Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day (2001) (The Film Desk)

[MifuneFan]

The Film Desk (via OCN distribition) will be releasing Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day (2001)

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products...e&_ss=e&_v=1.0

This special limited edition spot gloss slipcover (designed by Brandon Schaefer) is limited to 2,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

The Film Desk is a theatrical and disc distributor founded in 2007 by Jake Perlin, dedicated to releasing masterpieces of international cinema, with a focus on titles never before released in the United States, or long out of circulation, primarily in new 35mm prints.

American newlyweds Dr. Shane and June Brown (Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey) travel to Paris for their honeymoon. Once there, Shane begins a search for his former medical collegaue Leo (Alex Descas), who may have information or a cure for the tropical virus that has transformed Leo's wife (Béatrice Dalle) into a murderous sexual carnivore, and may soon do the same to Shane.

directed by: Claire Denis
starring: Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice Dalle, Alex Descas, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Hélène Lapiower, Florence Loiret Caille
2001 / 101 min / 1.85:1 / French & English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Additional info:

Region A Blu-ray
Audio commentary with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Video essay by Zack Clark
Trailer
English subtitles

Trouble Every Day (2001) - Trailer - YouTube

[pixote]

Can't believe it's been over 20 years since I saw this. I'm getting old

[Gacivory]

Yes!!!!!!

[LawnFurniture]

This has been one I’ve wanted to see for years but every streaming platform had only a real subpar SD transfer so I’ve always held out. Looks like I’m gonna take the plunge and finally watch it!

[bonehica]

Never heard of it, but pre-ordered it anyway. Sounds like something I would enjoy.

[Edward R. Meow]

Very nice! I’m a big Vincent Gallo fan, but haven’t seen this one yet. Excited to finally check it out.

A shame they didn’t include Denis’ short film, Keep it For Yourself, as well. Another Denis-Gallo collaboration.

[cakefactory]

This might be the most unpleasant movie I've ever seen. Pretty low-key and kinda boring for 4/5 of its runtime, and then bam, one of the most sickening scenes I've ever seen in a movie. It's truly disturbing and not in the fun kind of "cool gore effects!!!" way.

Basically, it's a good companion piece to Irreversible! Except I think that's a much better movie. Maybe Raw is a better comparison, but that movie's a lot more entertaining and less disgusting.

I did watch it via a crummy old DVD, but it didn't really seem like it was exactly the sort of movie with stunning cinematography which would totally change the experience from a bad DVD to a good blu-ray.

I suspect this review might have raised some attention from people who WANT to see something disturbing. Go for it! I wouldn't call it a BAD movie, I just kinda hated it. Though I really like the title song that opens the movie.

[nicwood]

Very much looking forward to this release.

The specs aren’t clear about the master they used though. Based on the screenshots and general availability, I think they use the Agnès Godard-supervised 4K restoration which was introduced by German label Rapid Eye Movies in 2022 on Blu-ray.

I have this disc and wanted to enjoy the film but it’s unfortunately a little too imperfect for my taste. Lots of white speckles from the negative weren’t cleaned up and the images lack proper stabilization. That’s why their presentation unwillingly looks like the negative has been scanned on a Telecine scanner. Don’t get me wrong, the image is very sharp (it has definitely been properly scanned on modern equipment) and their encoding is very good (BD-25) but it looks more shaky than it should.
Both of these things repeatedly took me out of the experience especially in scenes when the camera doesn’t move much.

I hope this will be addressed in the new US release.

[klapro]

Let's go baby

[HanaBi]

I saw this in the theater, and like Cakefactory, it wasn’t really for me. But I do think it’s a noteworthy indie/genre film (akin to The Habit or The Addiction, but with a Paris vibe) and a proper release for this region is well overdue.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by HanaBi

I saw this in the theater, and like Cakefactory, it wasn’t really for me. But I do think it’s a noteworthy indie/genre film (akin to The Habit or The Addiction, but with a Paris vibe) and a proper release for this region is well overdue.

I went back and looked at my review, and it seems like a lot of my negative reaction was just hating Vincent Gallo. Like, finding him to be a cold fish and repulsive charisma vacuum and not believing him as a rich medical expert or someone with a wife that looks like that. So, YMMV! If you like Vincent Gallo you'd probably feel much more positively. I still do stand by what I said about it being really slow and the ending being truly sickening. The sickening part is not exactly a complaint, cause it achieves exactly what it was meant to do! But lighthearted or fun, it ain't. I said "even if I'd liked the rest of this movie I'd never want to see this scene again!!"

Full review below, goes over the plot, so it's very spoilery.

[Show spoiler]A very seductive and creepy woman is kept locked in her apartment by her doctor husband, and every time she gets out she seems to try and seduce/murder people. The husband is seen cleaning up her mess at the beginning, giving the impression this happens a lot. At the same time, a new married couple travel to France. This guy, the most bland cretin in the entire world who is not believable as anything other than an unemployed date r*pist hipster, is apparently some kind of brilliant medic (we never see him doing this, which is just as well, as he’d be less believable than Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist). He seems to fantasize about killing his wife, and she has bite marks on her, and apparently they can’t consummate the marriage - whenever they get hot and heavy he runs into the bathroom and jerks off disgustingly.
This cretin is looking for the doctor, and there’s some vague backstory where they conducted some sort of experiments that turned the cretin and the doctor’s wife into cannibals.

Anyway, we then get one grand guignol sequence in which some local hooligans break into the doctor’s house. One encounters the wife, who immediately throws herself at him, and considering her appearance, he understandable lets her. She pins him down during sex and then starts biting him, with things getting messier and messier until he dies.

Cretin then gets their address and walks in just in time for her to immolate herself. Cretin then can’t hold back his urges anymore and assaults the maid at the hotel, in one of the most unpleasant scenes I can think of, primarily for the implied violence and especially the horrendous screams uttered by this woman as she is raped and then has her genitals gorily chomped on. GREAT STUFF!! The movie then ends ambiguously, with it unclear if the wife has just noticed the blood he’s washing off, or whether he’s finally worked up the desire to have sex with/kill her!

It’s pretty slow, has tons of utterly pointless scenes, and has the single biggest charisma vacuum I have EVER seen in its lead, Vincent Gallo. This guy is utterly unwatchable. He is just a dead-eyed blank the entire movie, with utterly repulsive physical characteristics and a little moustache that accentuates this all the more. As mentioned before, it’s COMPLETELY unbelievable that this guy would be the money-grubbing medical expert other characters tell us he is, and it’s even unbelievable that his wife would be with him. Most of the runtime is just him having “headaches” and blankly walking away from everyone who tries to talk to him. He’s the worst. I am going to avoid anything else starring him like the plague. While watching, I was reminded now and again of the infamous “The Brown Bunny” and Ebert’s initial review of it.

I’ll give the movie this, that climactic scene with the maid is legitimately horrific and REALLY upset me. I would never want to see that scene again even if I liked the rest of the movie. I was unable to separate it from having read that the film was directed by a woman. If I’d thought a man had written and filmed that, I likely would have found it far more offensive and possibly far less effective. Call me a hypocrite.

One other thing of note is the score. It's mostly based around instrumental variations on the title song, but it really fits and is very evocative.

[Kakihara]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I went back and looked at my review, and it seems like a lot of my negative reaction was just hating Vincent Gallo. Like, finding him to be a cold fish and repulsive charisma vacuum and not believing him as a rich medical expert or someone with a wife that looks like that. So, YMMV! If you like Vincent Gallo you'd probably feel much more positively. I still do stand by what I said about it being really slow and the ending being truly sickening. The sickening part is not exactly a complaint, cause it achieves exactly what it was meant to do! But lighthearted or fun, it ain't. I said "even if I'd liked the rest of this movie I'd never want to see this scene again!!"

Full review below, goes over the plot, so it's very spoilery.

[Show spoiler]A very seductive and creepy woman is kept locked in her apartment by her doctor husband, and every time she gets out she seems to try and seduce/murder people. The husband is seen cleaning up her mess at the beginning, giving the impression this happens a lot. At the same time, a new married couple travel to France. This guy, the most bland cretin in the entire world who is not believable as anything other than an unemployed date r*pist hipster, is apparently some kind of brilliant medic (we never see him doing this, which is just as well, as he’d be less believable than Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist). He seems to fantasize about killing his wife, and she has bite marks on her, and apparently they can’t consummate the marriage - whenever they get hot and heavy he runs into the bathroom and jerks off disgustingly.
This cretin is looking for the doctor, and there’s some vague backstory where they conducted some sort of experiments that turned the cretin and the doctor’s wife into cannibals.

Anyway, we then get one grand guignol sequence in which some local hooligans break into the doctor’s house. One encounters the wife, who immediately throws herself at him, and considering her appearance, he understandable lets her. She pins him down during sex and then starts biting him, with things getting messier and messier until he dies.

Cretin then gets their address and walks in just in time for her to immolate herself. Cretin then can’t hold back his urges anymore and assaults the maid at the hotel, in one of the most unpleasant scenes I can think of, primarily for the implied violence and especially the horrendous screams uttered by this woman as she is raped and then has her genitals gorily chomped on. GREAT STUFF!! The movie then ends ambiguously, with it unclear if the wife has just noticed the blood he’s washing off, or whether he’s finally worked up the desire to have sex with/kill her!

It’s pretty slow, has tons of utterly pointless scenes, and has the single biggest charisma vacuum I have EVER seen in its lead, Vincent Gallo. This guy is utterly unwatchable. He is just a dead-eyed blank the entire movie, with utterly repulsive physical characteristics and a little moustache that accentuates this all the more. As mentioned before, it’s COMPLETELY unbelievable that this guy would be the money-grubbing medical expert other characters tell us he is, and it’s even unbelievable that his wife would be with him. Most of the runtime is just him having “headaches” and blankly walking away from everyone who tries to talk to him. He’s the worst. I am going to avoid anything else starring him like the plague. While watching, I was reminded now and again of the infamous “The Brown Bunny” and Ebert’s initial review of it.

I’ll give the movie this, that climactic scene with the maid is legitimately horrific and REALLY upset me. I would never want to see that scene again even if I liked the rest of the movie. I was unable to separate it from having read that the film was directed by a woman. If I’d thought a man had written and filmed that, I likely would have found it far more offensive and possibly far less effective. Call me a hypocrite.

One other thing of note is the score. It's mostly based around instrumental variations on the title song, but it really fits and is very evocative.

I don't want to get into specifics here but I don't like Gallo as a person and find many of his views on things reprehensible and find him pretty overrated in terms of his acting work. However, this movie was the exception and I was able to separate the art from the artist and really liked this film.

[Batgirl911]

This is on Shudder. Nothing is wrong with the PQ but everything is wrong with the movie. The story is incoherent, a series of static shots punctuated by violence and finally a rape / murder that is more peculiar than shocking. Gallo can't act but keeps working out his sex psyche problems on screen. If you are wondering if this is for you it's not for anybody.

[Dew95]

It’s for me

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Dew95

It’s for me

Also for me!

[Rockercub]

Me too!

[White Dang]

its got one scene in it thats pretty amazing. i had to rewind it a few times, its just so messed up. its been a while though. dont think i need to own it, but its worth a watch or two i guess.

[LawnFurniture]

Fancy limited slipcover is gonna sell out by the end of the day for those dragging their feet on it. Only 39 left at the moment.

[analmonger]

Ugh I should've ordered this during order stacking. idk if I want to pay for shipping again for this

[nicwood]

Got mine today. I eagerly anticipated this release as a big Claire Denis fan.
Unfortunately, The Film Desk's communication wasn't optimal as they didn't state what master their disc is based on.

Thankfully, it's the 4K restoration which premiered in Germany via Rapid Eye Movies.

TFD encoded the film on a BD-50 compared to the Rapid Eye's BD-25 but there are no significant differences apart from TFD's audio bitrate being roughly 2 Mbps higher on first glance. Both look great.

I have hoped that maybe the master will receive some additional restoration as there are still a few specks (white and black, so likely an IP transfer) that weren't cleaned up. That's not the case though, they presented it as is. Maybe I'll make some screenshots for comparison.

English subtitles are great with two options - completely subtitled or just for the French dialogues.

Looking forward to see it in its entirety soon.