The Palace

New Year's Eve 1999: the (supposedly) rich and beautiful from all over the world come together in a posh Swiss hotel: Russian gangsters, former porn stars and old nobility with all their little and bigger aches and pains ensure that hotel manager Hansueli and his team have their hands full ... Crude jokes, exaggerated clichés and embarrassing situation comedy - with a wink and a stink at film criticism, THE PALACE is a damn funny celebration of the vulgar-grotesque, from which imitators like Ruben Östlund could learn a lot. Given the general inability to view and evaluate author and work separately, it is hardly surprising that the film was savaged at its premiere in Venice and has yet to be released in cinemas. See for yourself! (Florian Widegger)