An aging poet, Eduard Saxberger, is sought out by eager young writer Wolfgang Meier, who shares Saxberger's forgotten slim poetry collection with his "Enthusiasm Society" of ambitious artists. Saxberger accepts their admiration, attends their gatherings, and allows renewed hope for recognition to take hold while also catching their youthful restlessness and self-doubt. The narrative contrasts a settled middle-class life with an energized artistic ecosystem populated by affected, prematurely bitter contrarians. Filmmakers Kent Jones and Samy Burch relocate the material to contemporary New York and cast Willem Dafoe as Saxberger, trading psychological menace for wistful melancholy while preserving emotional anxieties.
Meier informs Saxberger that he read his slim collection of poetry, written and forgotten 30 years prior, and shared it with his "Enthusiasm Society" of ambitious writers. Meier encourages Saxberger to join the group, who are in the midst of organizing a reading that will debut their talents to Vienna. Flattered and reinvigorated by their admiration, Saxberger hangs around the young crowd and lets himself believe that he finally might be on the brink of recognition.
Saxberger had long since abandoned the artist's life for a civil servant job and middle-class friends when Meier "rediscovers" him. But the moment he dips a toe into an artistic ecosystem, albeit one populated by affected, prematurely bitter contrarians, he embraces his role as elder statesman and becomes emboldened by their respect. Even though their lives couldn't be farther from his own, Saxberger becomes infected by their creative enthusiasm, as well as riddled with a youthful self-doubt and restlessness.
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