''The Boss of It All'' ( da, Direktøren for det hele) is a 2006 experimental

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

Lars von Trier Lars von Trier ('' né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nomina ...

. The film uses a cinematic technique invented by von Trier himself called Automavision, which automatically determines framing by randomly tilting, panning or zooming the camera without being actively operated by the cinematographer.

Plot

The owner of an IT company, Ravn, wishes to sell it. But, for years, he has pretended that the real boss lives in America and communicates with the staff only by e-mail. That way, all the unpopular decisions can be attributed to the absentee manager, while all the popular ones to him directly. But now, the prospective buyer insists on meeting the big boss in person. In a panic, the owner hires a failed, over-intellectualizing actor to portray this imaginary boss, and the actor proceeds to improvise all his lines, to the consternation of both the buyer and the company staff, who finally get to meet their ghostly boss.

Cast

* Jens Albinus as The Boss of It All / Kristoffer / Svend E * Peter Gantzler as Ravn, the owner * Friðrik Þór Friðriksson as Finnur * Benedikt Erlingsson as Interpreter * Iben Hjejle as Lise * Henrik Prip as Nalle * Mia Lyhne as Heidi A. *

Casper Christensen Casper Lindholm Christensen (born 22 August 1968) is a Danish comedian. He has hosted many shows including '' Casper & Mandrilaftalen'', the Danish airing of '' Shooting Stars'' and ''Don't Forget Your Toothbrush'' ('' Husk lige tandbørsten' ...

as Gorm * Louise Mieritz as Mette *

Jean-Marc Barr Jean-Marc Barr (born September 27, 1960) is a French-American film actor and director. He is best known for working on several films from Danish film director and frequent collaborator Lars von Trier since ''Europa'' (1991). Early life and ed ...

as Spencer *

Sofie Gråbøl Sofie Gråbøl (; born 30 July 1968) is a Danish actress. She has starred in a number of films, with her breakthrough role in the 1986 Danish film '' Early Spring'', directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen, playing the lead role in the film version of ...

as Kisser * Anders Hove as Jokumsen

Release

''The Boss of It All'' opened in Denmark on 8 December 2006 and earned 1,147,632 kr. The film opened in the United States on 23 May 2007 and earned $51,548. Worldwide, the film grossed $3,111,395.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews. It holds a 75% rating on the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 67 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Director Lars von Trier ditches the pretensions but keeps his misanthropy in ''The Boss of it All'', a surprisingly sharp and witty comedy about office life gone haywire." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a 71/100 rating based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

The film was nominated for two

Bodil Awards The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by the Danish Film Critics Association. The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe. The awards are give ...

, three Robert Festival Honours and the Golden Shell at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in ...

Remake

On February 23, 2011, it was announced that ''

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

'' creator Mitch Hurwitz was remaking ''The Boss of It All'' for

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

with

Brian Grazer Brian Thomas Grazer (born July 12, 1951) is an American film and television producer and writer. He founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 with Ron Howard. The films they produced have grossed over $15 billion. Grazer was personally nominated f ...

producing.

References

External links

* * * * *
The Director Interviews: Lars von Trier, ''The Boss of It All''
at ''Filmmaker Magazine''

nbsp;– interview with von Trier

nbsp;– interview with von Trier {{DEFAULTSORT:Boss Of It All, The 2006 films 2000s avant-garde and experimental films 2006 comedy films Danish avant-garde and experimental films Danish comedy films French avant-garde and experimental films French comedy films German avant-garde and experimental films German comedy films Icelandic comedy films Swedish avant-garde and experimental films Swedish comedy films 2000s Danish-language films 2000s English-language films English-language Danish films English-language French films English-language German films English-language Icelandic films English-language Italian films English-language Swedish films 2000s Icelandic-language films 2000s Russian-language films Films directed by Lars von Trier 2006 multilingual films Danish multilingual films French multilingual films German multilingual films Swedish multilingual films 2000s French films 2000s German films 2000s Swedish films