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Preview by Jack Foley |
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THE French appear to be on a roll in terms of shocking films at the moment.
Not content with unleashing Baise-Moi on unsuspecting
audiences earlier this year, they are about to do it again in September. Only
this time, it's gore, not sex, which will fuel the undoubted controversy.
Trouble Every Day has already garnered a certain amount of notoriety
following its appearance at the Cannes Film Festival when, allegedly, medics
were called in during the middle of the film after two people fainted during
scenes which showed a woman getting cannibalistic with her partner while in
the throes of love-making.
The movie is directed by Claire Denis and stars Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey
and Beatrice Dalle. It tells the bizarre tale of an experiment gone wrong
and the people who must live with its consequences.
The experiment in question is something which audiences get to know very little
about, suffice to say that it turns people into flesh-hungry lovers whose
blood-lust, while love-making, is insatiable. Struggling to find a cure is
Gallo's American scientist, on honeymoon with his wife in Paris, who is desperate
to find the doctor responsible; while Dalle's equally despondent lover spends
the movie either locked away in a fortress bedroom or nibbling on the 'afters'
of her sexual conquests.
Sound intriguing? Well, audiences will have to wait until September 20 to
find out whether the ingredients translate into a good movie - if they can
stomach it. The movie is very bloody, featuring close-up shots of cannibalism
which are likely to turn the strongest stomach. The movie also features its
fair share of sex and nudity and can best be described as an erotic chiller.
Indielondon's film gurus have already feasted on the delights it may or may
not offer and will deliver their verdict come September; until then, strengthen
that stomach lining and read on to find out...
WHAT THE US CRITICS HAD TO SAY...
NEEDLESS to say, the critics were divided in America on the merits of this
unconventional vampire/cannibal thriller. Some raved, others found the whole
thing an irritating, art-house mess.
The New York Daily News described it as an 'insipid, self-indulgent bit of
art-house macabre', while the New York Post declared that, 'if you have an
appetite for audacious, one-of-a-kind filmmaking, this one's for you'.
Still
in New York, the NY Times declared it 'a daring, intermittently beautiful
failure of a movie', while the Village Voice said it was 'purposefully shocking
in its eroticized gore, if unintentionally dull'.
Planet Sick-Boy declared it 'shockingly brutal', the Los Angeles Times said
it was 'highly problematical', while the Hollywood Reporter found it 'pretty
silly'.
But Premiere concluded that, after watching, 'what one is left with, even
after the most awful acts are committed, is an overwhelming sadness that feels
as if it has made its way into your very bloodstream'. But perhaps the final
word should go to the Film Journal International which, rather appropriately,
noted it is 'hardly a film that comes along every day'.
We can only wait to see what the Daily Mail makes of it...
PAST PREVIEWS: Insomnia - Another unforgettable thriller from Memento's
Christopher Nolan? Click here...
Red Dragon - the return of Hannibal Lecter. Click here....
