It’s not even a “oui” bit subtle.
The film “Welcome to New York” debuted in Cannes on Saturday and claims to be a fictional account of the downfall of a former contender to the Élysée Palace.
But nobody is pretending art doesn’t really imitate life in director Abel Ferrara’s film, which uncannily mirrors French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s downfall after he was arrested in 2011 on accusations of sexually assaulting a Guinean maid at Manhattan’s Sofitel hotel.
“Ferrara does do certain things that are very documentary-style,” Variety film critic Scott Foundas told AFP.
“He actually has some of the real police from the actual case playing the cops in the movie and he also films in the real apartment in downtown New York where DSK and [ex-wife] Anne Sinclair were living during the house-arrest period.”
And some scenes were actually filmed on Rikers Island, where DSK spent four nights in May 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“So in that sense, there are some things that are very much taken from reality,” Foundas said.
The movie opens with star Gérard Depardieu as DSK — er, make that “Devereaux” — at his Washington office, a high-end brothel of sorts in which the protagonist can hardly keep his hands off his sexy staff.
Then the movie cuts to a scene at a posh Manhattan suite where two men and three hookers are already halfway into an orgy, buckets of champagne and ice cream included, when Depardieu walks in.
The fictionalized DSK then “partakes in savage oral sex that has him grunting and wailing like a rhinoceros having a triple orgasm,” Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer wrote.
The character indulges in yet another threesome the same night, this time with a new pair of hookers who show up later.
In one of the scenes, the larger-than-life Frenchman is asked by another character, “Why do you do all this f–king?”
“What do you prefer, playing golf?” he answers.
The movie’s critical scene comes at the 30-minute mark, depicting the alleged rape. Charges were eventually dropped, though DSK reportedly paid some $1.5 million to settle a civil suit brought by the maid.
Critics described the flick as everything from “tabloid melodrama” to “soft-core porn.”
The film premiered at Cannes for an exclusive crowd of 500. For those who couldn’t land a seat in the small theater, “Welcome to New York” was scheduled to be available for Web streaming starting this weekend.