Written and directed by Nicolas Roeg, and adapted from a Terry Johnson play, Insignificance satirizes some of pop culture’s brightest stars of the 1950’s. The year is 1954. It’s a hot and steamy night in New York City, and Marilyn Monroe, Sen. Joe McCarthy, Joe DiMaggio and Albert Einstein all cross paths in a hotel room. The element that links them all together is Monroe, a woman with such appeal it’s possible that all three men would have gathered to see her.
The characters are never actually given their real names in the film, but there seems to be little doubt who they’re meant to be. The Professor (Michael Emil), barefoot, wearing baggy pants and a Princeton letter-sweater, sits on a hotel bed surrounded by piles of paper containing various calculations. When we first meet the Actress (Theresa Russell), she is wearing a white dress with a pleated skirt, as she stands over a subway grating. Two stagehands below prepare their wind machine to blow the Actress’s skirt around her ears. Among the onlookers is the disgruntled figure of the Ballplayer. At the same time, the Senator (Tony Curtis) is ensconced in a Manhattan bar, getting liquored up, and discussing the connections between the glass of water in his hand and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Exactly how they all end up in the Professor’s hotel room is all explained in a comically logical fashion. The Senator shows up to remind the Professor that if he doesn’t appear at the next day’s hearing, he’ll be found in contempt. The Professor plans to attend the World Peace Conference instead. The Actress, whom the Professor doesn’t recognize, asks to come into his room to discuss the theory of relativity.
The Professor and the Actress are having a great time. She proceeds to explain relativity, and seems to feel valued for the first time in her life. The Actress seems to find his intelligence attractive; the Professor doesn’t feel like such an outsider. This odd idyll is interrupted by the arrival of the Ballplayer, her jealous husband, who takes the Professor for just another of his wife’s amorous analysts. He wants her to come back home. She wants a baby. He wants the baby they lost. The Professor just wants peace and quiet.
Through a series of flashbacks, Roeg explores each of the character’s unhappy pasts—to the Actress’s unhappy childhood, to the Senator’s sexual impotence, and the Professor’s guilt for being what the Senator calls ”the daddy of the H-bomb.”
Though Theresa Russell doesn’t look very much like Marilyn Monroe, her character is genuinely fun and pathetic. I couldn’t help but believe she may have captured Monroe’s personality. Gary Busey’s Ballplayer makes no attempt to be Joe DiMaggio, though that’s his position in the Actress’s life. He’s a nice, confused, lug – an original. Michael Emil’s Professor is both amused and concerned at the scene unfolding before him. Tony Curtis shines (and chews plenty of scenery), as the possibly psychotic Senator.
Presented in 1.78:1, this Criterion Blu-ray looks extraordinary. Colors are well-defined, black levels are consistent, and grain is well distributed, giving things a nice filmic look. The print has been cleaned up nicely, as there is no evidence of of compression artifacting, or other digital anomalies.
The LPCM mono mix serves the film well. Insignificance is all about the dialogue, and this soundtrack makes everything discernable. The sound effects and music (by Stanley Myers and Hans Zimmer), blend together in a very typical manner. One wonders if there could have been some better separation in that regard.
We get the following special features:
- Making Insignificance (14:25, 1080i) Made during filming, all four of the leading actors, Will Sampson (The Elevator Operator), Roeg, and producer Jeremy Thomas discuss their roles in the production, and what the film means to them.
- New Video Interviews With Nicholas Roeg, and Jeremy Thomas,(13:00, 1080p) The two discuss how the film came about, the elements that were added to the original stage play, and the important role music plays in the film.
- An Interview With Editor Tony Lawson (15:25, 1080p) Lawson discusses his career, and experiences working with directors such as Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, and Roeg. He also offers his thoughts on Insignificance.
- Theatrical Trailer (1080i)
- The enclosed 26-page booklet features cast and crew lists, some stills from the movie, an essay on the film by film professor Chuck Stephens, and a back-and-forth dialogue between director Roeg and screenwriter Terry Johnson.
