Insignificance **** (1985, Gary Busey, Tony Curtis, Theresa Russell, Michael Emil, Will Sampson) – Classic Movie Review 6615

Insignificance is very entertaining, witty and intelligent. Perhaps against the odds, director Nicolas Roeg has a total success with the idea for his 1985 British comedy drama film.

It is a straightforward filming of Terry Johnson’s stage play set in a New York hotel room in 1953, where four Fifties icons – people rather like Senator Joe McCarthy, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and Joe DiMaggio – engage in smart talk about the price of fame and the perils of the atom bomb.

There is no real attempt by Roeg to open things out. It is basically a filmed stage play. But, because both the words and the performances are so good, Insignificance works a treat.

There are extraordinary feats of acting from all four stars. Roeg’s wife (divorced) Theresa Russell plays the Actress and brings off the difficult task of being rather than parodying a Monroe blonde. Tony Curtis plays the Senator and is the film’s main surprise in a tour de force as a senator like Joseph McCarthy. And Emil (the Professor/ Einstein) and Gary Busey (the Ballplayer/ DiMaggio) are just as good. Will Sampson plays a fifth character – Elevator Attendant/ The Indian, with Patrick Kilpatrick as the Driver and Raynor Scheine as the Autograph Hunter.

Insignificance is written by Terry Johnson, shot by Peter Hannan, produced by Jeremy Thomas, scored by Stanley Myers, and designed by Arthur Mack Shafransky and Diane Johnstone.

Russell appeared in Roeg’s Bad Timing (1980), Eureka (1983), Insignificance (1985), the Un ballo in maschera segment of Aria (1987), Track 29 (1988), Cold Heaven (1991), and Hotel Paradise (1995) (short).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6615

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