[4][5][6] The film tells the story of a powerful man, a possible candidate for the Presidency of France, who lives a life of debauchery and is arrested after being accused of raping a maid at his hotel.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by a fearless performance from Gerard Depardieu, Welcome to New York is director Abel Ferrara at his most repulsive -- and most compulsively watchable.

"[7] Following its release – to mixed reviews varying from high praise to outright disgust – Strauss-Kahn said he would sue for slander.

In fact, Sinclair's real family were French Jews who fled the country and had their property confiscated when Germany invaded.

[8][9] Ferrara, in a series of interviews with Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter and other publications between September 2014 and March 2015, claimed that his distributor, Vincent Maraval of Wild Bunch, sold an unauthorized R-rated version of the film to IFC Films, for distribution in the US; the R-rated cut had already been released on Blu-ray and VOD in various European countries.