STATYSCI (EXTRAS)
Poland, 2006, 115 minutes, Colour.
Kinga Preis, Stanislaw Brudny, Krzysztof Kiersznowski, Anna Romantowska.
Directed by Michal Kwiecinski.
Extras is a humorous Polish film. The setting is a small low-key town somewhere in the middle of Poland. The film spends a great deal of time focusing on the ordinary people who live there and their styles, their work, shops. There is a variety of characters especially Maria, a widow who has a son who plays in commercials. There is also a photographer – who takes photos in the traditional way rather than with modern technology. The film also focuses on two sisters, who run a sewing accessories shop as well as the local lottery.
Suddenly a film is being made in their town – by the Chinese. This gives all kinds of possibilities for a revitalisation of the town as well as everybody becoming involved in the film as extras. Much of the comedy is about how the extras have no idea how to play their parts, bring their personal lives into their performances, have no understanding that they have bit-parts and generally try to upstage the film and each other.
The Chinese are presented as very businesslike compared with the Poles and there is humour at the expense of both Polish and Chinese.
The film is very much tongue-in-cheek – although, with its portrait of ordinary people, it is making a great deal of social comment as well as providing humour.
1.The popularity of the film in Poland? Awards? The Polish sense of humour? How well does the film travel? Different senses of humour and sensibilities?
2.The Polish town, the railway, the streets, hotels, homes, the site for the film-making? The town square? An authentic feel? The jaunty musical score – with the touch of the oriental?
3.The basic plot: the Chinese coming to Poland, making a film, their presupposition that the Poles were the gloomiest people on earth? The Chinese encounter with the Poles, the film-making, the auditions for the extras, the filming, the interruptions, the exasperation? The final confrontation? The change in the plan for the film? The final banquet? Happy ever after? The detail of the Chinese characters: the director, his way of filming, watching, cutting, exasperated with all the mix-ups? The assistant director and her shouting? The members of the cast, cameraman? The actors?
4.The focus on Jozef, the train ride, his arrival, his encountering the man at the station, going to the hotel? His returning after ten years? The background story, three years of marriage, walking out, leaving a note, travelling the world? Suddenly turning up, his wanting to get back with his wife, meet his son? His carefree attitude?
5.The wife, her being an interpreter with the Chinese? Seven years with her husband absent, bringing up her son, learning Chinese, marrying again? A happy life? Its being threatened?
6.The auditions for the extras, wanting them to be sad, their smiling, the range of people, those accepted? The motley group, waiting outside for the interviews? Jozef and his intrusion? His not being hired?
7.The film set-ups: the marketplace, the various scenes of action? The extras and their behaviour, smiles, the director having to cut? The scene in the rain? The interruptions, the emotions? The old man being late?
8.The characters of the extras: the photography shop owner, his wife having left him, meeting the man in the choir, his anti-church attitudes? Maria, the widow, dignified, her hat? Attracted by the photographer? Their time together? Her arguments against his anti-religion? Her coming to terms with her husband, throwing the dirt on his gravestone? Their future together? Dorota, her sister not getting a part, the sister and her toothache, unwilling to go to the dentist? Dorota and the attraction towards Szymon, her losing her wallet, his taking her identity card? Her later discovering this? Her shop, the flirtation? Szymon, his erratic mother, taking down the posters? Her death and his going to the filming rather than going to her?
9.The personalities of the extras, their interactions, interruptions? The old man, his family, Szymon taking him home in the car? His being late?
10.Jozef, his pursuit of his wife, her rejection? His meeting his son, the wrong boy, the boy telling the other? The son’s admiration? His interrupting the filming? Putting the car on the train line and the Chinese getting him off? His final confrontation with the Chinese, the argument about the sad ending?
11.The prejudices of the Poles, their slighting references to the Chinese? How racist? How humorous? As revealing the Poles?
12.The final resolution – the extras and their getting together, the happy old man, the dance? Jozef, wanting his wife? Her going with her husband, the background of his infertility, the sample, hoping for the artificial insemination? Her getting out of the truck, the return? The film’s reticence in not showing the two together at the end?
13.The happy ending, the banquet, Chinese and Poles together?
