Insignificance (1985)

"This story and it's contents are entirely fictitious." - opening title card in "Insignificance"

Imagine Marilyn Monroe, her then-husband Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein and Senator Joe McCarthy all meeting in a sweaty hotel room in 1953. Well, you don't have to actually, scripter Terry Johnson has done it for you with his play "Insignificance." Even more accessible for you is Nicholas Roeg's film version of the piece from 1985. But if you have, in fact, indeed started to ponder this collective group at this particular time, you may soon be asking yourself - why bother. If you begin to watch the film, you'll begin to ask yourself the same question.

Sure, Johnson comes up with a few interesting twists, like Monroe using toys to explain the theory of relativity to Einstein, or McCarthy having unsatisfactory sex with a Monroe impersonator. But after these two moments in the piece, the film seems rather hollow. There really is little here. Johnson tries to make piercing commentary on the nature of fame but his intelligence and Roeg's odd approach to the film make most of these incomprehensible.

Roeg cast his wife Theresa Russell in the role of "The Actress" (as Johnson refuses to call these people exactly who we already know they represent). Russell plays the stunning ingenue Monroe like a whiny freight train with a breathy voice. That is her sole approach here. Sure, she looks like Monroe but that is mainly due to her wig and her dress (ala "The Seven Year Itch"). Russell isn't able to bring any of Monroe's other qualities to the screen. She never seems used, abused or sympathetic - even when the film makes her the ultimate victim by showing her bleeding onto her bedclothes once again, as Marilyn did due to her numerous abortions.

Russell must play off of Michael Emil as "The Professor," Einstein as well as Gary Busey as "The Ballplayer," DiMaggio. These men add a bit of interest to the film. But Emil's characterization seems a bit silly at first. He's too flighty, too chirpy, to really invoke Einstein. Those of us who have never seen or heard the great scientist don't think he will sound or act like this. But maybe Emil sees him as a big kid. Einstein must have been naive and childish to allow his creation (of the atom bomb) to be co- opted by governmental agencies. Still, Emil kind of grows on us, even if we don't believe him as the great man for a moment. Busey, meanwhile, has more success as the blowhard "man of the 50's," who expects his wife to stay at home. Busey actually seems misunderstood even though he is simply playing a male chauvinist pig. His is the best performance here.

The film seems to have more success when it attempts to incorporate facts rather than inventing fiction. When McCarthy (Tony Curtis as "The Senator") tries to strongarm Einstein into appearing at hearings before the Atomic Energy Commission or when DiMaggio nags Monroe and treats her poorly. It is here where the actors really seem to enjoy their work and where the piece seems to really shine with insight. It's too bad Johnson has to pack so much ethereal imaginings between these. They tend to drag the film to a dull thud.

Roeg, of course, is his usual oddball behind the camera. He often pauses for weird short flashback segments that evoke images of the characters before this time - or bomb blasts, or wreckage, or supposed important images. More than once a clock is used to remind us of the importance of the passage of time - in fact, the piece begins with a wristwatch flying through space. We will come to learn the significance of this later in the film. But when this idea could be used best for Roeg, when this image of a wrecked grandfather clock could be used to close the film, he misses it. This is the image we should see last, instead, we get Monroe fading out of view. This is the film trying to convince us that she is indeed, the ultimate celebrity - and therefore the ultimate example of the tragedy of fame. The film wants us to believe that the famous are victims. This is, even in Monroe's case, a bunch of crap. It was the social mores of the 60's and her inability to be a successful iconoclast that eventually lead to her undoing, not her fame.

Finally, Roeg finishes the film with the second biggest combination of explosions ever used to close a film. (The first being in Antonioni's "Zabriske Point"). Roeg and Johnson seem to be making a statement about Einstein's grief over inventing the bomb, or his concern over how it may be used. Then again, it could be a take on how Monroe was abused by America. One is rarely sure just exactly what this enigmatic piece is trying to get across.

Still, Roeg's weirdness can pay off as well. One of the best images in the film finds Busey starring at a calendar of Monroe that is a composite of several Marilyn shots (it was created by artist David Hockney for the film). This evokes DiMaggio's anger at how thousands of men can peer at his naked wife whenever they wish. He sees the thousands of eyes peering at the numerous images of his wife, an image that is supposed to be (or so society says) for his eyes only. It is an obvious display and yet we find it haunting. It says all we need to know about the character without uttering a single word.

The music in the piece can work as often as not. The score by Stanley Meyers often recalls the huge big band sound of the time with great results. But Roeg also uses "electronic music" by Hans Zimmer that can sound out of place in the film's context. Roeg, as usual, helps himself as often as not with his soundtrack music.

Finally, a note must be made of Tony Cutis' appearance in the film as McCarthy. Curtis has a huge scene mid-film where he hires a Monroe clone, a prostitute, to come to his hotel room. The couple have awkward and unsatisfactory sex. Curtis, many will recall, began his career as a star with a role opposite Monroe in "Some Like it Hot," where, it is said, the two did not get along. Is Curtis' appearance here meant to invoke that famed screen meeting, is it meant to mean something much deeper, or is it just coincidence?

"Insignificance" is an incredibly difficult piece. Intelligent and cryptic, it has it's best chance of succeeding in the hands of someone like Roeg. However, in the end, the piece seems a dull bore. It would be much more interesting to meet Johnson at a party where everyone is asked the question; If you could have dinner with any four people in history who would it be?

And Johnson thinks a bit, and then answers; Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Senator Joe McCarthy and Albert Einstein.

Note:

Also with Will Sampson and Daniel Benzali in small roles.

Photographed by Peter Hannan.

Filmed in London and New York.

Originally performed on stage in London in 1982.

Almost all of Emil's other roles in film have come in those helmed by his brother, Henry Jaglom.

Review written in 1996

Report Card

Script: C+

Acting: B-

Cinematography\Lighting: B+

Special Effects\Make Up: A

Music: D-

Final Grade: C+