Notorious Bettie Page, The

Great Performance in a Mediocre Film
Mary Harron, one of a slew of concerned filmmakers to appear in Kirby Dick's recent indictment of the MPAA This Film is Not Yet Rated, writes and directs her third picture. The Notorious Bettie Page is about the cult icon and pinup and bondage model that influenced pornography's entry into the cultural mainstream. Bettie Page unwittingly became kind of symbol of women's liberation long after she rediscovered Christianity. She slipped into the mainstream in variable flashes in comic books, music, television, and of course a new generation of inspired Goth burlesque models. This film is her biopic and unlike many biopics the melodrama is downplayed which is of course good for both the subject matter as well as the length of the picture (just 90 minutes). It comes off as a bit more honest and real then some other biopics but on the other hand it sacrifices being as entertaining for these same reasons. Strange considering the rumors of her violent life after she left modeling...

Highlighting Bettie
I saw this film after viewing the trailer and my expectations were high.I hoped the film was going to be as good. I was not disappointed. Everything about this film to me was excellent....The performances, especially Gretchen Mol. The direction and writing and the photography, black and white and color.I dont remember seeing grainy...and not least the extras. All interesting with a commentary track that was enlightening from both a technical and personal viewpoint. And that short item with the real Bettie.... how revealing of the nature of her appeal. I regard this film as the most enjoyable modern film that I have seen in recent years on any level. It also has that elusive element....repeatability.Thanks for reading.....

Five star performance in three star film about pin-up Bettie Page
In our silicon enhanced, post heroin chic pornographic society it's hard to imagine a world where pictures as tame as those shown in "The Notorious Bettie Page" would cause a scandal. They did however and this movie biography of pin-up and S&M model Bettie Page serves as a reminder of the conservative world where nude photos of natives in National Geographic were OK but not nude pictures of a white woman. Sending such pictures through the mail was a crime and it was a far different world. "Paige" captures the feeling of this world well with its black and white grainy photography but it's all surface and the film is saved by a stunning performance by Gretchen Mol as Page. She so completely invests herself in the role that when watching real footage of Page that is included as a DVD extra I felt as if it could have been Mol if not for the slight differences in the way the two looked.

Mary Harron's film follows Page from childhood where she was already practicing to be a model...

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