Insider’s guide to the pop collective

“All We Are Saying,” which premieres tonight at 8 on Showtime, is the second film by actress Rosanna Arquette. Structurally and stylistically and, to a degree thematically, it’s a companion piece to her 2002 directorial bow, “Searching for Debra Winger,” in which film actresses (mostly of a certain age) discussed the challenges of maintaining a career in an industry obsessed with appearances.

The new movie is all pop music -- which Arquette calls “my real love,” seemingly comparing it with acting and her last film -- and is made up of interviews with more than 50 pretty darn well-known performers. It’s shaggy and rambling, though not aimless, and asks little of the viewer but to go along for the ride. I can’t see how anyone more than casually interested in the popular music of the last 40 years wouldn’t want to spare a couple of hours for this breezily enjoyable, discursive, digressive film.

The film is billed as “a Rosanna Arquette Experience,” and to allow you to experience her experience, she inserts herself into the action, the way any fan might want to squeeze into a picture with Patti Smith or Chrissie Hynde or Alison Goldfrapp. (Well, I would.) There is a certain amount of kissy-huggy showbiz intimacy on display, but Arquette is one of the tribe after all -- a famous person -- and the impressive roster of talent assembled is testament to that communality. Not only is she the star of “Desperately Seeking Susan” but also the eponymous subject of the Toto hit “Rosanna,” which gives her some sort of associative music cred as well. (And it probably doesn’t hurt, as Arquette did, to bring along Meg Ryan as your still photographer and sometime camera operator.)

Arquette’s taste -- I assume the interview choices mirror her own record collection -- is wide, if not exactly radical, and her talking heads include Joni Mitchell, Steven Tyler, Tom Petty, Thom Yorke, Burt Bacharach, Sean Lennon, Mary J. Blige, Willie Nelson, Andre 3000, Sting, Gwen Stefani, Flea, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Annie Lennox, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and Ben Harper. (Though no actual Talking Heads.)

The film begins in a kind of burst of complaint about the evils of the music business, and the sin of file sharing, and some of the older musicians can sound out of touch.

It is strange to hear them pine for the old days when there are more bands, more avenues for bands, than ever before and, for anyone willing not to work for a hit-obsessed major label, as much creative freedom as ever. But the film rapidly moves on to more substantive matters of creativity and work and life as it relates to work.

Arquette understands that artists are most interesting when talking seriously about what they do, and that they will often display an erudition at odds with sometimes deserved reputations as eccentrics, prima donnas, bad boyfriends or drug-addled train wrecks.

It’s often assumed that musicians are just vessels of impulse, helplessly performing a kind of congenital magic -- that they don’t really know what they’re doing. But even for Britney Spears (not seen here), pop stardom is the product of acquired expertise and accumulated experience, and requires particular technical knowledge -- how to survive on tour does count as technical knowledge -- as much as the work of any butcher, baker, cobbler or candle maker.

Rock ‘n’ roll may not be rocket science, but not every rocket scientist can be a rock ‘n’ roll star.

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‘All We Are Saying’

Where: Showtime

When: 8 tonight

Ratings: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)