The Notorious Bettie Page: More Like The Naïve Bettie Page
The Notorious Bettie Page begins with a young Bettie (Molly Moore) sitting in church listening to her preacher. It is obvious from her expression that she truly believes in the word of God. Mary Harron’s depiction of Bettie shows a side that the world is unaware of. She was a sweet, churchgoing girl until she became involved in the underground world of bondage. Unfortunately, she makes Bettie out to be a naïve girl who is just like all the girls who go to make it big as an actress and get sucked into something much seedier.
Bettie (Gretchen Mol) is brought up in the church but also has her picture taken by a boy with her sister when they are young. This shows that her life will be affected by both situations. Bettie is abused sexually by her father and then later physically abused by her husband. These events lead Bettie to move to New York City where she begins her modeling career on a beach at Coney Island. She also dreams of becoming an actress and participates in acting classes. She is never to realize this dream as she doesn’t take a producer up on his offer to have dinner with him. The rest of the movie focuses on Bettie’s now famous photos, focusing on those involving bondage.
The movie made Bettie appear to be dumb, if not naïve. Despite her past physical/sexual abuse and religious beliefs, she never finds anything wrong in the photo sessions that she takes part in. When she is told by one photographer that it is illegal to show her fully nude body on camera, she tells him that Adam and Eve were nude in the Garden of Eden. Once she has left modeling and is preaching the word of God, a man tells her that the stuff being done now makes her stuff look tame. Her response is “Adam and Eve were nude in the Garden of Eden. It wasn’t until they put clothes on did they sin.” But yet when a boyfriend of hers tells her that her bondage photos are disgusting, she laughs it off as it is nothing and tells him that they were just having fun. The most insight into Bettie’s psyche comes when a photographer asks her if she thinks she is doing something wrong. She says that she feels that God gave her a talent and she doesn’t want to waste it.
The changing of black and white print in New York City to color in Miami gave the movie its nostalgic feel. The costumes are an additional character to the cast with the lace up boots, cone bras, and black patent leather corsets. The cast including Lili Taylor and Chris Bauer as Irving and Paula Klaw and Sarah Paulson as photographer Bunny Yeager are great as the people who put Bettie on the map. And Gretchen Mol shows that she is sadly underused in Hollywood.
The film is not only filmed in black and white, the director sees Bettie as a black and white character. She is defined as either a religious person or the girl you see in the photos. You want to know why she agrees to the photos and then decides she needs to dedicate her life to God.
The acting and technical performances in The Notorious Bettie Page were a work of art. Unfortunately that doesn’t make up for the lack of depth in the story and Bettie as a person.
Report Card:
Story-B
Acting-B+
Visuals-A-
Originality/Innovation-B-
Enjoyability Grade–B
Overall Grade-B
|
