Veteran Hotel Manager Battles Redevelopment in Bittersweet Comedy 'The Souffleur'

Two months ago, Gastón Solnicki's film "The Souffleur" premiered, offering a bittersweet exploration of the changing landscape of Vienna's hospitality industry. The film follows Lucius, a veteran hotel manager who has been overseeing the Intercontinental Hotel in Vienna for decades. However, Lucius is stunned and enraged when he learns that the hotel has been sold to an Argentinian developer and will soon be redeveloped.

As Lucius grapples with the impending loss of the illustrious, if run-down, hotel, he understands that it is a symptom of something larger—the risk of the hotel, and all it represents, being lost to oblivion. Solnicki uses the hotel and its declining soufflés as a metaphor for the broader decline, with Lucius waging a futile, farcical war against the foreign developer.

Despite the straightforward plot, "The Souffleur" is not primarily concerned with issues of story and plot. Instead, it is a film interested in the details that capture the loss and loneliness Lucius cannot seem to escape. Through the lens of cinematographer Rui Poças, the film creates textured, tender portraits of Lucius and the spaces he inhabits, encouraging the audience to appreciate the hotel's fading glory.

Ultimately, "The Souffleur" is a sly and slippery film that is both hilarious and devastating in equal measure, with Dafoe's pitch-perfect performance as Lucius at the heart of Solnicki's accomplished work.