THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE

Going into this film I was, as I suspect a lot of people will be, more familiar with Bettie Page the icon than Bettie Page the person. I was largely unaware of her interesting life story and I would assume that was the reason this film was made. It’s an interesting and enjoyable biopic of a person whose iconic image looms larger than life!

The film charts the story from Betties early days in Nashville, through to her move to New York, burgeoning modelling career and subsequent retirement following a governmental crackdown on lusty material!

On occasion I felt it could have done with a ted more exposition. For example, I was unclear as to whether the times she was in Miami were all a flashback, or took place in the timeframe of the film where she was becoming well known. I also felt that tonally, some of the incidents in her early life (including some disturbing sexual abuse), did not sit well within the context of a film aiming for the same light-hearted naïveté that Bettie herself seemed to possess. Still, this was not to the detriment of the film overall.

Gretchen Mol was totally convincing as Bettie, and it was also good to see the excellent Chris Bauer (aka Frank Sobotka from The Wire) and dependably brilliant Lilli Taylor playing Betty’s employers / photography entrepreneurs.

Shot in black and white, but flicking back and forth with colour, it was an entertaining, well made biopic. It was interesting to see the outrage that Betties pictures caused at the time in the light of their relative tameness by today’s standards. But of course it would be ridiculous to judge it by today’s values.

This film is worth checking out.

IMDB: THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE