Trouble Every Day is a 2001 erotic horror film directed by Claire Denis and written by Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau. It stars Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice Dalle, Alex Descas and Marilu Marini. The film's soundtrack is provided by Tindersticks. The plot follows American scientist Shane Brown, who neglects his wife on their honeymoon to Paris to locate his former colleague Léo Semenau and his wife Coré, who holds cannibalistic urges.
| Trouble Every Day | |
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 French theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Claire Denis |
| Screenplay by |
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| Produced by | Georges Benayoun |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Agnès Godard |
| Edited by | Nelly Quettier |
| Music by | Tindersticks |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 101 minutes[1] |
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| Budget | $3.8 million |
| Box office | $800.000[2] |
Described as part of the New French Extremity film movement, the film caused controversy at its premiere at 2001 Cannes Film Festival and polarized critics, with many booing or walking out during the screening.[3]
Plot
editAn 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. Léo Sémeneau and his wife, Coré, whom Shane once knew and was obsessed with. Despite having had a prolific career, Léo is now working as a general practitioner to keep a low profile. He locks Coré in their house every day, but she occasionally escapes and initiates sex with men before violently murdering them. To protect her, Léo buries the bodies.
Shane begins investigating Sémeneau's whereabouts. A doctor who once worked with Léo eventually gives Shane the couple's address, explaining that Coré is unwell. Meanwhile, two young men who have been casing the Sémeneau home break in, and one of them finds Coré 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 Coré 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, Léo arrives and witnesses the carnage and the dead Coré.
After Coré'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 returns to the hotel where he is honeymooning while his wife is away. He then proceeds to brutally rape a maid he has been observing throughout the film 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
edit- Vincent Gallo as Shane Brown
- Tricia Vessey as June Brown
- Béatrice Dalle as Coré
- Alex Descas as Léo Semenau
- Florence Loiret Caille as Christelle
- Nicolas Duvauchelle as Erwan
- Raphaël Neal as Ludo
- José Garcia as Choart
- Hélène Lapiower as Malécot
- Marilu Marini as Friessen
- Aurore Clément as Jeanne
Production
editDevelopment
editThe film's genesis dates back to 1989, when Claire Denis, on a short film in New York, met Vincent Gallo. At the request of a television channel, she considered a project for a horror genre film set at night in the city, starring Gallo. The project never came to fruition, but the idea of a gore film persisted in her mind. While filming Beau Travail, she resumed the screenplay with Jean-Pol Fargeau and developed the writing for Trouble Every Day, planning from the outset to entrust the lead roles to Vincent Gallo, thus realizing her ten-year-old idea, and Béatrice Dalle.[4] Among the central elements that Denis put in the film were the descriptions of romantic relationships through the prism of predation,[5][6] sexual desire, and the devouring part of the other touching on symbolic vampirism, as described in 19th century novels,[7] the mysterious illnesses that strike certain people and the search for remedies (Denis evoked research on vaccines, medicinal plants, neurobiology and the study of behaviors, as well as certain works of Jean-Pierre Changeux, whom she met), and the references to children's tales (stories of ogres and princesses).[4][8][7]
From the first version of the script, consisting of a long text before its re-division into classic sections, Denis sought to create a permanent feeling of danger and anxiety.[7] To do this, she drew inspiration from the works of Canadian photographer Jeff Wall, whose books she gave to Agnès Godard, her director of photography, in order to create this sought-after atmosphere.
Filming
editAlice Houri, who starred in Denis' previous film Nénette et Boni, has a small cameo as a girl on a metro who watches Shane.
Release
editTrouble Every Day was screened out of competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.[9]
Reception
editThe film received mixed reviews from critics and generated controversy upon its screening at Cannes, with many booing and walking out, as well as two women in the audience fainting due to the film's violence, requiring an ambulance to be called.[10][11] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a "rotten" approval rating of 56%, with an average rating of 6.0/10 based on 61 reviews. The site's consensus states: "An erotic thriller dulled by a messy narrative."[12] 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".[13]
Derek Elley of Variety described the film as "over-long, under-written and needlessly obscure instead of genuinely atmospheric."[14] Chris Fujiwara of The Boston Globe was more positive, but concluded his review by calling the film "a success in some sense, but it's hard to like a film so cold and dead."[15]
Later, the film developed a small cult 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 which looked at the intricacies of the film, particularly the metaphorical nature of the narrative.[citation needed] 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."[16] The film has been associated with the New French Extremity.[17][18][19][20]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "TROUBLE EVERY DAY (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 20 May 2002. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ^ "Trouble Every Day (2001) - JPBox-Office".
- ^ Gibbons, Fiachra; Jeffries, Stuart (14 May 2001). "Cannes audience left open-mouthed". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
- ^ a b "Claire Denis - Leçons de ténèbre". Les Inrockuptibles. 3 July 2001. Archived from the original on 3 July 2001.
- ^ "Human Predations". Libération (in French). 6 August 2001. Archived from the original on 6 August 2001.
- ^ "Quit or "Trouble"". Libération. 11 July 2001. Archived from the original on 11 July 2001.
- ^ a b c "How to always go further?". Libération. 11 July 2001. Archived from the original on 11 July 2001.
- ^ "Trouble Every Day". Télérama. 14 July 2001. Archived from the original on 14 July 2001.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Trouble Every Day". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
- ^ Press, Liverpool University (6 August 2021). "Twenty years of Trouble Every Day (2001)". Liverpool University Press Blog. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
- ^ "Charlie Brownlee- Trouble Every Day (2001) Review: Claire Denis' Horror Romance is a Gory, Polarizing Portrait of Carnal Love and Desire | Aspect: Journal of Film and Screen Media". aspectfilmjournal.web.unc.edu. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
- ^ "Trouble Every Day". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ^ "Trouble Every Day". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ^ Derek Elley (14 May 2001). "Trouble Every Day". Variety. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
- ^ Chris Fujiwara (26 April 2002). "Out for blood? Art meets gore in 'Trouble Every Day'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
- ^ review Archived 23 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Quandt, James, "Flesh & Blood: Sex and violence in recent French cinema", ArtForum, February 2004 [1] Accessdate: 10 July 2008.
- ^ Anderson, Melissa (10 July 2020). "Blood Work: A Reevaluation of Trouble Every Day - Journal". Metrograph. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
- ^ "Pleasures and pains of the flesh: women, physical autonomy and the New French Extremity". BFI. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
- ^ "Trouble Every Day's Slow, Cerebral Cannibalism". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
Sources
edit- Beugnet, Martine. (2007) Cinema And Sensation: French Film And The Art Of Transgression. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [see pages 32–47]
- Nancy, Jean-Luc. (2008) ‘Icon Fury: Claire Denis’s “Trouble Every Day”’, Film-Philosophy, 12(1), pp. 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2008.0002.
- Scholz, Sebastian. and Surma, Hanna. (2008) ‘Exceeding The Limits Of Representation: Screen And / As Skin In Claire Denis’s “Trouble Every Day” (2001)’, Studies in French Cinema, 8(1), pp. 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1386/sfc.8.1.5_1.
- Taylor, Kate. (2007) ‘Infection, Postcolonialism And Somatechnics In Claire Denis’s Trouble Every Day (2002)’, Studies in French Cinema, 7(1), pp. 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1386/sfci.7.1.19_1.
