Welcome to New York

Controversial director Abel Ferrara returns with Welcome to America, his berserk vision of the Dominic Strauss Kahn scandal.

Director Abel Ferrara has a long-standing reputation for scandal and provocation; his 1979 release The Driller Killer was banned for five years in the UK, and even his more accessible works, 1994’s Bad Lieutenant for instance, have attracted their share of controversy.

It therefore comes as no surprise to hear that Ferrara’s new film, Welcome to America , has landed him in legal trouble. The plaintiff is Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who claims that the film’s depiction of George Devereaux, a sexually depraved bureaucrat whose actions see him arrested, constitutes defamation of character.

The film itself is bold, lurid and disturbing. But it is made truly remarkable by Gerard Depardieu’s ( Cyrano de Bergerac , Jean de Florette ) magnificent performance as Devereaux. The renowned French actor renders his character utterly compelling, playing him as intensely sociopathic, showing only the briefest flickers of vulnerability.

Inevitably much of the attention that the film has received focuses on the scandal which it provoked when first shown at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. However, its deeper appeal lies in the strength of Depardieu’s performance, which is surely one of the greatest of his career, and that is no mean feat.