The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Mary Harron

Writers:

Mary Harron (written by) &
Guinevere Turner (written by)

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (Canada)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

The Pin-Up Sensation That Shocked The Nation.

Plot:

The story of Bettie Page, uber-successful 1950's pin-up model, one of the first sex icons in America, and the target of a Senate investigation (based on her bondage photos).

Plot Keywords:

Senate | Pin Up | Bondage | Model | Investigation

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Gretchen Mol	...	Bettie Page
Chris Bauer	...	Irving Klaw
Jared Harris	...	John Willie
Sarah Paulson	...	Bunny Yeager
Cara Seymour	...	Maxie
David Strathairn	...	Estes Kefauver
Lili Taylor	...	Paula Klaw
John Cullum	...	Preacher in Nashville
Matt McGrath	...	Nervous Man
Austin Pendleton	...	Teacher
Norman Reedus	...	Billy Neal
Dallas Roberts	...	Scotty
Victor Slezak	...	Minister in Miami
Tara Subkoff	...	June
Kevin Carroll	...	Jerry Tibbs

Also Known As:

The Ballad of Bettie Page (USA) (working title)
The Last Days of Bettie Page (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for nudity, sexual content and some language.

Runtime:

USA:91 min | Canada:100 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | UK:18 | Ireland:15A | Australia:MA | Japan:R-15 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

HBO Films

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Mary Harron] [masochistic man]In "I Shot Andy Warhol," Valerie Solanas encounters a man who wants her to stomp all over his chest. In "The Notorious Bettie Page," Bettie Page meets a man at a party who asks her if she likes stomping on men. The two men say almost the exact same things, word for word.

Goofs:

Factual errors: During one of the scenes where photographers at a photo club are shooting Bettie Page, there are a few photographers with a Stereo Realist camera, which was very popular in the '50s. One of these photographers is holding his Stereo Realist in a vertical position and taking pictures and this camera must be used only in the horizontal position due to it being 3D and a vertical image will not produce the desired 3D result. Realists are never used vertically.

Quotes:

[Bettie reacts angrily when John sings a ribald song during a bondage photo shoot]
John Willie: What's the matter, Bettie?
[John pulls the gag from Bettie's mouth]
Bettie Page: It's your language, Mr. Willie.
John Willie: Oh, it's just an old army ditty to help keep our spirits up while fighting the beastly Hun. Do you approve?
Bettie Page: I believe in Jesus.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: The Notorious Bettie Page (#13.4)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

It's a Good Day

The Truth About Sex in America

Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron is a cultural gadfly whose previous films laid bare some the artistic excess of the Sixties and the hollow avaricious Eighties. With "The Notorious Bettie Page" she points her unswerving eye at Fifties America, an era cloaked in the moral righteousness of Joe McCarthy, while experiencing the beginnings of a sexual awakening that would result in the free love of the next decade. Harron and her co-writer Guinevere Turner, are clearly not interested in the standard biopic of a sex symbol. This is a film about the underground icon of an era and how her pure unashamed sexuality revealed both the predatory instincts and impure thoughts of a culture untouched by the beauty of a nude body. If the details of Bettie's life were all the film was concerned about, then why end it before her most tragic period was about to begin. Clearly, Harron is more interested in America's attitudes towards sexual imagery then and now. Together with a fearless lead performance by Gretchen Mol and the stunningly atmospheric cinematography of W.Mott Hupfel III, she accomplishes this goal admirably, holding up a mirror to the past while making the audience examine their own "enlightened" 21st Century attitudes towards so-called pornography. As America suffocates under a new conservatism, this is a film needed more than ever.