octopusluke Taking a break between poststructuralist slave drama Manderlay and the embittered, genitalia-snipping horror movie Antichrist, Danish provocateur Lars von Trier released this no-budget Danish movie The Boss of it All (Direktøren for det hele, på dansk). With a stripped down, quasi-Dogme aesthetic, and some of the best actors Denmark has on offer, this return to roots screwball sitcom instantly recalls the various incarnations of BBC's The Office. It's an intentionally lighthearted, but ultimately forgettable blip in this prodigious filmmaker's erratic career.Opening without a title sequence, we are greeted by the warm, nasally voice of Lars himself. Talking to the audience through speech, whilst we see his reflection in the window of the office building he is shooting, our humble narrator outlines that the following film will be "an unpretentious 'hygge' movie (the most untranslatable Danish word, roughly meaning cosy, fun and/or sexy)". In his typical, tongue-in-cheek manner, he continues to say that the film won't take up much of our brainpower, or require any afterthought. It's a bold, anti-artistic opening gambit, stolen first from Godard, and used previously in LvT's overlooked TV series Riget (The Kingdom, på engelsk). However, being the notoriously dubious filmmaker that he is, we're instantly questioning his intentions. There's no way LvT could make a flippant film about nothing, is there?Following the prologue, we meet out players. With his dwindling company on the verge of being sold, meek businessman Ravn (Peter Rantzler - Italian for Beginners, In China they Eat Dogs) hires the hapless method actor Kristoffer (played brilliantly by Jens Albinus - Dancer in the Dark, The Idiots) to pose as the previously unseen CEO, ready to sign the final payoff and break the news to the company's employees. It's a bonkers idea, played out in typical slapstick fashion, with Kristoffer trying to 'find' his character, with his reticent stares leading to bust-ups, marriage proposals, and 'over the ergonomic office table' bonks.Far from being a two horse race, Trier's script gives space for the ancillary characters to shine, but only insofar as Danish stereotypes will allow. There's the earthy Jutland farm boy Gorm (Casper Christensen), the red-blooded saleswoman Lise (Iben Hjele) and the hot- headed Finnish tycoon buying up the company (Friðrik þór Friðriksson). Also of note is the stunning Sofie Gråbøl as the contract attorney sealing the deal, and currently whipping Guardian readers into a frenzy as Sarah Lund in Danish crime series Forbrydelsen, aka The Killing.Whilst I wasn't thrilled by this one-dimensional farce, there is some depth behind all the levity and, 'how's your father' dalliance. With Kristoffer trying so desperately to flesh out the boss of it all character, mixed with Ravn's downplayed subservience, it's an allegory on the relationship between filmmaker and performer. Known for being such a difficult, resolute, and allegedly tear-inducing taskmaster, Lars von Trier's The Boss of it All is wryly telling everybody to lighten up. It's only a movie, after all.

jdeureka With Lars Von Trier's "The Boss of It All" (2006) welcome to an odd dozen characters in search of meaning. Here is Kafka Land, Luigi Pirandello Place. "The Boss of It All" puts the audience in a modern cube of a building that could be in New Jersey or Denmark in any modern, widget-selling company. "The Boss of It All" is comic desert not office comedy. Here are the delights of the absurd without its fun, its articulate melancholy, or the slapstick darkness of "Waiting for Godot". In "The Boss of It All" business is sheer busyness. One critic @: "http://www.filmcritic.com/" put the film's core issue very well: "careerism and the business world have surpassed brutality and arrived in the realm of hostile idiocy." Yes. But is this not dishonest on Von Trier's part? Isn't he in the movie industry? This film aches with nihilism. "The Boss of It All" confirms Camus's remark: "The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact...we are suffering from nihilism."

admiraglio I've had it with comedies. I mean, I like comedies, always have. Probably I simply got too much depressed by the continuing lack of ideas displayed by writers and the continuing lack of style displayed by directors. When I started to watch "Direktøren for det hele" I surely didn't know what to expect. I mean... Lars von Trier is used to shot a genre that for sure isn't comedy. But oh boy if he's good at it. I don't want comment the technique of shooting (that is brilliant) but simply the content. And that's what makes this movie a great comedy: 1) the character have the right balance between absurdity and reality, starting from the actor failed who speaks only about Gambini; the boss who doesn't want to appear hard so he invented one; the employer who can't speak danish in a good way cause his lessons were cut (by the "boss"); the screaming girl at the copying machine; the punch in the face guy; the "you wouldn't **ck me until I bl** you good" woman; the Finnish buyer who hates danish (spectacular).2) the story is funny and "sad" at the same time: the boss of a company, wanting to preserve his image of a good man, invent a fake boss to finger him with all his bad actions. But when he decides to sell the company, the buyer wants to speak with the invented boss. Here comes on stage a failed actor who should have played the part of the boss just for a few minutes but that ends up doing it for one week. During this time he'll have to confront all the people that he's supposed to have directed in all of those preceding years, confronting with odd situations knowing little or nothing of each of them and of the company itself.3) great moments: a) when the boss of it all agree to a request of an employer without knowing what it is (that would be marrying her);b) when the mustache guy punches in the face the boss of it all;c) all the times the Finnish buyer damns the danish;d) when the boss of it all confess he isn't actually the real boss, because there exist the boss of the boss of it all;e) when Ravn confesses, and the mustache guy punches him too;f) when the Finnish mentions Gambini, and suddenly everything "changes" in the plane of the boss/actor.Why couldn't all the comedies be like this one?

Michael Kastberg Lars Von Trier is know for making heavy film-projects, which are never very funny. Now, this time around, someone has convinced him to make a comedy. I had high hopes for this movie - Von Trier being a master instructor - and figured he'd be able to do it left handed. However, Trier has never put a lid on his disdain for "mainstream", and seeing this movie, I can only explain the result as Trier loathing to do a mainstream comedy.The editing of the film has the camera cutting for new angles all the time, in a tempo which would make MTV jealous. It is totally unnecessary. Lars also plays with deliberate continuous errors, just to make sure that the viewers is totally aware that he is only watching a movie.The plot of the movie is fairly original, and the movie does have a few moments where it makes you smile, but I can't help but to feel,that Lars Von Trier did his out most to sabotage his own movie. Especially the characters are totally overdone, and what had so much potential, lacks any form of release.Lars even has the lead character stating his mission as director:"could it be, that modern comedy, is about putting the spectator on display?"Lars' final F-you-and-goodbye ends the film - "those, who got what they came for, deserved it" (i.e. Lars wants to _educate_ his audience, not give them what they want).