The Notorious Bettie Page
The pin-up sensation that shocked the world.
In an incandescent performance, Gretchen Mol (The Shape of Things) stars as Bettie Page, who grew up in a conservative religious family in Tennessee and became a photo model sensation in 1950s New York. Bettie's legendary pin-up photos made her the target of a Senate investigation into pornography and transformed her into an erotic icon who continues to enthrall fans to this day. Complemented by an ensemble cast of acclaimed actors, such as David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) and Lili Taylor (High Fidelity), the film brings to vivid life Bettie's fascinating world.
Member Reviews
Incomplete is right - rnhaas
This is a very episodic film and I'm not sure how well that works with biography that is trying to be is trying to be accurate. Moll is Page, I don't really remember believing she wasn't her for a second, but the movie feels like it should have been at least 30 minutes longer. I don't really know what Harron was up to with the stock footage, either. I guess she just didn't have the budget to create the world she needed to. It could have been much better. That being said, it's still interesting. I learned something.Just Window Dressing. - cathyottawa
To expand on the perfectly concise, perfectly apt Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus....
It seems this film was interested solely in recreating Page's photo shoots, and going to great pains to make sure Gretchen Mol looked just like her; It clearly was not interested in delving into who Bettie was as a person
Huge events in Page's life are brought up, and then left completely undeveloped and unresolved (her marriage, possible childhood sexual abuse, a sexual assault).
It's like the screenwriters had a checklist of events in Bettie's life, and were sure to get them all in, but made no effort to show how these events impacted her.
The film clearly wants us to see Bettie as a naive, sweet southern girl, who saw this career as just a bit of harmless dress up for nice men who liked strange pictures. Methinks there was more to Bettie than that, and methinks there is no way anyone could be that unworldly and innocent.
We also get no sense of just how famous Page was, then or now, and no indication of what her strictly religious mother thought of her career (she must have found out the true nature of her "modeling" eventually).
The film uses an inquest into pornography as the framing for the story, but it's a non starter, and in the end really had nothing to do with anything.
It barely touches on her post modeling life, and never really tells us what became of her.
Gretchen Mol does look and act the part - if only they had put as much care and attention into the script.So What - Ilovemovies
This DVD was simply tedious. A number of incidents of Bettie Page's "authorized" life a pasted together in such a way that the viewer feels they are flipping through a photo album. Never do you get to understand why she chose the lifestyle she did or any of the emotions that must have been tied up with that lifestyle. I also found it annoying that the movie entirely omitted the dark period in her life where Betty was exposed to be a diagnosed schizophrenic with violent tendencies. Nor the fact that her image has been and continues to be exploited and she has not received any monetary compensation. Boring picture of a very interesting character.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Incomplete is right - rnhaas
This is a very episodic film and I'm not sure how well that works with biography that is trying to be is trying to be accurate. Moll is Page, I don't really remember believing she wasn't her for a second, but the movie feels like it should have been at least ...Just Window Dressing. - cathyottawa
To expand on the perfectly concise, perfectly apt Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus....
It seems this film was interested solely in recreating Page's photo shoots, and going to great pains to make sure Gretchen Mol looked just like her; It clearly ...So What - Ilovemovies
This DVD was simply tedious. A number of incidents of Bettie Page's "authorized" life a pasted together in such a way that the viewer feels they are flipping through a photo album. Never do you get to understand why she chose the lifestyle she did or any ...