Director: Abel Ferrara
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 3.0
French businessman Devereaux (Gérard Depardieu) comes to NYC for an orgy in a hotel and later sexually assaults an African maid (because all those other prostitutes just weren't enough for him); when he tries leaving the country, he's stopped at JFK Airport, arrested and manhandled by U.S. authorities (the incident is based on a 2011 scandal involving former director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn). This feels like Ferrara going back to territory he's very familiar with - rich men in nice suits doing bad things in swank NYC hotels - and Depardieu is perfect in his role as the complex savage who thinks nothing of asking his daughter's boyfriend if he likes having sex with his daughter ... and he's quite sincere about it (he legitimately believes the world should just give in to its basest desires - he claims it's a "sickness" but not one he cares to cure). Ferrara, ever the sneaky moralist, is condemning Devereaux's sense of entitlement and abuse of power and the scenes with him and his disgusted wife (Jacqueline Bisset) in the third act are solid theatrical drama. To date, the real Strauss-Kahn has been accused by various other women of attempted rape ... and he remains free (... you know what Lord Acton said about power).
