Welcome to New York (2014 film)


Welcome to New York is a 2014 French-American drama film co-written and directed by Abel Ferrara. Inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair, the film was released on 17 May 2014 by VOD on the Internet as the film failed to secure a place on the Official Selection at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, nor was it picked up for theatrical distribution in France. The film faced self-censorship by the French media, according to Vincent Maraval, one of the producers.

Synopsis

The film tells the story of a powerful man, a possible candidate for the Presidency of France, who lives a life of debauchery and is arrested after being accused of raping a maid at his hotel.

Cast

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 54 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by a fearless performance from Gerard Depardieu, Welcome to New York is director Abel Ferrara at his most repulsive -- and most compulsively watchable."
Following its release - to mixed reviews varying from high praise to outright disgust - Strauss-Kahn said he would sue for slander. His lawyer also complained that the film portrayed his then-wife Anne Sinclair as anti-Semitic.
Ferrara, in a series of interviews with Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter and other publications between September 2014 and March 2015, claimed that his distributor, Vincent Maraval of Wild Bunch, sold an unauthorized R-rated version of the film to IFC Films, for distribution in the US; the R-rated cut had already been released on Blu-ray and VOD in various European countries. Maraval subsequently responded that Ferrara had agreed on the R-rated cut to receive more financing for the film and had also contractually consented to lose final cut of the R-rated version if he did not deliver one by a certain date. Ferrara then stated his intent to send a cease-and-desist letter to Maraval and IFC, which issued its own statement also claiming that it had given Ferrara the chance to deliver his own R-rated cut for theatrical showings in the US, which he declined to do. As of March 27, the R-rated cut has only been shown at one American theater - the Roxie in San Francisco - though it is available in the US on VOD, and IFC has stated it intends to show it at additional theaters.