Lars von Trier wants you to 'Lookey' his films
Last Updated: Saturday, December 9, 2006 | 4:41 PM ET
CBC Arts
Danish director Lars von Trier is asking audiences to look for deliberate mistakes he's implanted in his latest movie, The Boss of It All.
The director, known for his experimental techniques, said he's included out-of-context things in his film in a concept he calls "Lookey."
Danish director Lars von Trier, seen here accepting an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, wants other directors to use interactive methods in their films.
(Michel Euler/Associated Press)
"For the casual observer, it's just a glitch of mistake but for the initiated, it's a riddle to be solved," he told the website Screen Daily.
Von Trier, known for movies such as The Kingdom, Breaking the Waves and Dogville starring Nicole Kidman, said the first person in Denmark to identify all the Lookeys in the film will win a prize of 30,000 Danish kroner ($6,100 Cdn). There are a reported five to seven in The Boss of It All.
He describes Lookey as a "basic mind game, played with movies."
The 50-year-old auteur said he's calling on other directors to follow this new way of connecting with a passive audience. He's hoping people will watch the movie more than once to spot the "mistakes."
Von Trier is no stranger to innovation in cinema. In the mid-1990s, his Dogme 95 collective created a filmmaking manifesto that called for a return to simple production of movies.
A Dogme film could not use music, fixed cameras, props or sets, special lighting, nor should it conform to any existing film genre. Some famous Dogme movies include von Trier's The Idiots, Thomas Vinterberg's Festen (The Celebration) and Mifune.
The director's latest movie is also made with a von Trier innovation — automavision. The technique does not require cameramen. Instead, a computer chooses when to tilt, pan or zoom from a fixed position.
Von Trier captured the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2000 for the musical Dancer in the Dark, starring Icelandic singer Bjork.
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Danish director Lars von Trier, seen here accepting an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, wants other directors to use interactive methods in their films.

