Notorious Bettie Page, The

Synopsis
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 naïf 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 are 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.

Distributor Notes
In an incandescent performance, Gretchen Mol (The Shape of Things) stars as Bettie Page, who grew up in a conservative religious family in Tennessee and became a photo model sensation in 1950s New York. Bettie?s legendary pin-up photos made her the target of a Senate investigation into pornography, and transformed her into an erotic icon who continues to enthrall fans to this day. Complemented by an ensemble cast of acclaimed actors, such as David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) and Lili Taylor (High Fidelity), the film brings to vivid life Bettie?s fascinating world.

Reviews
"The period re-creation is delicious, and the elegant black-and-white photography cinematography, punctuated with a few color sequences done in the style of '50s Technicolor movies, adds to the sense of nostalgia." (Movieline's Hollywood Life)

3 stars out of 4 -- "Gretchen Mol is hot stuff in every sense of the term. She delivers the first performance by an actress this year that deserves serious Oscar consideration." (Rolling Stone)

"[A] frisky and fascinating biopic....Gretchen Mol, as Bettie, gets that naughty/nice erotic charm to an astonishing degree." -- Grade: B+ (Entertainment Weekly)

"[E]xuberant....A work of gorgeous surfaces, shot in mostly silvery black-and-white film..." (New York Times)

"Interestingly shot by Mott Hupfel in both color and black and white..." (Los Angeles Times)

"Gretchen Mol does a fine job physically embodying Page..." (USA Today)

4 stars out of 5 -- "[Mol's] Bettie radiates warmth, joy and vivacity. Without any emotional showboating she gives the character heart..." (Total Film)

"[A] visually ravishing investigation of a life lived with an innate sense of decorum." (Sight and Sound)

3 stars out of 5 -- "Beautifully shot....Gretchen Mol as Bettie is simply luminescent..." (Ultimate DVD)