The Notorious Bettie Page

I just finished watching "The Notorious Bettie Page". I was completely satisfied.

When I first visited Florida, at the age of eleven, my first memory apart from the thick, wet heat, was the postcard. Bettie Page in a leopard skin biking superimposed in front of an Alligator.

Her hair is raven black, her skin is burnished copper. The water is blue, the sand is bright, and I am riveted. Bettie is imprinted at that moment as the personification of sexual attraction and female beauty. Next to that was a dozen other postcards, but they may as well have been blank. Still today, if I was asked to imagine the perfect woman, the perfect physical ideal, it would be Bettie Page.

In the post-punk gothic industrial scene we called the girls Betties. Backseat Betties. The women wanted to be pale, Bettie's other iconic image. Pale skin, raven hair, black lingerie, seamed stockings.

"The Notorious Bettie Page" was a fantastic film. Gretchen Mol was about 80% Bettie. Which is probably about 70% more than most women could ever hope for. Playing an icon guarantees an impossible standard, but Gretchen was stunning in her warmth, her poise, and her embrace of the work. As much as any woman could be in 2004 when the film was made, she is Bettie Page.

Her stellar performance is only slightly less noticeable because she is standing with Jared Harris, Chris Bauer, Cara Seymour, and the always amazing Lili Taylor. The film was incredibly well shot in period styles. The color was arresting, the black and white sequences ( a majority of the film) were incredibly apt.

Bettie Page never found love, never made it all fit together. Sadly, neither did the makers of this film. It never found the audience it so richly deserved. See "The Notorious Bettie Page".