Strauss-Kahn Saga Would Make Great Movie

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s story might seem like Law & Order fodder, but it would actually make for a “sprawling, complex, kaleidoscope-of-globalization” movie—something along the lines of Traffic or Babel, writes Ross Douthat, who summarizes the plot as he sees it in the New York Times. It would tell the story of the European Union on the brink: First, we’d see Strauss-Kahn’s “hotel encounter” (edited from NC-17 to R). Then, to the French presidential election that Strauss-Kahn was expected to be a contender in. We’d see protests over austerity in Spain and “backroom” shots of the efforts to keep the euro afloat.

Then back to Strauss-Kahn, “suddenly just another New York City perp.” The theme? “The crisis of the European dream—the vision of a continent without borders or divisions, supervised by a benevolent and cosmopolitan elite.” We’d see “that elite’s arrogance and glaring blind spots,” its idealistic views on currency and immigration. “No screenwriter could have invented a better embodiment of this elite than the globe-trotting, presidency-aspiring Strauss-Kahn,” Douthat notes. The one big unknown: How does the movie end? Most likely "in tragedy." (More Ross Douthat stories.)