The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

The Notorious Bettie Page As far as the general public is concerned Betty Page was a hair stylist.Luckily, this biography about the infamous banged icon can elucidate them.After leaving her sexually abusive upbringing for a fresh start - and new hairdo - in NYC, good Christian Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) takes an innocent modelling job for photographer Bunny Yeager (Sarah Paulson), alongside jungle cats.Bunny's muse attracts smut-peddling siblings (Lili Taylor, Chris Bauer), who take Betty underground where her bondage photos and films thrive on the fetish market.Her erotic portfolio eventually lands the naïve bible thumper before a 1955 commission on youth and pornography.An intimate and engaging study of history's most elusive and influential pin-up model, this 2005 Indy darling from director Mary Harron beautifully tells Betty's depressing story of faith, filth and accidentally infamy.Nevertheless, the submissive in any BDSM relationship is always the one cleaning up afterwards. Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

I was at the small gathering at Hef's house for this movie. In fact, I had dinner with Bettie just before the movie. We were both Southerners and enjoyed each others' company in a well connected conversation about alternative medicine and spirituality. After dinner, we went into Hef's screening room. I always sit directly in front of Hef's sofa, nearest to the screen. Bettie was several rows back in a chair. All was fine until the rape scene. Betty screamed,"No! No!" from the back of the room and ran out, through the lobby, outside and into an SUV. I followed her. She let me into the SUV with her and I proceeded to calm her down. She was crying,"No one was supposed to know that!" Apparently, only Bettie and one other person (a relative) knew about the gang rape. She was very upset and felt betrayed that her lifelong secret had been exposed and she had to witness it in a room full of strangers. Hef never did come out to see what was going on. Richard Bann, a long timer at Hef's did come out. My friend Elliot Silverstein (director of Cat Ballou and A Man Called Horse) came out. I waved them away. I sat and talked to Bettie for quite a while until her driver appeared and took her away. For ANYONE to say this movie pleased Bettie and she liked it is not true! And whoever wrote that was NOT in the room when this film premiered at Hef's. I was there. I sat in the car with this marvelous woman, then in her 80s and held her hand as she cried. That is the God's honest truth. My heart went out to her. She truly felt that Hollywood had beaten her down yet again.

Now some people when they look at a movie like this might be, this is just sex. The truth is, it is so much more than that. Does it happen to contain nudity? And is the main character a sex symbol? Yes and yes. However, give it a chance, and you'll notice that it is indeed sexy but it's also moving and powerful and way more than porn; i.e: boobs. Gretchen Mol is fantastic as Bettie Page, I can not imagine any other woman portraying the role. And making it clear that this movie is meant for the story of the woman, and not the story of her body, is the fact for the first half hour or so, there isn't even any nudity. Instead the movie is about the life of a symbol and trend setter, Bettie Page. My only complaint with this wonderful movie is it's length, it doesn't dive deep enough, however so many movies telling true stories about people are overly long and in that sense it's massively refreshing to learn about someone in a shorter amount of time and being entertained throughout. Great movie. Rent it or buy it, I'd heavily recommend purchasing it though, this is one you'll definitely want in your collection. This is not a guy's movie, but guy's can enjoy it too for other reasons than oogling Gretchen's portrayal of Bettie.

Bettie Page was an icon of the '50s, she has been called the pin up queen, the bondage queen among others. She was without doubt one of the most photograph women of the decade gracing countless girlie magazines. She would also gain notoriety for appearing in numerous one reel burlesque films as well as bondage films. Whereas there were hundreds of women who did the same things as Bettie, most of them disappeared into obscurity. Miss Page would have a revival of sorts in the 1970's and cement her position as an icon of the 1950's. This movie "The Notorious Bettie Page", is a film biography of Miss Page. In many ways it's a typical biography and in some ways it isn't. Had this been made for Lifetime television it would probably portray Bettie as a victim of men. Early in the movie we see this to be somewhat true. We see her being possibly abused by her father, being married young and having to deal with an abusive husband and going on a car trip with a stranger and nothing good happening. Instead of seeing a broken woman though, as would be a case in a Lifetime movie what emerge is a stronger and more confident Bettie. When she finally make it to New York we see her as a woman not afraid to take on new challenges. It's interesting how this movie portrays the porn industry of that era. We don't see mobsters running things, what we see is a more mom and pop business. Yes it's still a low class industry but one that where the participants actually enjoy being with each other. We don't see Bettie get pushed or threatened to do something against her will. As a matter of fact the threats come more from the Authorities, particularly from politicians who want to make a name for themselves. This is where the movie really divert from what could have been just a typical biography. It shows us the attitude towards sex during that era. There's obviously a demand for it but the authorities continue to have a very restrictive attitude. Bettie and her cohorts are threatened with jail time even though what they were doing was basically tame. In the heart of this movie is Gretchen Mol. She gives a magnificent performance. How the Oscars overlooked her I don't know. I have to admit I have had a crush on Miss Mol for a while now and I thought not only did she looked great in this movie she also showed her acting ability. Yes she did a lot of nudity in this film but what's so remarkable is that she was so at ease in front of the camera pretty much what you see with the real Bettie Page. When she spoke, she spoke with a natural southern accent and even her voice sounded different. I couldn't think of a better actress for the role. Gretchen Mol won me over with her looks a long time ago, this time she won me over with her acting."The Notorious Bettie Page" is more than your typical film biography, it shows us the inner strength of a woman and the rather unhealthy attitude toward sex of a particular era. On top of that we get a dazzling performance from a beautiful and talented actress.