Review of The Notorious Bettie Page (2006) by Edith N — 04 Jul 2008

The issue of the film is not really about whether bondage is right or wrong. I really don't want to get into that here, not least because I really, really don't want to talk to you guys about my sex life, past or present, and no matter what opinion I state, someone's going to leap to some assumption about me. Besides, since the film doesn't state an opinion, I don't intend to. We know what the subcommittee on the subject feels. We know what Bettie feels. We are left to draw our own conclusions, so you guys can draw yours while I draw mine. I doubt the film changes anyone's opinion about anything anyway; you have come to your conclusions already, and I have come to mine. I will say this--consenting adults.

Anyway. This is the story of classic bondage model Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) from her relatively innocent (she was abused and attacked at least twice in her life) youth to her days as the most popular pinup model going to the Senate hearing into the "smut" she was involved in. Bettie's attitude is that no one's really getting hurt, and it's all just fun and games with the other models and with the photographers. Besides, poor dear Bettie can't act. At least not well enough to make a career at it. She is lovely, and she can [i]pose[/i] like no one's business, but acting is not her strong suit. Through it all, she maintains a cheerful attitude, however, and a deep and abiding religious belief. She feels that, if it were wrong, Jesus would give her some kind of sign. Since he doesn't, she keeps at it.

Bettie Page was not the first woman to pose for bondage pictures, and she assuredly wasn't the last. And how close she is to the real Bettie Page depends on whom you ask. I hear it's pretty close, actually, though not all incidents depicted necessarily happened to her. However, it is true that our Bettie is, to a certain extent, a symbol for the sexual repression of the '50s. After all, a lot of people [i]bought[/i] that material; a lot of them lived long and healthy lives afterward. It's not as though all of them died in an autoerotic asphyxiation incident. "When they sinned," says Bettie, "they put on clothes." I take this to be, intentionally or not, a reference to the serious hypocrisy of the era. It's hardly as though sex were a new thing. It's hardly as though bondage were a new thing, come to that. There were brothels in Victorian England (this is true) which specialized in "birching"--having strict governess-types hit men with canes. All of Bettie's was play-acting!

There's interesting colour usage here, especially considering that most of the film is in B&W. It's almost as though colour is a symbol of Bettie's freedom. When Bettie is at peace in herself, Bettie is in colour. Florida is in colour. Even the posing she does there. The posing she does in New York is in B&W. It's odd, though; she never seems to feel exploited no matter where she is. Maybe it's that she's more at home there. Maybe it's that New York never seemed like home to her, that the warmth and sunniness of the South called to her even when she was having fun. Maybe the director feels more at home in Florida; who can say?

Yeah, okay. There's a lot of nudity in this. We get to see Gretchen Mol stretched out, showing more than they could in the photography of the era. (The police would arrest you if you even just showed pubic hair!) However, other than that, it's really quite tame. Just one more example of the MPAA's silly stance on ratings. I wouldn't've given this an R. PG-13 will, um, cover it.