A R C H I V E1 9 8 7  
6th
  Mark Wilcox
The Man of the Crowd
  UK 1987
Videotape, 39:00, colour and black-and-white
In 'The Man of the Crowd', the single individual is recovered from the mass of humanity which threatens to engulf him. Wilcox achieves this by means of a fictional narrative, a detective story, combined with a series of interviews with extras. The detective story is apparently, despite a number of deliberate anachronisms, set about a century ago. A young man, bored by an enforced convalescence following illness, reads a newspaper report about a missing person. He happens to glance out of the window and thinks he recognises the man in question: an extra from an old black and white film, a man with unremarkable features, just a face in the crowd. Obsessed, the young man sets off on a quest which leads him eventually to the missing man's daughter, who herself works as an extra. This narrative is regularly interrupted by interviews with extras and stand-ins from the worlds of film and theatre. They talk about their low status and about the poor treatment accorded to them, making them feel like mere stage furniture. The detective story and interviews relate and react with each other in a peculiar way, giving the stylish setting of the narrative section a particular appeal to the imagination.

Marie-Adèle Rajandream

Scenario: Mark Wilcox, Kate Cragg, Camera: Paul Barton, Editing: Martin Jangaard, Sound: Debbie Kaplan, Music: Jan Greaves, Production: Barbara Nicholls, With: Nigel Lowery, Matthew Zajac, Kate Cragg