Trouble Every Day

Offering one of the strangest variations ever made on the vampire movie, this 2001 film from Claire Denis stars Béatrice Dalle as Coré, a madwoman locked in the basement of a Paris home by a physician named Léo (Alex Descas)—a woman held captive due to her propensity for literally devouring her lovers. But that doesn't stop her from luring victims to her subterranean prison with the enticement of sex. A cannibal with a visceral passion, Coré giggles, coos, and barks in pleasure as caressing and kissing turns into orgiastic biting and sex morphs into a feral drive that ends with her eating her companion for dinner. Vincent Gallo costars as Shane Brown, a similarly-afflicted American who travels to Paris in search of the doctor, with hopes of curbing his tendencies before he attacks his newlywed wife, June (Tricia Vessey). Lambasted at the time of its original release for its excesses, Trouble Every Day is loaded with flesh and blood and a twisted sexual hunger, but it's also a gorgeous and vivid mix of terror and erotica. Still, even while the film has its champions, this will likely seem too arty and enigmatic for either horror or foreign-movie fans. Premiering on home video in the U.S. more than a decade after its theatrical appearance, extras include an audio introduction by cinematographer Agnès Godard, and a booklet with an essay by film critic Melissa Anderson. Optional. (S. Axmaker)