The Boss Of It All

The extras here are few, but exemplary.

The rather striking cinematography of The Boss Of It All is ascribed in the closing credits not to a named Director of Photography, but rather to Automavision® - and so the extras include three text pages of notes on Automavision®, a partially randomised system of framing and audio settings "developed with the intention of limiting human influence by inviting chance in from the cold and thus giving the work and 'idealess' surface free of the force of habit and aesthetics." Think an update of Dogme '95, with the decisions about the look and sound of each scene largely ceded to a computer (in a film about a computer company and its dehumanised workers).

The unpretentiously entitled Interviews and Behind the Scenes, with pellucid chapter headings simply identifying the interviewees (writer/director Lars von Trier and the cast) by name and listing the topics for discussion, is a 10-minute featurette of model clarity – and also very funny. All the actors are at pains to point out how much easier-going von Trier is than his reputation would suggest, with Casper Christensen (who plays Gorm) revealing that if the director makes a mistake on set you can kick him in the arse ("I don't think you can do that with Spielberg"). Louise Mieritz (Mette) describes working on-set with Automavision® as "annoying", Christensen adds that its absence of conventional framing "just seemed so dumb", while conceding, "when you see it in the movie, it works" – and Peter Gantzler (Ravn) refers to it as "a freedom". Von Trier himself emphasises that, thanks to Automavision®, "things of interest can lie almost anywhere in the frame."

There is also a trailer reel of other Diffusion titles, and a (very scanty) gallery of production stills from The Boss Of It All – but fans of short films will be delighted by the inclusion of Rupert Jones' The Sickie (2006), as part of the Diffusion Shorts Programme. In this 13-minute piece, overworked, stressed out office manager Douglas Knott (Toby Jones) uncharacteristically takes a sick day, only to discover that he is a victim of his own workaholism as much as of exploitation by his colleagues. The film's only connections to The Boss Of It All are an office setting and a cruel streak of humour - but that is more than enough excuse to see this well-crafted, quirky supporting film.