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The Notorious Bettie Page is one good looking movie about one good looking dame.
It tells of the career of '50s pin-up queen Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol), who was
the object of countless masturbatory fantasies in the pre-Playboy era. Despite
being a straightforward bio-pic, The Notorious Bettie Page is more than just a
tasty morsel of eye candy. The film takes a little time to explore the political
landscape of the time, and features an Oscar-worthy lead performance.
The Notorious Bettie Page spans a period from the mid-1930s through the
mid-1950s, following Bettie from when she's a teenager until her retirement from
posing. It follows each stage of her career and re-creates some of her most
famous shoots: glamour poses, bondage photos and movies, and nudes. It also
shows the legal difficulties faced by photographers and distributors. Anything
deemed as being "smut" (such as S&M) could not be sent through the mail. Pubic
hair could not be shown. And pornography was viewed as a direct contributor to
suicide, murder, and psychosis. (There may be some who believe this today.)
Director Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) does a stellar job
making this a visual feast. Interweaving stock footage with new material, she
brings the '40s and '50s to life. The movie is shot almost entirely in
black-and-white with one exception: scenes in sunny Florida are presented in
Technicolor, and appear all the more vivid because of the noir look of the rest
of the movie.
If Gretchen Mol had any reservations about baring all, they don't show on
screen. Bewitching and lovely with long brown tresses, Mol looks achingly like
Page, and the character's playfulness and love of life come through in all of
the poses. There's more to Mol's work than parading around naked - she displays
naiveté in some cases, not to mention sass and a sense of humor. Plus, she
remains religious throughout, wondering what God thinks of her posing nude. (In
the end, around 1957, Bettie stopped posing for pin-ups because she became a
born-again Christian - although she claimed to be unashamed of her past.)
Those unfamiliar with Bettie's life might assume that this is another story of
drink, drugs, and debauchery. It is not. Bettie did nothing to excess, and never
engaged in promiscuous behavior. She did not equate nudity with sexuality, and
one of her photographers remarked that "she can be nude without being naked." In
her opinion, the pin-ups were to help those with "special needs," not to lead
people into sin. The movie also doesn't shy away from darker topics - a sexual
assault that occurred while Bettie was in her 20s is shown early in the movie
(it's not graphic, but there's no doubt what is happening). And we see the
unfortunate result of an ill-advised early marriage.
The Notorious Bettie Page is a terrific movie. Not only does it shine a
spotlight on an American pop icon about which not a lot is known today, but it
gives us a porthole into morality and lifestyles of post-World War II America.
Harron's directing and Mol's acting make this worth seeking out, even though it
likely won't be opening in many multiplexes.
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