentialism and its unique take on the horror genre as well as gender roles. It was given an in depth analysis by 'Salon.com' which looked at the intricacies of the film, particularly the metaphorical nature of the narrative. At Film Freak Central, Walter Chaw said, "Plaintive and sad, Claire Denis' 'Trouble Every Day' is a rare combination of honesty, beauty, and maybe even genius."[http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/troubleeveryday.htm review] The film has been associated with the New French Extremity.Quandt, James, "Flesh & Blood: Sex and violence in recent French cinema", 'ArtForum', February 2004 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_6_42/ai_113389507] Accessdate: 10 July 2008.
See also
* Vampire films
References
Buy Trouble Every Day (film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2001