Thematically complex while narratively simplistic, Nicholas Roeg's Insignificance is an imperfect, yet endlessly intriguing reflection on fifties America, which uses four 1950's cultural icons (Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and Joseph MacCarthy) to deliver a whimsical, yet dread-filled examination of cold-war paranoia that touches on the intrinsically fickle nature internal perception can have over all individuals, demonstrating how our relative perceptions themselves, fueled by personal circumstance and memory, shape our over-arching in the world. Taking place over the course of a single night, Insignificance finds each of these character's struggling in one form of another, each haunted by their own relative issues. Einstein is haunted by Hiroshima, wracked by the guilt associated; Monroe struggles with being perceived as nothing more than a sex object, craving intellectual credence; McCarthy is at the height of his red-scare, witch-hunting powers though behind closed doors he is a weak, impotent sleaze; Dimaggio is in the twilight of his career, insecurities related to his celebrity seep into his psyche, he has become self-obsessed with his wife, Marilyn, and prone to violent outbursts. Each character, the mental state in which they find themselves, seems to have them barreling down a road of self-destruction, with their troubled circumstances/past experiences suggesting a questionable future. The interplay between these characters is dynamic and lively, featuring strong performances from all involved, and while Insignificance can be a bit beguiling at times, each character's internal struggle, their obsessions, fuel this ideal that they will never truly find peace-of-mind and/or happiness. Insignificance uses the 1950's American paranoia and Eisenstein's theory of relativity to comment on how perception is always defined by one's own frame of reference, as we gradually begin to understand that many of these character's are victims of their own psyches. Events we believe to be significant in the course of the narrative begin to reveal themselves as insignificant in the scope of the grand-scale narrative- with the finale itself being perhaps the best example of this, where Einstein sees a nuclear holocaust erupting, only for the camera to pull back and reveal that this grand-standing paranoia is nothing more than another figment of his imagination, an insignificant event in the scope of the world that is perceived as apocalyptic by the relative introspection of Eisenstein, a man who is wrecked by guilt due to his association with the creation of the nuclear bomb. It's through these character's unique frames of reference that Roeg's Insignificance applies the famed scientists' theory of relatively to cultural perception, with the personal issues of these characters being a manifestation of the fear and paranoia associated with 1950's America. Featuring Nicholas Roeg's typical visual flair and kinetic editing, Insignificance is a delirious, beguiling, yet astute piece of filmmaking that uses 1950's American culture icons to touch on the destructive qualities of obsession, and how we all as individuals and as a cultural collective, can be victims of our relative experiences.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|