The key word in the title to Claire
Denis¡¯ new film Trouble Every
Day is ¡°Every¡±. This intelligent modern day vampire flick is obsessed
with routine, much as Denis¡¯ exquisite Beau Travail was. The real curse
of the bloodsucker, says the film, isn¡¯t so much the craving for blood as
it is the inescapable knowledge that the next evening¡¯s sexual encounter
will only bring more of the same, for eternity. There¡¯s no suggestion that
the carnal parasites in the film are vampires in the typical sense. The
fragmented narrative hints that the cause of their unnatural affliction is
a neuro-sexual drug experiment gone wrong. It hardly seems to matter,
though, because even if the sun doesn¡¯t kill them, they have assumed the
vampire¡¯s inversion of day and night. The female vampire in the film tends
to prowl by night in order to schedule her stalking around her husband¡¯s
workday. The male one is jet lagged. The circular schedule of events in
their life (Denis underlines this with repeated images of spinning
centrifuges) is inescapable, though through barricaded windows and
attempted chemical cures they try to circumvent it.
The desire to devour their mates seems
to be triggered during intercourse, so it¡¯s unfortunate that as the film
begins, Shane (Vincent Gallo), the lead character is beginning his
honeymoon in Paris. His wife¡¯s expectation of wedding night coupling is
nothing less than an invitation for disaster. Even, 321, their honeymoon
suite¡¯s room number seems to be a countdown to doom. Innocent gestures,
such as the moment in which the newlywed kisses his wife¡¯s wrist, take on
ominous baggage once we understand his sickness. Shane¡¯s struggles against
his compulsions and his attempts to find the man who might have a cure
provide the engine that drives most of the nearly wordless film¡¯s
minimalist narrative. A lot of the dialogue in the film is perfunctory,
and most of the mood has to be assumed. As the film moves on, the audience
sympathizes more and more with Shane, and he feels less like a monster.
His shockingly potent moments of release are the narrative¡¯s literal and
figurative climaxes. Still, one must wonder why Shane would marry given
his predicament.
That the monsters in Trouble Every Day don¡¯t sprout
fangs or claws makes them much scarier. Denis occasionally plays homage to
the vampire myth with several visual puns, such as the moment where Cor¨¦,
the female vampire, straddles a hilltop and unfurls her jacket above her
head, evoking a bat¡¯s wings, but the majority of the film¡¯s running time
is spent blurring the line between monster and mortal. Certainly, there
are less literal forms of vampirism on display, such as the revelation
that Shane has built his reputation acquiring smaller companies for the
conglomerate he works for, or even in the small thefts of toiletries that
we see a maid indulge in. The vampire, sexualized tempter that it is, is
an ineffectual creature if its prey does not have unfulfilled desires.
Denis¡¯ suggestion is that we all are vulnerable because we all are a
little bit beast-like. It¡¯s this assertion that makes the film have more
potency than the average creature feature.
The line between sexual pain and
pleasure is razor thin here, and the film¡¯s visceral combination will be
unpleasant to a good portion of its audience. Personally, the narrative
sparseness, the hazy visuals, with their Soderbergh-esque melding of blue
and orange lights, and the moody music provided by Tindersticks struck me
as the polar opposite of unpleasant. Few great vampire films are really
about vampirism when all is said and done. Ultimately, the message of Trouble Every Day seems to be that
all sexual desire disrupts life¡¯s stasis. Libido is, in some ways, a
dysfunction that threatens our ability to be typically productive and
moral citizens. The glimpses of the Palm Pilot and laptop computer, totems
of an idealized and optimized productivity, that Shane lugged along on his
honeymoon become symbols of his yearning to return to a boring,
desexualized life. In Denis¡¯ blistering vision, however, our own carnality
seems an inescapable and constant prison. Trouble Every Day, indeed.
From Rotten
Tomatoes
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