New York City Inferno
1978 film by Jacques Scandelari
New York City Inferno (alternately titled From Paris to New York and Cock Tales in certain North American home video releases) is a 1978 French experimental gay pornographic film by Jacques Scandelari. The film follows Jérôme (Alain-Guy Giraudon), a Parisian man who has traveled to New York City in search of his lover Paul (Bob Bleecker). New York City Inferno is directed by Scandelari, who also wrote the film's screenplay based on a concept by Elliott Stein. The soundtrack is arranged by Jacques Morali, and features officially-licensed songs by the Village People.
Plot
In June 1977, Paul departs Paris for a week-long vacation to New York City, a trip taken in part to reflect on his strained relationship with his lover Jérôme. He writes to Jérôme daily, and in his last letter, states that he has decided to leave Jérôme and stay in New York permanently. In December, Jérôme travels to New York to search for Paul, and to determine why he has left Paris.
In New York, a cab driver with whom Jérôme subsequently has sex in a meat locker suggests that he visit Warehouse, a popular new BDSM gay bar in Greenwich Village. Over the course of his week-long visit, Jérôme visits the locations mentioned by Paul in his letters, including the Meatpacking District, the Christopher Street Pier, a sex shop, and a tattoo parlor. At each location he cruises for sex and is introduced to the city's thriving gay scene; he meets a French woman getting her first tattoo, an activist with the National Gay Task Force campaigning against Anita Bryant, and multiple paramours.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1978 film by Jacques Scandelari. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30738154. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978 and 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “New York City Inferno” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.