The Notorious Bettie Page

A virtue of film is sometimes offering a looking glass to see ourselves and the world in a new light. Good Night And Good Luck, a film which ostensibly dealt with McCarthy era witch-hunts of suspected communists, offered parallels to modern judgement-without-evidence and encroachment on freedom - such as many would argue can be seen in Guantanamo Bay and the US Patriot Act.

It is easier to examine a moral problem when it is not too close to home: by putting it in a fictional or historic context removed from our immediate situation. When it comes to pornography, we consider ourselves to be 'enlightened' and our forefathers to have been hidebound by quaint ideas - usually involving fire and brimstone. Most censorship today is voluntary and based not so much on law but on vehicles such as the censorship rating system (which can effectively deny good films a mainstream release in the US), and even in these days of a liberal British Board of Film Censors, the UK legal definition of what is obscene can easily fall prey to ignorance and unscientific interpretation instead of evidence; but when cases that are brought are relatively uncontroversial (outside of the tabloids), few of us would care to admit that.

Bettie Page was a cult icon of an era which included not just McCarthyism but the banning of comics (such as Tales From The Crypt) on the basis that they would turn youths into half-mad juvenile delinquents. This film, developed from key questions raised in her life, poses dilemmas that are as relevant today as back in 1950.

Our film opens with two key scenes. In the first, we see well-dressed, respectable looking men in a seedy bookshop. One of them asks for pictures of women wearing kinky boots and being restrained - then turns out to be an undercover cop conducting a sting. The second scene shows Bettie Page, waiting to be called as a witness, looking quite demure, as if she had just come out of church.

Before going any further, it is only fair to warn the gentle reader that The Notorious Bettie Page is about titillation (among other things), but that it is not in itself titillating. Any nudity is presented in classic 'fifties prurient style, and the most shocking sex scenes are not only off-camera but more implied than included. By today's standards, the film is not likely to shock in that way. It appeals in a kitsch and cheesecake or even camp sort of way, and although it includes a fetish theme, only the most prurient would be offended. Director and self-proclaimed feminist Mary Hannon (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) has a fascination with the story of Bettie's photography, with her unusual character, with a woman who wanted to be independent, and (very visibly) with the world of the 'fifties.

The first 50 minutes are in black and white. Old-fashioned film effects such as wipes and fades add to the sense that we are watching a film from bygone years, as do the mannerisms of the cast, skilfully recreated 1950s scenes, contemporaneous slang phrases and the terse dialogue associated with filmmaking of the period. Archive footage is frequently intercut, which (like many aspects of this remarkable film) will delight many and irritate others. In keeping with its theme, the whole film is a collection of different types of photography-in-motion, and the older clips of fabulous beaches and landmarks juxtaposed with Bettie's classic poses hearken back to an age of 'health & nature' magazines . . . although I admit that if you are not captivated by the story you may find the effect a bit choppy.

After the initial scenes, we go into flashback. Bettie escapes a Depression Years downtrodden life in Nashville, enlivened only with church singing and soul-saving - a source of fond memories and shared times with her sister - and enters the big wide world to make her own way. She seems an intelligent girl - we are told she narrowly missed a scholarship - and studies acting as well as trying any job that she can throw herself into wholeheartedly. Her modelling gives her an almost religious feeling and she believes that it is a gift God has given her.

After her initial success, it splits into two distinct areas: the mainstream glamour work that focuses on her over-the-rainbow smile, and the 'specialist interest' photos that involve dressing up in high heeled boots and light bondage gear. In these she can give full rein to her frustrated acting talent. In an earlier audition (reminiscent of a scene with Naomi Watts' character in Mulholland Drive, who was also called Betty), she gives a performance that is full of emotion, contrasting with her normal animated, cheerful (but ultimately bland) day-to-day expression. Is part of her still unfulfilled?

Bettie is frequently rejected in auditions once they realise she is the well-known pin-up girl. But we are never asked to feel sorry for Bettie Page: her abusive childhood is quickly referenced and skipped over; when she is raped by four hometown lads, we see only the threat and then Bettie recovering and surviving, picking herself up in deserted woodland and putting on the brave face of someone who refuses to lie down and die. She marries, but when her husband hits her she calmly packs a bag and walks out without thinking twice.

Most of her early male role models were contemptible - yet those she met in the glamour industry, even when doing fetish photos, were decent, honourable types - 'lawyers and judges'. She was only once even slightly offended: one of her most florid fetish photographers, something of cross between Andy Warhol and Oscar Wilde (and quite hilarious), gets carried away in a monologue worthy of de Sade. He breaks off at her expression of distaste, wondering what's wrong; "Your language!" she exclaims. This is the closest she comes to being offended or abused after commencing her career. Another time she strikes up an acquaintance with a policeman who is also a part-time photographer - is he trying it on? He turns out to not only be principled but quite a good photographer.

Although they do not involve nudity, it is Bettie's special interest photos that eventually get her into trouble. When we go back to the court scene, the opinions of a clergyman on the corrupting influence of such photos are taken as evidence. A psychologist authoritatively says that such photos lead to 'suicide, murder and psychosis' in youngsters who are exposed to them (presumably not in that order).

Eventually a star witness explains how his son's life came to an end as a result of such photos - 'being trussed up like that'. It is not made clear how being 'trussed up' causes death (accidental suicides through sexual practices are usually the result of auto-erotic asphyxiation, which is nowhere depicted in any of Page's photos). The text accompanying a series of Bettie's photographs in a magazine tell how she was forced to endure 'terrible agonies' with the fetish restraints (the audience knows that she actually found them quite hilarious and that the wordings, like the photos themselves, were pure dramatisations). After a twelve hour wait, Bettie is told her evidence - she is the one person who could state definitively that she was not photographed in agony - will 'not be required'. The 'horrors' of the photos have been proved.

If this all sounds like the dark ages from which we have recovered, consider a recent (2003) incident in which an Ann Summers advert was banned. It carried the words, "for fashion and passion whip along to your local store," with a photograph of a woman's back. She is wearing a bra and a thong and her hands are handcuffed behind her back. The lingerie and sex toys company, that targets female consumers (and also supports charities fighting domestic violence) said its adverts aimed, "to give women sexual confidence and always showed women in control of their sexuality."

The ban followed complaints that it was "degrading to women" - complaints, one assumes, not brought by the women paying money for the items and who enjoyed a sophisticated sense of control. Or the famous 'Spanner' case [Regina v Brown and others (1990)] in which sixteen men were convicted for causing marks, bruises, cuts and other non-serious injuries in the course of sexual activity with other consenting adults. Some were sent to prison. One might conclude that the prejudice and ignorance of the Bettie Page investigations still holds currency.

Bettie's religious views are integral to the story, just as the concept of sin is integral to Christianity and contributes to the "forbidden" nature of sexual enjoyment frequently prevalent in the UK and US - as opposed to the more pragmatic approach found in continental Europe. It could be argued the formulae of sin and redemption, and "being saved", are even reflected in mating patterns that perpetuate traditional male dominance. A policeman making a friendly (but sexually motivated) approach to Bettie outside the courtroom offers to 'save' her from loneliness. The knight-in-shining-armour might be chivalrous, but it also assumes a woman in need of rescue.

It is only after the scandal of the court hearings and its implications, when all her friends start avoiding her, that Bettie seeks solace once more in the Church. It offers her comfort and sharing of minds - as long as she is willing to be 'saved.' This can be taken two ways: in one sense, she achieves a great benefit in her life through the positive environment of religion, even if she never, even till this day, views what she did as sinful. But she had a series of mental health problems later in her life not documented by the film, and one might think that her initial strength, through which she could have created new friends without the Church, had deserted her and that what she found was only a temporary prop.

Love it or hate it, The Notorious Bettie Page is an unusual and extraordinary film, and a moral wake-up call for those that heed it. There is excellent ensemble acting, and Gretchen Mol, as Bettie, is remarkable as the whole film succeeds or fails on her powerful performance.

The dichotomy of nude/fetish modelling plus deep religious conviction is not an easy one to portray, and Mol encapsulates and projects it so that we feel that she really is Bettie Page. "When she's nude she doesn't seem naked," says her photographer and fellow playboy model Bunny Yeager. You could probably take your mum to see the film and both enjoy it, and the soundtrack is a collectible itself, with Artie Shaw, Charlie Mingus, and my personal favourite icon from that era, Julie London.