From whips to religion(Originally published 2006)
Mary Harron's latest film, "The Notorious Bettie Page," which Harron co-wrote with Guinevere Turner, stars Gretchen Mol in a terrific comeback performance as Page, the God-fearing woman from Tennessee who left Nashville for New York, where her aspirations of becoming an actress were interrupted, you might say, by a whip and a ball gag.
This unusual film, which is shot mostly in black-and-white with the occasional cutaway to full color, begins in 1955 with Page waiting to testify in the government's case against pornography--the bondage sort, for which Page was known.
On the bench is Senator Estes Kefauver (David Strathairn), who is interviewing those who find Bettie's choice of artistic expression appalling. A priest, for instance, notes that this "insidious filth is corrupting. It is rotting at the very roots of our nation. Communism will never defeat America. It's something from within the nation that will rot and corrupt it."
Could images of Bettie's body decked out in leather and stilettos really bring down a nation? Unlikely. Still, Harron understands there are those who have made their livelihoods by publicly claiming it could in spite of owning secret stashes of porn themselves. She also knows there are those whose lives have genuinely been damaged by the industry.
And so, armed with this dichotomy, what she creates is a movie that’s almost as limber as Page herself. Throughout, Herron strikes a serio-comic tone, with her long glance back at Bettie's curious life revealing a naïve, complicated woman who was sexually abused by her father and gang raped as a teen, yet who believed as an adult that the nude modeling she came to do for the Klaws (Lily Taylor and Chris Bauer, perfect) was absolutely pure. She revered her body as a temple made by God. Why not show it off and have a little fun doing so?
As with Herron's previous movies--"American Psycho” and “I Shot Andy Warhol”--"Notorious" is a shiny lure, a magnet for controversy. Is the film a celebration of pornography? Does it misinterpret Page? Are there misogynist undertones? Discuss.
What's undeniable is how good Mol is in the role, how refreshingly free and likable she is. What she seems to have taken from the iconic images of Page's work is that for Page, bondage was playacting. Regardless of whatever whip she was wielding or bottom she was paddling, that infectious smile of hers wasn’t forced and it didn’t come from a place of depravity. Instead, as Herron and Mol see it, it came from a sense of humor and a bright spot within.
Grade: B+
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