Movie Maven

The Notorious Bettie Page
Starring: Gretchen Mol, Chris Bauer, Lily Taylor, Sarah Paulson
Written by: Mary Harron and Guinevere Taylor
Directed by: Mary Harron
Official Website

When I went to see The Notorious Bettie Page, I began to think about light. It is not something one normally thinks about for long lengths of time, unless one is a Director of Photography, but this lovely, simple film was drenched in it.

It moves back and forth between black and white and a luscious technicolor, all the while putting Mol in a halo light- very similar to what they did for actresses in films during Page's reign as the pin-up queen (primarily the 1950s.) The whole atmosphere becomes like the flipping of an old photo album. This is synchronized with the plot, which does not show any of Bettie Page's experiences in-depth, but flips through them too, to see a beautiful overview of a highly singular life. There's a refreshing unpretentiousness to Harron's film, something pure and tame (ironic, considering the material.)

For those who don't know, Bettie Page was a model, of the swimsuit category, the nude category, and, most notorious of all, the bondage variety. The film chronicles her life from her childhood in Kentucky, to her move to New York City and beginnings in the modeling world. Mol as Page is simply fantastic. Page was a plucky girl, taking everything that happened to her in stride. It's obvious that her past played a role in her modeling and entrance into pornography. She was molested by her father as a child, and was gang-raped when she was a young woman- both events are apparent, but not shown, exhibiting a restraint that's uncommon in today's filmmakers. Her relationships and her career were all affected by this, but they are not dwelled upon, as it's apparent that Page herself didn't dwell on them. She moves to New York City, and finds the Klaw siblings (touchingly portrayed by Chris Bauer and Lily Taylor) who introduce her to the wonders of bondage modeling.

The modeling scenes are both hilarious and even kind of sweet. It didn't seem to register with Page what bondage really is. At one point a director asks her what she thinks God thinks of her work. "Everybody has a talent," she says. "Mine is posing. If what I do makes people happy and doesn't hurt anyone, isn't that what God wants?" Indeed, early bondage films and photos were tame compared to what can be uploaded today (it usually involved riding crops and girls in giant black corsets with high heels- one can see worse on cable TV any day of the week.) But this primitive form of modern bondage attracted the ire of several men in the Senate, including then senator Estes Kefauver (played by David Strathairn, fresh from his glorious turn in Good Night, And Good Luck.) In the end, Page is made to wait for hours at the Capital Building to testify at a pornography hearing, only to find, as usual, that the men in the room will make the decisions about what is decent, with no input from her.

America has always had a rather twisted view of sexuality, alternately being titillated by it, and trying desperately to pretend it isn't there. Bettie Page was a symbol for that paradox- everyone said they despised it, but the truth is somebody out there was buying. Page was the cheerful, unknowing contradiction of all the 50s stood for, something that comes across perfectly in the movie without Mol (or Harron) having to beat you over the head about it. It's a glorious little film, one well worth having a look at.