Nicolas Roeg

Insignificance Nicolas Roeg

Nicholas Roeg's widely acclaimed drama set in the '50s and featuring fictional likenesses of four of the decade's most recognisable icons. The film is largely a theoretical conversation between Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Joe McCarthy and Joe DiMaggio, though no names are ever mentioned. A busty blonde actress played by Theresa Russell is working on a film in which one shot involves her standing over a blowing fan grate.

In her hotel she meets a seemingly bumbling, tousle-headed Harvard professor (Michael Emil) and the two engage in a conversation in which she explains the theory of relativity. Her husband, a pro ball player (Gary Busey) is madly in love with her but jealous to the point of madness. A barking mad, drunken, paranoid, zealous Wisconsin senator, played by Tony Curtis, is in the professor's room to impeach him on charges of un-American activities.

Along the way, fascinating conversations develop between the characters.