Yesterday’s news that Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani are going to take the lead roles in an Abel Ferrara film inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sex scandal quickly became adjusted, in many reports, to news that the French stars are going to play the Strauss-Kahns in name. 

But that seems unlikely. The title “The Strauss-Kahn Story” appears on Ferrara’s website. Curiously, however, in the choppily edited video introduction to the project by its screenwriter, Christ Zois, he doesn’t name Strauss-Kahn or his wife, Anne Sinclair.

Zois says that the film will dramatize an imaginary interaction between its protagonist and his partner as it unfolded during a crisis. He obviously refers to the Strauss-Kahns when he mentions it will unfold in a Tribeca townhouse in lower Manhattan, a nod to their Franklin Street digs, where they were staying at the time of the scandal. Since French actors are to play the couple — and Zois indicates that he and Ferrara met with Depardieu and Adjani — there can be no doubt as to their identity.

Zois mostly talks about the need to establish a voice for the two characters, individually and collectively. In the vague comments added by Ferrara, stepping into the frame at the end of the video, he, too, fails to mention the Strauss-Kahns. This evasiveness suggests  Ferrara and Zois are leaving themselves open to tackling a spectrum of issues, ranging from infidelity in high places to the universality of sexual arrogance, as a manifestation of power, among national leaders and politicians. The loss of power is another plausible theme.

To state unequivocally that Depardieu and Adjani are playing the former manager of the International Monetary Fund, once considered a potential candidate for the French presidency, and his wife, a famous former French broadcast journalist, would inevitably constrict Ferrara.

"Earlier reports suggested Ferrara's film might also include elements from the lives of other politicians, such as Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi, who have found themselves embroiled in sex scandals,” noted The Guardian. 

Depardieu was originally mentioned for the film in December, when he told Le Journal du Dimanche: "In general, I'm very good at playing characters that I don't like or don't resemble." There’s still no confirmation that he or Adjani have signed on.

In the interview with Le Monde that stoked yesterday’s wave of reports, Ferrara said that the film would be shot in New York, Washington, and in France: "In all spots of power in fact: it's a film about rich and powerful people."

The greatest complexity facing the filmmakers will be to make a character based on Strauss-Kahn empathetic. If they were to make him an unqualified sleaze (in what sounds like a two-character piece), their movie would have no emotional charge. Of course, Depardieu would lend the film some ambiguous charm. Ferrara has had some success in humanizing odious characters — notably Harvey Keitel’s predatory cop in “Bad Lieutenant” (1992).

Ferrara's producer, Vincent Maraval of Wild Bunch in Paris, had previously denied reports that the film was close to starting production. He said it was one of four projects under consideration for the Bronx-born director, who is best known for “Bad Lieutenant” and “King of New York” (1990).

"Vincent doesn't want to talk about the project. That's normal, he's the producer," Ferrara told Le Monde. "But I'm the director! No one can stop me from talking about my movie." Ferrara says in his website video that he will commence filming in June.

Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York last May 14 and indicted on charges of sexually assaulting a chambermaid in the Sofitel hotel. He pleaded not guilty to the charges but said a sexual encounter with the woman had taken place. He spent five days in Ryker’s Island Prison before being sentenced to house arrest. The charges against him were eventually dropped because of doubts about the complainant’s credibility. A civil case is pending.

In September, Strauss-Kahn subsequently admitted in an interview on the French TV channel TF1 that his sexual encounter with the Sofitel maid was “a moral failing,” but added that it “did not involve violence, constraint, or aggression.” His marriage has survived the scandal, a similar French case that also collapsed, and Strauss-Kahn’s alleged connection with a prostitution ring in Lille. French feminists have lashed out at Sinclair’s decision to stand by her husband.