Hacker Cinema
The Boss of It All
Direktøren for det hele
2006 · Film · 99 min
Directed by Lars von Trier
The owner of an IT firm wants to sell his business for profit; however, when he started his firm, he invented a nonexistent president to hide behind when unpopular steps needed to be taken. When potential purchasers insist on negotiating with 'The Boss' face to face, the owner hires a failed actor to play the part.
2 neutralfrom 2 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
2 comments on Hacker News
"The Boss of it All" takes place in some kind of IT software firm. I'm pretty sure "automavision" is inspired by the kind of online meeting camera which tries (and often fails) to focus on the person talking.
While most of the satire in the movie is unrelated to IT, there are some in-jokes. In one scene, a developer is getting suspicious towards the boss of it all (who is really a hired actor with no understanding of the business) and asks "do you even know what agile development means?" The actor who is trained in improvisational theater cleverly retorts "Well, can you explain what agile development is?", which shuts up the developer.
Somewhat related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automavision
"Automavision is a cinematic technique invented by Danish director Lars von Trier.
Developed with the intention of limiting human influence, in Automavision no cinematographer is actively operating the camera. The best possible fixed camera position is chosen and then a computer chooses framing by randomly tilting, panning or zooming the camera. In doing so it is not uncommon that the actors appear in the shots with a part of their face and head cut from the frame. With this technique then the blame for any "errors" are entirely attributable to a computer."
I always felt this was a bit of joke from Lars von Trier, though. I am not aware of any other film than "The Boss of it All" where it was used. A good joke after all. As von Trier says:
"If you want bad framing, Automavision is the perfect way to do it."