Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


October 2007 activity

Total Log Entries: 46

Total Comments: 12


Full Archive



The Boss of it All / Direktoren for det hele / Denmark / Sweden / Iceland / Italy / France / Norway / Finland / Germany / 2006

A lot has been made of Von Trier’s recent confession that he derives “no pleasure from filmmaking.” Considering his usual style and subject, one is forced to wonder: If his pleasureless-but-content self is represented by the warped and instinctively bleak works of the last ten years—Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Manderlay—what does the mind of a depressed Von Trier look like? Moreover, how does one balance that image of the complex, phobic Dane with The Boss of It All, a lighthearted office comedy?

Von Trier, embracing an amusingly deconstructive form, narrates his film as it progresses; beginning as a reflection in office windows, his eye pressed to the camera, he becomes a cinematic John Barth. When a scene requires something cliched, such as the introduction of a new character to advance the story’s progression, he lets us know. It’s refreshing and, at the same time, essential to a film about how years of compound storytelling leads to disaster and, eventually, redemption.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
07 Oct 2007 12:10 AM | Submit Comment


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