The Boss of It All
July 4, 2007 7:44 AM   Subscribe

"I'm a control freak-- but I was not in control." Lars von Trier made his latest movie without a cameraman. The Boss of It All (trailer), a comedy, was made with "Automavision", allowing a computer to decide when to tilt, pan, or zoom. The film also employs Lookey, a game that challenges the viewers to spot objects that don’t belong in a scene. The first viewer in Denmark to identify all the Lookeys correctly wins a cash prize and a chance to be an extra in von Trier’s next film.
posted by hermitosis (14 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thanks to Nathaniel W for some of these links (and happy birthday!).
posted by hermitosis at 7:45 AM on July 4, 2007


The first viewer in Denmark to identify all the Lookeys correctly wins a cash prize and a chance to be an extra in von Trier’s next film.

In other words, they win the chance to be a Lookey.
posted by Eideteker at 7:56 AM on July 4, 2007 [1 favorite]


And who is this Nathaniel W? I, Nathaniel T, shall melt his Tungsten ass with the explosive power of my Tritium-fueled nuclear fusion! There can be only one!

*powers up to over nine thousand*
posted by Eideteker at 8:02 AM on July 4, 2007


From the trailer I can say that the camera angles and what not look cool but I didn't see any panning or zooming in action. I'm also having a really hard time grasping the plot.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 8:10 AM on July 4, 2007


Thanks, I was curious when he was going to pop up next, after Wasington was put on hold.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 8:12 AM on July 4, 2007


Oh -- this reminds me that I totally forgot reviewing this movie. The best I got is this blog entry: "Jens Albinus (also of The Idiots) plays an actor hired to impersonate the mysteriously absent CEO of a company about to be sold to Icelandic investors. The fish-out-of-water setup results in three kinds of humor: actor jokes, office jokes, and Icelandic jokes."

It's a decent comedy, and it's good to see LvT be funny again, but I forgot about the movie pretty fast. The camerawork is interesting as a distancing device, but since The Boss of It All is primarily set in an office, there isn't that much interesting stuff to look at. Mainly, you get oddly framed people, some jump cuts, and white balance mismatches.
posted by muckster at 8:18 AM on July 4, 2007


Though I don't love von Trier's work, this looks good. But more importantly, in David Bordwell I finally found someone else who thought "The Departed" wasn't edited particularly well.
posted by mzurer at 8:20 AM on July 4, 2007


that trailer was strange, i thought maybe it was one of those "recut" trailers of a Von Trier movie ala The Shining. hopefully some woman will get tortured, that's what keeps me coming back...

just to derail, the whole "anti-American" thing with Dogville was really brilliant marketing. i guess that's what is interesting about popular culture: the marketing see: Zombie Joseph Beuys. I feel like the Europeans are finally figuring iit out...
posted by geos at 9:25 AM on July 4, 2007


So everyone dies at the end, right?
posted by Saellys at 11:28 AM on July 4, 2007


That trailer really sucked me in.
posted by itchylick at 11:34 AM on July 4, 2007


I'd pretty much agree with muckster's take on the picture. I enjoyed it and it's a funny comedy, but the thing I remember most about it is that it had some really strange framing and jump cuts. It was nice to see an appropriately strange explanation for the somewhat jagged filmmaking. And I do like that von Trier's out there trying stuff like this Automavision and his 100-camera concept from Dancer in the Dark.

He also has this strange device where he appears about three times in the film (at the beginning, somewhere near the middle, and at the end), where you can see the camera with von Trier perched behind as a reflection on the window of the office building and there is a bit of narration explaining that this is a comedy. In the middle he even appears seemingly just to tell you that he's going to introduce a new character to stir things up a bit.

And Eideteker, you are welcome to try but you should know that while I may be partially Tungsten, I am also 40% dolomite, the tough black mineral that won't cop out when the heat's all about.

Can't we all just get along?
posted by Nathaniel W at 11:53 AM on July 4, 2007


I sought a Lookey vas vhat keeps dee bums out of dee English Starbucks.

Sank you, I'll be here all ze veek.
posted by bpm140 at 3:50 PM on July 4, 2007


Winning a chance to be an extra in a Lars von Trier movie, in my mind, is like winning a chance to work at the factory that makes Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line. Something grueling which we hear about after the fact, not hope we "win."
posted by SassHat at 8:35 PM on July 4, 2007


Did they set the camera computer to the "amateur student film" setting? Good thing it looks like a strong story and might have a chance to overcome the lack of cinema.
posted by Poagao at 12:46 AM on July 5, 2007


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