frustrated

Yes. Well, I was going to write about the movie I watched last night… but maybe I have to say something about THIS instead, which is Russell’s take on the big happening on Day Four of CoE.
 

 

( potential spoilers beneath... )

 

p.s. I hate that the ljcut thing always makes my formatting go wacky!

what I was supposed to be talking about…

There’s a point in “The Notorious Bettie Page” where she shows up for a photo shoot, and gets the lowdown on the “private” session they need her for. They tell her that they have a special client who just likes things a little weirder than everyone else. The line is something like, “He’s strange, but he’s really nice.”

That sorta sums up the whole movie for me.

It would be nice to think that all those pin-up/nudie/s&m/bondage photo shoots were as innocently happy as they come across in the film. It’s like kids playing dress-up in the attic. (I could have done without the Bettie dance with the creepy clown doll, but that’s all down to clown dolls being creepy…)

Even the dodgy fetishist photographer (wardrobe from the Remus Lupin collection) has a heart beneath that fraying cardigan.

Everyone seems to want to give Bettie a sandwich in this. There’s a little silent clip of the actual Bettie on the DVD and maybe I see why now… when she gets that dress off she’s SO thin.

But I digress. It all seems happy and frolicky… Bettie getting naked in the woods, Bettie petting tigers (be ‘la tigresse!’), Bettie and the gang having an impromptu badminton game before filming a scene where they tie a girl up and throw her in the trunk of a car, Bettie wobbling around in super high, high heels. [Those stiletto Mary Janes on the other girl, though. ooh shiny! ;0)]

Even the ball gag is just an impediment to a heart to heart about God.

I don’t know much about Bettie Page the person, or frankly, much about the world of fetish. There’s no doubt a seedy underbelly there, just not in this flick. But I love me a biopic. They’re never all that accurate, but I love watching a production team tell their story about someone.

I did get the feeling that this bit of dialogue might have sparked the whole thing.

Old Fan of Bettie’s: (seeing her preaching in the park) You don’t have to be ashamed of those pictures Bettie.
Bettie: Oh, I’m not ashamed. Adam and Eve were naked in the garden of Eden. It was only after they sinned that they put on clothes.

ok. go. write a movie around that…

And I should also mention the cinematography. Just glorious. Most of it’s in black and white, but the Miami scenes, and the pin-up cover montages are in color. Glorious techni-color-color. And the production team seemed to have taken it’s opening sequence from stills of Bedford Falls after George Bailey never was! Actually they did a great job of making the whole film feel like it was recreating the 40s/50s.

I didn’t have the time to check out the commentary track, but I bet it was interesting. The making-of featurette had some nice background stuff.

Lovely performances by all (even if it was like summer stock for people who’ve done guest starring turns on Law and Order: Criminal Intent), and lovely to look at, and I enjoyed it heartily.

And bonus points for casting John Cullum as Bettie’s girlhood minister and giving him a hymn to sing. I saw him live on stage one time in Cyrano, and it was a stunning performance!! And that guy has some pipes on him.

So go check out Bettie and her pals… they seem a lovely bunch.