Review of The Notorious Bettie Page (2006) by Roberto R — 15 Dec 2007

A slow moving but well shot and authentic looking film telling the story of the former "Pin Up queen of the universe" Bettie Page played by a wonderful Gretchen Mol, who brings forth Bettie Page's innocence and naivety. Not knowing anything about the glamour model and only seeing pictures, my own prejudices painted her as some sort of wild child going beyond bounds of decency ( I am a terrible prude you see). But she, if we believe the film had a innocent charm which was mildly exploited but by todays standards these photographs and short films were tame but at the time seen as shocking.

She had her own moral standard. While her god-fearing and spiritual teaching made sense of the nudity as it was only when 'Eve started wearing clothes that bad things happen in the world'. Her good-natured character wanted to make people happy and saw no wrong in the 'acting' and 'dressing up' for the bondage photos as she was studying acting at the time. she wasn't at the time really uncomfortable with the photography and understood what her employers wanted but it would seem she didn't understand the nature of the SM photos. It was her own religious beliefs and The "Kefauver Hearings" (which ended the Irving Klaw business which introduced Bettie as a bondage model ) that she seem to vanish for a much quieter life which she still has today, I have been reading.

But we see incidents that she was (hinted at) abused as a child, had a violent 1st marriage and then gang raped or sexual assaulted before she left for New York. Her fellow models, employers & photographers are seen as friends, none of them harmed her or mistreat her happy go luck nature for their own gratification.

An interesting story, well made and acted especially by Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page also David Strathairn, Jared Harris and Lili Taylor. I think I have seen all Mary Harron films and enjoyed them all ( American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol).