NICOLAS ROEG
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB.
United Kingdom, 1985. Recorded Picture Company, Zenith Entertainment. Screenplay by Terry Johnson. Cinematography by Peter Hannan. Produced by Jeremy Thomas. Music by Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer. Production Design by David Brockhurst. Costume Design by Shuna Harwood. Film Editing by Tony Lawson. Cannes Film Festival 1985.
Marilyn Monroe shows up at Albert Einstein’s hotel room one evening and explains to him the theory of relativity. Soon afterwards, Senator Joe McCarthy comes to badger Einstein about an HUAC court appearance and Joe DiMaggio stomps in to get his wife to come home. Based on the play by Terry Johnson, this completely original curiosity, directed with visual flair by Nicolas Roeg, shows the end result of politics, science and sex being blended into one heated situation. Not all audiences will warm up to it, but it’s pretty interesting and enjoyable, if only for the surefire performance by Theresa Russell as the cinema goddess and Michael Emil‘s dead-on impersonation of the groundbreaking scientist.