Insignificance

Nicolas Roeg

 
Insignificance (Criterion Blu-Ray)

Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

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  • United Kingdom
  • 1985
  • 108 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.78:1
  • English
  •  
  • Spine #566

SYNOPSIS: Four unnamed people who look and sound a lot like Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and Joseph McCarthy converge in one New York City hotel room in this compelling, visually inventive adaptation of Terry Johnson’s play, from director Nicolas Roeg. With a combination of whimsy and dread, Roeg creates a fun-house-mirror image of fifties America in order to reflect on the nature of celebrity and lingering cold-war nuclear nightmares. Insignificance is a delirious, intelligent drama, featuring magnetic performances by Michael Emil as the Professor, Theresa Russell as the Actress, Gary Busey as the Ballplayer, and Tony Curtis as the Senator.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

The ActressTheresa Russell
The ProfessorMichael Emil
The SenatorTony Curtis
The BallplayerGary Busey
The IndianWill Sampson
The driverPatrick Kilpatrick

Credits

DirectorNicolas Roeg
ScreenplayTerry Johnson
Executive producerAlexander Stuart
ProducerJeremy Thomas
Director of photographyPeter Hannan
EditingTony Lawson
MusicStanley Myers and Hans Zimmer
Art directionDavid Brockhurst

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

  • Newly restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Nicolas Roeg and producer Jeremy Thomas (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
  • New video interviews with Roeg, Thomas, and editor Tony Lawson
  • Making “Insignificance,” a short documentary shot on the set of the film
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Chuck Stephens and a reprinted exchange between Roeg and screenwriter Terry Johnson

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Insignificance: Stargazing

By Chuck StephensJune 14, 2011

  The dance along the artery The circulation of the lymph Are figured in the drift of stars —T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets   The year is 1954: a fabulous bit of film history is about . . . Read more »


Interviews

A Conversation with Theresa Russell

By Sam WassonJune 22, 2011

Theresa Russell is attracted to the very things that repel most actors. In 1976’s The Last Tycoon, her first movie (and Elia Kazan’s last), she is unafraid of seeming to do very little. Young actresses . . . Read more »


Press Notes

Press Notes: Insignificance

July 05, 2011

No one fractures time like Nicolas Roeg, who has given us such nonlinear marvels as Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, and The Man Who Fell to Earth. His 1985 Insignificance, now out on Criterion DVD and . . . Read more »