THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE
2006

The Notorious Bettie Page tells the story of the delightful pin-up queen, and if you’ve no idea who she is, you dang sure need to get out of that cave you’re living in, Jack. Gretchen Mol does a fine job at conveying the innocent sexuality that Bettie exuded. Nice keister, too. A good cast includes David Straithairn from Good Night and Good Luck, as a crusading congressman, and the always-enjoyable Lili Taylor as Paula Klaw. Other familiar faces appear, most notably John Ventigmiglia, Artie Buco from The Sopranos. I was glad to see so many women involved in the production; much of the crew is women, including the two writers and director. Hers seems to be a story that needs reclaiming by women to reveal its nature.
You probably know the basics. She grew up in a conservative church-going family with an absent father. The few scenes we see of her mother make her seem bitchy and controlling of the budding beauty Bettie. She gets raped (implied, off screen) and goes to New York to be a model. She decides to take the daring step of going full nude. After all, it’s just a little piece of fabric. Congress investigates photographer for kinky photos she posed for, she leaves the model scene forever. Montage scenes with music backgrounds are used to convey passage of time and major moments in her career.
Her hometown and New York are shot in black and white, but Florida is shot in vivid color, as if to match the vibrancy of the famous leopard skin beach photos she did there with Bunny Yeager. Cute moments abound; the line “I saw beaver” got a big laugh from the audience I saw it with. Paula makes her put on another pair of panties over her first pair. Good period soundtrack, including lounge king Esquivel. Recreations of photo shoots we all recognize were well done. No swearing, I guess the R rating is for boobs, boobs, and boobs. Much is made of the utter ridiculousness of thinking a few silly photos are going to undermine the moral fiber of America’s youth.
This charming tribute is good, but not great, maybe because the script seems a little thin and overly deferential to its title character. (It is the approved version, you know.) It is stylistically appealing and clever, but doesn’t take many chances, content to trade on our goodwill for the charming Bettie. I didn’t buy her as Betty for the first twenty minutes, but after she started doing all the poses and “invented” Betty Page, she did a great job conveying her spirit. Maybe its dramatic arc is a little flat because it’s true to life, and they didn’t sensationalize the truth to be more dramatic. Some will be wondering why they didn’t include the sordid details of her later life, or explore her relationships and psyche too deeply. This is not the story they’re telling, but rather of the glory days, where she became the pin-up queen we all adore. If your mom didn’t know anything about Bettie Page, you could show her this sweet picture and she would understand.
I’m also glad that her religious faith wasn’t downplayed or trivialized, or her leaving it all to go to Jesus would have seemed insincere. In acting class, she wonders what Jesus would do to her for all her sins, but at another place in the film she muses God wouldn’t have given her these talents if her didn’t want her to use them. And they seem to make people happy, even 60 years later. That’s why Betty is still relevant today, and why enough people are interested in her to support a biopic about her life. She left ‘em wantin’ more.

-Hysteric Eric

http://www.thenotoriousbettiepage.com/