An American movie made in French about one of the most talked-about French politicians of modern times will appear this week – but not in French cinemas, reports The Independent.
The film will be one of the great events at the Cannes International Film Festival starting on Wednesday, even though it has been excluded from the official programme.
Welcome to New York, starring Gérard Depardieu, tells the story of a French politician who is accused of the attempted rape of a chamber maid in a Manhattan hotel room. Any resemblance to real events and living persons from precisely three years ago is entirely deliberate.
Vincent Maraval, the producer of the much-awaited film on the “affaire DSK”, claimed on Sunday that the French “political and media” elite had conspired, unsuccessfully, to block the making of the movie.
The two-hour film, which cost €3m (£2.45m) to make, has been funded mostly by American money, including an investment by the City of New York. Even though the production company, Wild Bunch, is French, the movie counts as American – probably the first American movie to be made in the French language. The director, Abel Ferrara, is American.
It will be given its world première at midnight on Friday, in a private showing on the beach in Cannes and a simultaneous pay-to-view release for €7 on video-on-demand sites. It will appear in cinemas in other countries, including the UK, at a date yet to be announced.
Read more of this report from The Independent.