REVIEW: The Notorious Bettie Page

Name of Film: The Notorious Bettie Page
Release Date: April 14th 2006
Starring: Gretchen Mol
Website: thenotoriousbettiepage.com
Rating: 7 spankings out of 10

Thanks to various Facebook groups that really introduced me to pin-up art (modern and vintage), I definitely knew who Bettie Page. When this movie first came out, I think I saw the commercial once and it even intrigued me then. But something came up and I completely forgot about the movie and left went on…

Time passed and last year, my interest in pin-up was born. I came across the name of legendary bondage, fetish and glamor model of the 1950s. Thus, I found this movie once again and decided to give it a try.

A friend said that it was “okay”, so that had me a little worried. But all and all, I really liked this film. Gretchen Mol makes Bettie sweet, innocent and yet- at the same time- deliciously naughty. Although I have read that the movie was far from historically accurate, I really like how it was made, going in and out of black-and-white and recreating some of Bettie’s bondage films. They seem so silly and innocent compared to… well… most music videos of today. The fact that so many of those films and photos were destroyed because they were considered so evil and corrupting is a shame. How much artistic history was lost because of something so innocent.

This film was charming and smartly executed… and it made me want to dish out some money to buy myself some leather lace-up kinky boots.