Inserts (film)

Inserts
Film poster
Directed by	John Byrum
Produced by	Davina Belling Harry Benn Clive Parsons
Written by	John Byrum
Starring	Richard Dreyfuss Veronica Cartwright Jessica Harper Bob Hoskins Stephen Davies
Cinematography	Denys N. Coop
Edited by	Michael Bradsell
Production company	Film and General Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	1975 (1975)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Inserts is a 1975 British film, written and directed by John Byrum while he was in his twenties, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, Bob Hoskins and Veronica Cartwright. The film was originally rated X but later re-rated as NC-17 in 1996.

The plot concerns actors and directors in the early 1930s who were unable to make the transition from silent films to talkies, and thus turned to making pornography. The film's title takes its name from the double meaning that "insert" both refers to a film technique and sexual intercourse. Inserts was filmed like a one-act stage play on one set and filmed entirely in real time.

Prior to the opening credits we see portions of the stag film that is shot in the course of the movie. Voices are overheard that make it apparent that men and women are watching this in the present day. At the end a man complains that there was no "Come shot", something that will later develop into a plot point.

The story takes place in Hollywood in the early 1930s, shortly after the start of the talkie period. A visionary and gifted young Hollywood director known as Boy Wonder (Dreyfuss) has fallen out of favor with the studios. This is ostensibly due to his reluctance to lower his standards or abandon his artistic and experimental style (such as using a hand-held camera) for the sake of churning out lesser quality stag films for easy money, due to his alcoholism and his fear of leaving his house. He works out of his decaying mansion, which is the only one left on a street being turned into a freeway.

On the morning of this particular shoot, a heroin-addicted waitress named Harlene (Cartwright) arrives. Harlene was once a well-known and respected star during the silent film era and she too is reluctant to join the ranks of the "talkies" due in part to her unappealing, high-pitched squeaky voice. She is now the star in the first of his six-picture deal. She prepares and shoots heroin while Boy Wonder drinks heavily during a conversation about the changing times in Hollywood.