ByTowne ByTowne Cinema
ByTowne Cinema
325 Rideau St. Ottawa K1N 5Y4
Info Line: (613) 789-FILM
Insignificance
Print this pageMust-See Cinema! Bizarrely enough, this screening commemorates both the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death and the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
It is the ’50s in a hotel room in New York. Albert Einstein is at work, thinking, waiting for the next day’s House Committee On Un-American Activities session he has been ‘invited’ to, when who should walk in but Marilyn Monroe. This fictitious meeting of celebrity and genius, embellished further by the appearance of Joe DiMaggio and Senator McCarthy, is my favourite of Roeg’s dizzying and elliptical body of work.
It is a deceptively charming comedy, with Russell playing Monroe as a bright and inquisitive young woman who is intrigued by Einstein’s passion for abstraction. Emil is often hilarious as the totally disarmed physicist who has a vivacious starlet on his bed, the House Committee on his mind, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on his conscience.
This latter somber theme creeps up on us, like the fragments of a forgotten dream, until it explodes across the screen with all the ferocity Roeg can muster. Not to be missed.
– Bruce White
Copyright note: We have been unable to find the correct rights holder for this film. If you represent the licensed distributor for theatrical exhibition of this film in Canada or North America, please contact us. A portion of the revenues from our screenings will be held in trust and paid to you upon receipt of documentation verifying your claim. Please e-mail us at cinemail@bytowne.ca or telephone (613) 789-4600.
This web site is very useful, but the hard copy of the ByTowne guide still has its merits. People rely on it and love it. Plus, its calendar pages can be pulled out and posted on your fridge door, something that we still can't achieve with the web site. Get your copy today at many local stores, coffee shops and info centres around town! 