The Notorious Bettie Page (Mary Harron, 2005)

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Polybius · #26 Post by **Polybius** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:38 pm

I'm not a devotee (of Page, that is...Gretchen? Si!) I was just trying to shed a little light on the subject.

I'm in the Natalie Wood and Ava Gardner cults, myself.

Ste · #27 Post by **Ste** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:08 pm

filmfan wrote:I've never understood the seemingly rabid appeal of this woman, other than the fact that she is worshipped for some reason that completely escapes me !

PLEASE explain it to me !

She's what trailer trash used to aspire to when they were too ugly to become strippers.

David Ehrenstein · #28 Post by **David Ehrenstein** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:48 pm

Cole Porter put it best in "I"ve Still Got My Health" -- a Merman show-stopper from DuBarry Was a Lady:

"I knew I was slipping at Minsky's one dawn,
When I started stripping they hollered 'Put it on!' "

Jean-Luc Garbo · #29 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:56 pm

Hoberman reviews the film here:
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0615,h ... 23,20.html

Schkura · #30 Post by **Schkura** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:37 am

And here's an audio review by Kenneth Turan from National Public Radio:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=5341882

" [This film] has no reason for being"-- ouch.

Polybius · #31 Post by **Polybius** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:54 pm

By that measure...well, you know.

Antoine Doinel · #32 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:04 am

I saw this last night and while I can't say I was expecting a great movie, I was suprised how disappointed I was. For a director who brought such bite with I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho I was suprised and how edgeless The Notorious Bettie Page was.

SPOILERS

It's a standard biopic movie, complete with the device of the story being told in flashback. Unfortunately, for a film that has the tagline "The Pin-Up Sensation That Shocked The Nation" it curiously forgets to investigate just show she affected the larger popular culture. The movie is bookended by a trial in which her photographers are being prosecuted for disseminating pornography through the mail, but for whatever reason Harron disposes of the trial inexplicably in the latter third of the film and abruptly focuses on Page's religious conversion at the end of her career. There is wonderful movie in here about religion and personal vs. public morals but Harron seems to have missed it entirely.

Flaws with the movie aside, the film is blessed with a strong cast. Gretchen Mol is great and with the Notorious Bettie Page and Shape Of Things, may finally be living up to her Vanity Fair cover from so many moons ago. But the real surprise is Lili Taylor and Chris Bauer as the Klaw pinup photography team. They have some fantastic chemistry together. I'm not sure why David Straitharn was in the movie at all though. His role is as the sentaor after smut is pretty much a throwaway. It looks like he wandered in off the set of Goodnight And Good Luck while on a break.

souvenir · #33 Post by **souvenir** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:14 pm

I was highly disappointed in this, even as a rental. There was so little development of the characters and story that it felt like the fastforward button was on. I'm not a fan of bloated biopics but ninety minutes is just not enough to cover everything necessary here. Not at least mentioning that Estes Kefauver (the Senator played by David Strathairn) was also from Tennessee seemed like a missed opportunity. The Miami scenes, while visually nice to look at, went nowhere. It was almost as if some scenes had been cut that really should not have been.

Fletch F. Fletch · #34 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:30 am

Antoine Doinel wrote:I saw this last night and while I can't say I was expecting a great movie, I was suprised how disappointed I was. For a director who brought such bite with I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho I was suprised and how edgeless The Notorious Bettie Page was.

I could be mistaken but didn't Harmon get the Page's blessing to do this movie maybe she exerted some kind of control or maybe Harmon felt that she didn't want to a warts and all biopic as a result?