Always one to embrace the controversial, former enfant terrible Abel Ferrera is again nurturing the dastardly with a provocative exposé of a “fictional” French fat cat caught in the headlights of a sex assault scandal. The similarities between Welcome To New York and the real life incident involving IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested for the assault of a hotel maid in NYC, are glaring even if they weren’t noted at the outset as a supposedly loose inspiration.
Gerard Depardieu is brave and uncompromising as the rampant George Devereaux, salivating through a series of anarchic sex scenes and orgy sequences like a rabid Sid James. Depardieu buries himself in the atrocities with the fearless embrace of an actor in his prime while exuding a cartoon-like animal lust that is both humorous and deeply disturbing.
Director Ferrera presents an unflinching, absurd dramatisation combining a pervading documentary style with the surrealist traits of a Lynchian dream sequence. Beautifully rendered images of abstract colours bleed in an out of a sobering NYC via distorted reflections and suggestive imagery (symbolic cracks and phalluses).
The story is engrossing yet disconcerting as a stark account of hellish bourgeoisie excess. As the jaw-dropping first act detours into a cold reality of consequence Devereaux is confronted with the ramifications of his crime but struggles to learn from them or express regret. Even when in the company of his wife and daughter Devereaux only slightly masks his predatory nature. He is a character that openly admits to his nihilism and while, at times, the two closest women in his life seem to serve no purpose other than to illustrate the depths of his depravity, they still have a vital place in the story.
Depardieu plays a brash and compelling sociopath but the nature of his act is questionable due to a “faux” interview segment where he discusses the elements of truth in performance.
Welcome To New York is relished with a bleak, raw beauty and reveals both a director and star at their bravest and most artistic. It is an unashamed masterpiece that may (initially) vanish into obscurity due to its limited cinema release and simultaneous debut on VOD but there is no denying the rattling power at its core.
Daniel has awarded Welcome to New York five Torches of Truth
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