The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra
The Life and Death of 9413 a Hollywood Extra is a 1928 American silent experimental short film cowritten and codirected by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapi. Considered a landmark of American avantgarde cinema, it tells the story of a man Jules Raucourt who comes to Hollywood with dreams of becoming a star, only to fail and become dehumanized, with studio executives reducing him to the role of extra and writing the number 9413 on his forehead.
Mr. Jones Jules Raucourt, an artist and aspiring movie star, arrives in Hollywood and is immediately starstruck by the glitz and glamour of the film industry. He speaks with a film studio representative, presenting a letter of recommendation and attempting to speak on his own behalf, but the representative cuts him off and writes the number 9413 on his forehead. From this point on, 9413 speaks only in unintelligible gibberish and moves in a mechanical fashion, mindlessly following the instructions of film directors and studio representatives. He goes on a series of casting calls, but is unable to find any success, constantly being confronted with signs that read, No Casting Today. A series of images are interspersed throughout these scenes, including shots of Hollywood, cameras filming, the word DREAMS written in the stars, and an endlessly repeating loop of a man walking up a stairway toward the word SUCCESS, without ever reaching the top.Unlike 9413, other extras around him begin to find success. A woman Adriane Marsh with the numberon her head constantly kneels and stands back up at the behest of a film director, and eventually succeeds in landing a part, greeted by a Casting Today sign. Another extra Voya George with the number 15, who unlike 9413 has expressionless and unenthusiastic facial expressions, holds paper masks in front of his face, symbolizing his performances. He is greeted with enthusiasm by the cheering masses, all of whom speak in the same gibberish as 9413. His numberis replaced with a star and he achieves tremendous success. 9413 admires this new movie star and attempts to mimic him, presenting his own, much more impressivelooking mask. But the star is unimpressed and disregards 9413, who sadly cradles his mask like a baby, lamenting his inability to achieve success. ........
Source: Wikipedia