|
Director Mary Harron (I SHOT ANDY WARHOL) and writer Guinevere
Turner (GO FISH, THE L WORD) deliver a loving, whimsical
biopic of the century's greatest pinup queen. The film also
offers a highly relevant commentary on the sexual mores of the
1950s, as well as stunning cinematography by W. Mott Hupfel
III that perfectly captures the age. Played by the lovely
Gretchen Mol (THE SHAPE OF THINGS) in a career-making
performance, Bettie Page is portrayed as a sweet but strangely
wise naif from Tennessee, buffeted by circumstances outside
her control but buoyed by an innate, cheerful optimism. After
an abusive marriage and a brutal gang rape, Bettie flees to
New York and begins a modeling career, for which she has a
natural talent and which she does with an uncommon joy and
palpable enthusiasm. She also begins acting lessons, but what
really changes her life is the bondage photographs she takes
with Irving and Paula Klaw (Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor). Shot
in the basement of the Klaws' celebrity photography business,
Bettie's photographs were among the first harbingers of a
society's awakening sexuality, and her ability to project
boundless delight--no matter what activity she is engaged
in--is truly remarkable to behold. Eschewing the sensational,
the film instead unfolds at a leisurely pace, lacking much
cohesive narrative and revealing the mundane realities of the
life of a notoriously glamorous figure. The story is bookended
by the trial the Klaws were subjected to for selling obscene
materials, which led to Bettie's retirement to her much-loved
Miami getaway and a rediscovered devotion to Jesus. |
