Trouble Every Day

Sexual appetite is a concept that has literal rather than metaphorical meaning in Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day. This French horror movie created something of a scandale when it debuted at Cannes, and some viewers fainted during the screening, supposedly at the sight of the film's cannibalistic inclinations. Despite this controversial buildup, the images in Trouble Every Day are generally distanced and distilled; its worst horrors are disturbances of the cerebral rather than graphic sort. In fact, there is a definite directorial austerity to the film, much like Denis' last film: the stunning Beau Travail. However, any fainting among viewers of Trouble Every Day is more likely to derive from boredom rather than the sight of horror. The movie is most effective as a tone poem, and Agnes Godard's stunning camerawork should be credited for its contributions in this regard. The casting of brooding fashion model-turned-actor-and-director Vincent Gallo as the story's lead character, Shane, also adds to the movie's tonal posturings. The storyline is scant and Denis doles it out through fragmentary glimpses and foreboding images, leaving the viewer to piece things together as the movie goes along. Shane and his new bride June (Vessey) have come to Paris to honeymoon in that most romantic of all cities. But we can see that something is wrong when Shane resists his wife's touch and locks himself in the airplane lavatory during the overnight flight to Paris instead of snuggling under the blanket with June. He carries his wife over the threshold of their honeymoon suite but beats off in the bathroom instead of consummating their marriage. Leaving his wife alone, Shane discreetly goes off in search of an elusive doctor whose studies in libido are the original source of his sexual troubles and are no doubt the real reason for Shane's journey to Paris. But the doctor (Descas) has troubles of his own. His own wife (Dalle) was another of his long-ago subjects of experimentation, and now he has to keep her locked and barricaded in her room in an effort to control her “sexual appetite.” Denis' setup is provocative, however Trouble Every Day provides little follow-through. Denis establishes these characters and then spends the rest of the film moving them around on this Parisian chessboard. There is little plot momentum or narrative tension. Something haunting is going on here, but it's as difficult for the viewers as it is for the characters to sink their teeth into anything truly satisfying.