To the French, the dramatic fall from grace of presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid was "the affair of the century". They heard the story, read the book, followed the legal machinations, and now they can watch the film – due to be released straight to the internet.
Three years on, the sordid affair involving the ex-IMF chief is to resurface in a movie, Welcome to New York, starring Gérard Depardieu, released this month in the middle of the Cannes film festival.
The timing is deliberate. The film failed to find funding in France after, producers say, the politician's supporters closed ranks, and did not make it on to the official festival selections. Now it will bypass cinemas and DVDS and be released to the public for €7 via VOD (video on demand).
Directed by American Abel Ferrara – best known for The Driller Killer, Ms. 45, King of New York, Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral – the film focuses on the arrest of Strauss-Kahn in New York in May 2011 and his indictment for allegedly attacking a Guinean chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo. After a long investigation, the charges were dropped amid questions about Diallo's credibility and evidence which prosecutors said left reasonable doubt.
Although names have been changed in the film – DSK has become Monsieur Devereauxand Anne Sinclair, his heiress wife, played by Jacqueline Bisset, is called Simone – the former politician's lawyers are on standby to launch legal action. The affair dashed Strauss-Kahn's hopes of being the Socialist candidate in France's 2012 presidential election – later won by François Hollande – and opened the floodgates to a series of legal cases. An investigation, still ongoing, was launched into his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring and sex parties at hotels in Lille, Paris and Washington.
Depardieu, who is reportedly living as a French tax exile in Russia, has made no secret he does not like Strauss-Kahn, but said the film was not a biopic of the former politician. "It's a story of power, solitude and decadence," he told journalists.
"Even in his worst nightmares, Dominique Strauss-Kahn could not have imagined such a scenario," wrote Le Nouvel Observateur.
