On Criterion, I watched Claire Denis' 2001 body horror film Trouble Every Day. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I liked how it was a mix between a slow art house film and then cannibal gore, with Beatrice Dalle just devouring men alive in bloody glee.
Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey star as newlyweds Shane and June in Paris on their honeymoon, being very quiet and romantic with each other on the plane. But June is unaware that Shane picked Paris not just because it's a romantic honeymoon spot, but because he is seeking a neuroscientist, Dr. Léo Sémeneau, (Alex Descas) to help him cure his bloodthirsty disease. Shane knew Leo's wife, Coré, (Dalle) and was obsessed with her. Coré is a cannibal who her husband keeps locked in their home, but she occasionally breaks out to have sex with men and murder them, eating them alive.
Gallo is well-cast as looking like a strange, unwell man with a mysterious disease, and his unsettling weirdness fits for this kind of film. He mostly feels like he just floats through Paris, not really mentally connected to the environment, and barely spends any time with his new wife, often leaving her alone in the hotel, where she mostly makes pleasantries with the hotel maid, who the film follows sometimes but doesn't seem to have much going on beyond the mundanities of her job.
Beatrice Dalle barely has any lines in this film, but has a striking screen presence with her jolie-laide off-kilter beauty and demented joy in biting a man to death as he cries in pain. Outside of her attacks, she's quiet throughout the film, either staying in bed, slowly stalking around her home, or banging against the boarded-up windows while a couple of young men outside try to get a glimpse at her.
Alex Descas is a regular in Claire Denis films, like No Fear, No Die; 35 Shots of Rum, and Nenette et Boni. He has been in ten films by Claire Denis, two films by Jim Jarmusch, and four films by Oliver Assayas. He works well as a reliable character actor, and has a quiet dignified presence about him, portraying a doctor trying to keep his wife from hurting other people, but still burying the bodies to cover up her crimes when she does.
I thought the film was decent, but aside from the gore scenes, a little too slow-paced for me, and I'm not a fan of Vincent Gallo, so I wasn't into his presence, despite him being a fitting cast for his role. It was mostly interesting to watch Dalle playing a bloodthirsty and strange character, who some reviewers called a vampire, because she stays in during the day and hunts at night. I can see that, with elements of vampirism, but she just seemed more like a cannibal to me. It was fine to watch as an artsy slow horror film, where a lot of the characters just felt like they were in a trance or a reverie.
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