Friday, August 19, 2011

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)
Insignificance (1985)

Genre: Drama / Comedy
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: Michael Emil, Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, Gary Busey, Will Sampson
Duration: 110 min.
Rating: 7.3  

Summary:
Four 1950s icons meet in the same hotel room and two of them discover more in common between them than they ever anticipated.

Insignificance (1985)


Insignificance is a film directed by Nicolas Roeg, and adapted by Terry Johnson from his play of the same name.  It screened in competition at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the Technical Grand Prize.

It tells of a fictional meeting between four recognizable icons of the 1950's who are never named, during one long night in a New York hotel room.  The film starts out with a stylish recreation of the filming of the famous subway grate scene from The Seven Year Itch, and whimsically follows the four individuals over the course of the next several hours.

It's an amusing and entertaining offering from Roeg, but doesn't really stand out as anything special.  The acting is competent but honestly none of the four would make it to the cast of a Vegas look-alike show.  Nevertheless, the dynamic between Micheal Emil as The Professor (Einstein) and Theresa Russell as The Actress (Marilyn Monroe) is quite fun to watch, and the one fantastic scene of her explaining to him the Theory of Relativity using toy soldiers, trains and balloons is the highlight of the entire film.  As for the other two leads, Gary Busey as The Ballplayer (Joe DiMaggio) doesn't leave much of an impression with a one note role as the jealous husband; and Tony Curtis as The Senator (Joe McCarthy) overacts every line and ends up being not more than a caricature.

Roeg's stylistic direction and editing is what makes this worthwhile.  Using camera tricks, sudden flashbacks and flash forwards, and one bombastic ending to elevate this from just being a stage play set to film.  Still it is a bit of a disappointment compared to his 70's films, and you aren't really missing much if you give this one a pass.  I can only recommend this one to either Roeg or Criterion completists.

Bonjour Tristesse

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

Insignificance (1985)

18 comments:

paco jones said...

The girl caught my eye, let's give it a try.

The Angry Lurker said...

It was worth a watch.

blahblahblahtoby said...

i think you've put me off this one. i guess it works both ways with you BT

FrontRoomCinema said...

I have never heard of this movie but it looks fun!! And I have a huge soft spot for Marilyn, even it isn't the real one :-)

Bonjour Tristesse said...

"Sure why not?" That is the perfect label for this type of film.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I love that album Insignificance, I found out about it because I'm a huge Wilco fan.  Never realized it was a tribute to Roeg.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah interesting concept but doesn't really go anywhere with it.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I'll take that as a compliment...

Bonjour Tristesse said...

It does have it's moments.

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

Well, I'm probably going to pass on this one.

Electric Addict said...

i'll have to check it out

d_4 said...

Looks like it could be fun, but eh. It's a 'sure, why not' film, not a 'this is gonna be amazing' film. Maybe I'll look into it later on.

Wes Moynihan said...

Good stuff BT. I was actually surprised when Criterion announced this one - it's hardly a classic but the release gives me hope that Criterion might put out Roeg's 1986 film Castaway. The screenshots you've posted are the first thing I've seen from this film and I must say I'm thinking about tracking this one down. On a vaguely related note avant-garde guitarist and on/off Sonic Youth member Jim O'Rourke recorded 4 albums that tip the hat to Nic Roeg - Bad Timing (1997), Eureka (1999), Insignificance (2001), and The Visitor (2009) - the last one, a nice riff on the fictitious album David Bowie's man who fell to Earth records, to transmit back to his doomed planet...
Wes
plutoniumshores.blogspot.com/

Christine@TheFiveSenses said...

I think I may have seen this on television a long time ago.  Interesting idea for a film.  

blahblahblahtoby said...

oh yeah, it is. definitely.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Other than Walkabout, I would say the only other must see film of his is Don't Look Now.

Alex Kittle said...

I really like the premise of this movie so it's too bad to hear that it's sort of mediocre. I've only seen two Roeg films so far (THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH and THE WITCHES) and the only other one I ever hear about is WALKABOUT. Do you have a good Roeg recommendation?

Msmariah said...

Wow, Theresa Russell makes a good Marilyn.

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