The Souffleur

Das Intercontinental sei wie ein riesiges Schiff, meint Willem Dafoe und versucht als Manager des ehrwürdigen Wiener Hotels dessen Untergang zu verhindern. Denn ein argentinischer Investor, gespielt von Gastón Solnicki, plant den Abriss. Der schleichende Verfall ist jedenfalls ersichtlich: im Maschinenraum, den Kabinen und auf dem zugefrorenen Meer der Eislaufbahn. Sogar die legendären Soufflés schmecken nicht mehr. Doch wer offen ist für Erfahrungen, so Dafoe kämpferisch verzweifelt, „kann hier viele schöne Dinge entdecken“. Das gilt auch für diesen wundersamen Essayfilm, in dem der alte Charme des bald nicht mehr existierenden Wahrzeichens zu etwas einzigartig Schönem wird. (Michael Pekler)

In Anwesenheit von Gastón Solnicki, Willem Dafoe (am 25.) und Gabriele Kranzelbinder (Produzentin).

Lucius, a devoted hotel manager, is losing ground: the famous Intercontinental Hotel in Vienna—his long-time home and workplace for thirty years—is about to be demolished. Baffled at this new reality, he clings to the last traces of his fading world. Gaston Solnicki’s connection to Vienna is almost as strong as that of his protagonist. THE SOUFFLEUR is his third feature set in the city—a place he observes as both insider and outsider. As an Argentinian working in Europe, Solnicki has often celebrated Viennese grandeur. Here, however, he openly mocks that perspective, even appearing as a sly Argentinian developer who brings an end to the Intercontinental— which is, by the way, also the historical headquarters of the Viennale. Yet his main alter ego—or indeed his souffleur—in this speculative fiction is Lucius, played by Willem Dafoe, whose character emerges as a sad, solitary clown in his attempts to preserve something that is slowly disappearing—for better and for worse. Balancing playfulness with melancholy and intimacy with joy, THE SOUFFLEUR unfolds as a chamber piece: an ode to the past and its inevitable decline, yet one that embraces the future as something even more fragile and transitory. (Evgeny Gusyatinskiy)

Gastón Solnicki: LILIANA. REBECCA (2007, K), SÜDEN (2008), ZHEST (2010, K), PAPIROSEN (2011), ENJOY YOURSELF (2012, K), KÉKSZAKÁLLÚ (2016), INTRODUZIONE ALL’OSCURO (2018), 30 (2019), A LITTLE LOVE PACKAGE (2022)