In the early minutes of Welcome to New York, Gerard Depardieu’s performance as a VIP called Devereaux appears designed to elicit a variety of animal comparisons: pig, bear, bull, rhinoceros. His character grunts and wheezes, an overgrown satyr whose sex addiction can’t be satisfied, regardless of how many prostitutes or innocent bystanders fall into his path. Say this for the well-traveled, enormous Depardieu: He’s the most interesting thing about this bizarre film, and he exposes his baser instincts (and his corpulent body) with fearless abandon.
The film is inspired by the story of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a leading French politician and head of the International Monetary Fund, who was arrested in 2011 for an alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid in New York. Wild-man director Abel Ferrara (of Bad Lieutenant notoriety) uses the Strauss-Kahn case as a platform for a variety of subjects: the nature of addiction, the corruption of idealism, the power of money, the emptiness of America. (The movie begins with “America the Beautiful” and close-ups of dollars, a blunt and clumsy way into whatever this thing is supposed to be about.) There’s so much on the table that Ferrara seems to unable to choose from this menu of ideas, so greedy are his appetites. So scenes unfold in various tones: clinical sex in lavish hotel rooms; dreary police procedurals as Devereaux is arrested and booked; and long conversations between Devereaux and his extremely wealthy, extremely ambitious wife Simone (Jacqueline Bisset).
She’s arranged (or paid for) Devereaux to get off with house arrest while he goes through the legal system, in a Manhattan apartment renting for $60,000 a month. This is a rare opportunity for the bilingual Bisset (the film’s mostly in English, but with a good deal of French) at a complex role, so it’s good to see a historically under-challenged actress get this kind of chance. Unfortunately, although her dialogues with Depardieu hint at rich territory, they sound improvised and flabby. Much of the film plays like that: an extended, fairly repellent search for some kind of point. (When Depardieu finally gets a voiceover that sounds truly written, it gives the film a rare chance to hit some targets.) For the record, Ferrara is upset with this release of the movie, which has been cut and rearranged from the version that was screened at Cannes last year. He may yet have his day, but it’s hard to imagine the movie entirely making sense.
film@seattleweekly.com
WELCOME TO NEW YORK Runs Fri., April 3–Thurs., April 9 at Grand Illusion. Rated R. 108 minutes.
