The Boss of It All
by Lars von Trier
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anders Hove, Fridrik Thr Fridriksson, Jean-Marc Barr, Jens Albinus, Sofie GrblDirector: Lars von Trier
Brand: Genius
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 80481
Studio: Ifc
Product features:
- The owner of an IT firm wants to sell up. The trouble is that when he started his firm he invented a nonexistent company president to hide behind when unpopular steps needed taking. When potential purchasers insist on negotiating with the "Boss" face to face the owner has to take on a failed actor to play the part. The actor suddenly discovers he is a pawn in a game that goes on to sorely
Movie Reviews of The Boss of It All
Movie Review: The Office on acid - a hilarious dark comedy about arbitrary and autocratic corporate decision making
Summary: 5 Stars
Danish auteur Lars von Trier turns his acidic wit to office politics, with the overall message that while the true boss of it all that really runs the show is money, capitalism American style, what most of us really want is not the truth but a convenient and self-serving fiction. Along the way von Trier dishes up a scenario that is endlessly inventive and hilarious -- and that in its ruthless look at the stupidity of bureaucracy harks back to his underseen television miniseries Riget/Kingdom. As in that series, he includes himself directly here as a narrator to comment on his approach and on his expectations from the audience -- reminding us both directly and indirectly that his aim is not to please or to edify but to exploit and manipulate and offend at the same time as he entertains. This is a lighter, and less ambitious, project than anything he has done for a while, but it is no less intriguing for that.
As in many of his films, where he deliberately imposes upon himself a specific constraint (as in his Dogme film "The Idiots" or as in "Dogville" and "Manderlay" where he gets rid of the sets, or as he imposes upon his teacher Jorgen Leth in "The Five Obstructions), he set up a very specific constraint upon himself in the making of this film that defines in large part its style and look. He made use of a technology dubbed "Automavision" -- a camera whose angle and exposure are set randomly by computer -- and the effect is to add a jumpy and kinetic quality to the film that goes against the standard Hollywood style continuity editing and includes jump cuts and non-matching lighting, etc. Somehow it works, in part because of the strength of the acting and the script, but in part because the awkwardness of the style seems to match the story perfectly. In fact, it works more than just as an aesthetic complement to the story: it ties directly to the theme of the story in so far as "Automavision" functions as a kind of "boss of it all" -- that can be blamed for the apparent arbitrariness of some of the editing and coloring choices. The true "boss of it all" that von Trier suggests really runs everything is in fact the not-entirely arbitrary but still haphazard fluctuation of the market -- and "Automavision" works as a nice metaphor for that.
This is not, strictly speaking, a masterpiece and will certainly be regarded as one of Lars von Trier's lesser works -- I think it can be said that all of his works are flawed in some way, but this seems to be part of a deliberate effort on his part to introduce flaws. His work as a whole still remains some of the most inventive and compelling in recent cinema -- and for that reason alone, combined with the fact that it is, given an allowance for a certain kind of humor, one of the funniest films to appear so far this year, it is definitely worth watching.
Summary of The Boss of It All
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