Director
Gastón Solnicki
Cast
Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner, Claus Philipp, Stephanie Argerich
Edition 2025
78'
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2025
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Drama
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Format:
DCP
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Dialogue:
English
Atypical tristesse in The Souffleur, in which a hotel manager in Vienna clings in vain to his thirty years of life there. The once luxurious establishment seems to have seen better days. Has he too? With this darkly comical, deceptively calm character study from director Gastón Solnick, actor Willem Dafoe proves once again that he can lose his mind like no other.
Films in which Willem Dafoe slowly sinks into madness never fail to fascinate. To The Lighthouse (FFG2019), Siberia (FFG2020), and Inside (2023) we can now add fresh proof: The Souffleur. Here, the American actor plays a Vienna hotel manager whose beloved workplace and home are about to be sold and demolished after thirty years of service. He resists the property developer in his own (peculiar) way, with self-deprecating flair played by Argentine director Gastón Solnicki, known for the equally unconventional Kékszakállú (FFG2017). As in The Grand Budapest Hotel, but darker and even drier in its humor, we watch Vienna’s Intercontinental Hotel - an entire world of bygone grandeur - slip inevitably away. All under Dafoe’s pained gaze and near-demonic grin. This compact, absurdist comedy is worth it for the sheer delight of hearing him read aloud from an Italian handbook on… alpacas.
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Credits
Directors
Gastón Solnicki
Cast
Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner, Claus Philipp, Stephanie Argerich
Scenario
Gastón Solnicki, Julia Niemann
Director of Photography
Rui Poças
Editors
Ana Godoy, Alan Martin Segal
Producers
Gastón Solnicki, Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Paolo Calamita, Eugenio Fernández Abril
Sales agent
Magnify World
Production studios
Little Magnet Film, KGP Filmproduktion, Primo, Filmy Wiktora
More info
Dialogue
English
Countries of production
Argentina, Austria
Year
2025
Filmography
Gastón Solnicki
Liliana.Rebecca (short, 2007), Süden (2008), Zhest (short, 2010), Papirosen (2011), Enjoy Yourself (short, 2012), Kékszakállú (2016), Introduzione all'oscuro (2018), 30 (+) films pour la 30ème (segment "Exploding Capacitor", 2019), A Little Love Package (2022), The Souffleur (2025)
Technical Specs
Format
DCP