The Boss of It All (2006)

An IT company hires an actor to serve as the company's president in order to help the business get sold to a cranky Icelander.

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writer:

Lars von Trier

Stars:

Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson

1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Jens Albinus	...	Direktøren for det hele / Kristoffer / Svend E
Peter Gantzler	...	Ravn
Friðrik Þór Friðriksson	...	Finnur (as Fridrik Thor Fridriksson)
Benedikt Erlingsson	...	Tolk
Iben Hjejle	...	Lise
Henrik Prip	...	Nalle
Mia Lyhne	...	Heidi A.
Casper Christensen	...	Gorm
Louise Mieritz	...	Mette
Jean-Marc Barr	...	Spencer
Sofie Gråbøl	...	Kisser
Anders Hove	...	Jokumsen

Storyline

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 test his (lack of) moral fibre.

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Plot Keywords:

actor | director | lawyer | contract | business meeting | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film that Ravn and Kristoffer watch in the cinema-scene is Andrei Tarkovskys "Mirror", one of Von Triers own favorite films.

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Connections

Features The Mirror (1975)

User Reviews

Not one of Lars von Trier's more important works, but it's worth a watch

Lars von Trier's Danish-language comedy. It never interested me much, though I used to love von Trier (despite always acknowledging his numerous flaws). And it is definitely one of his least good films. If we ever find ourselves looking back at his career in the distant future, this one will not be mentioned much. It's about an out-of-work actor (Jens Albinus) who is hired by a company's CEO who is pretending only to be that company's lead lawyer (Peter Gantzler) to impersonate the mythical, unseen "boss of it all". Gantzler plans to sell off the company, as well as his employee's patents, to an Icelander (played by Children of Nature's director, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson), but he doesn't want to be identified as the guilty party, instead setting up this patsy to take the blame from his crazy co-workers (among whom is Iben Hjejle, whom you may remember from Stephen Frear's High Fidelity). The film is moderately amusing. Though many people seem to think von Trier's oeuvre consists mostly of tragedies, his work is more often darkly comic. The Boss of It All isn't nearly his funniest work. The Kingdom and The Idiots are both funnier, as is arguably Europa. Friðrik Þór Friðriksson actually provides most of the film's laughs as the thunderous, Dane-hating Icelander, recalling Ernst-Hugo Järegård's Dane-hating Swede from The Kingdom. But still, The Boss of It All is good, even if it will eventually just be a footnote.

Details

Country:

Denmark Sweden France Italy Germany Iceland

Language:

Danish Icelandic English Russian

Release Date:

8 December 2006 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

The Boss of It All

Box Office

Budget:

EUR3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,855, 27 May 2007

Gross USA:

$51,548

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,111,395

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zentropa Productions, Memfis Film, Slot Machine

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1