Portrait of a Cult Celebrity
The late 1940's/early 1950's was the time Americans were staking out their share of the American Dream.  World War II was over, shortages of items such as rubber, butter, and gasoline evaporated, thousands of new homes were built, expanding the suburban landscape, and young couples started their families.<br /><br /> The era brought a new contentment to a nation reeling from the Great Depression and the war in Europe and in the Pacific, but it was also a repressive time.  Adult magazines were what today would be considered softcore:  provocative images with a smattering of nudity.  Young women in high heels and lingerie, sometimes in bondage poses, dominated these publications, and Bettie Page became one of their most popular models.<br /><br /> "The Notorious Bettie Page" provides a look at the mom-and-pop naughty pictures industry of the early 1950's, when legitimate movie stills stores went into the lucrative sideline of taking risque photographs and selling them to their "special" customers.<br /><br /> Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) is a sweet Tennessee girl, despite the fact that she is sexually abused by her father and her mother refuses to let her date, even in high school.  She is also the victim of a gang rape.  A salutatorian at graduation, Bettie defies the stereotype of the dumb sex pot.<br /><br /> Uninspired by the prospect of a career teaching school, she heads for New York City to become an actress.  In New York, she takes classes with an instructor (Austin Pendleton) who uses the Stanislavsky Method.  To support herself, she takes "acting" jobs modeling.  These sessions involve her posing in scanty outfits to rooms full of men snapping pictures.  This leads to jobs with professional photographers, and soon Bettie Page becomes the most famous woman to grace the cover of a men's magazine.<br /><br /> Director Mary Harron has created a nostalgic portrait of not only Bettie Page, but the times in which she lived.  Shot in both black and white and color, the film has a nostalgic feel to it.  Because the images of Bettie and other women are so exaggerated, they are far less provocative today than amusing.  Considering the quantity and variety of adult material on the Internet today, one can actually find the naughty images of Page quaint.<br /><br /> What makes the film click is the central performance by Mol.  She plays Bettie as a woman unashamed of her body or the photos she poses for.  She is earning a living, making people happy, and not hurting anyone.  We believe this Bettie is not a lascivious mantrap, but a nice girl who has discovered that she can make a living as a model.<br /><br /> Mol's performance is especially remarkable because it could have easily gone to caricature or wide-eyed innocent.  This never happens.  Bettie likes the people she works for.  They treat her politely, they pay her, and they appreciate her.  So, in a sense, she has found herself a second, nurturing, protective family many miles from her southern home.<br /><br /> The film has a strong supporting cast:  Lili Taylor and Chris Bauer (sister and brother Paula and Irwin Klaw, homegrown producers of racy pictures), David Strathairn (Senator Estes Kefauver, head of an investigative committee), John Cullum (a Nashville preacher), and Sarah Paulson (Florida photographer Bunny Yeager).<br /><br /> Harron has captured the style of the stag films that featured Bettie Page by recreating excerpts.  Amazonian women, made taller by impossibly high heels, hold whips, prance around in leather corsets, and tie each other up.  With abrupt edits and awful acting, these excerpts illustrate the amateurish production values of films many men found exciting.<br /><br /> Today, producers often gear their movies and TV shows to specific groups, guided by scientific demographic studies.  Before anyone knew what demographics meant, magazines and films were being turned out for a loyal, if non-mainstream audience.  Rated R, "The Notorious Bettie Page" is an interesting companion film to Tim Burton's "Ed Wood."  Both focus on 1950's individuals working on a shoestring, trying to make a living in a fickle, cult entertainment industry.
The movie title "The Notorious Bettie Page," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.6 from 525 reviewers. 
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This title falls under the categories of Movies & TV, HBO and All HBO Titles. 
The additional details include the following in key-value format :
 {"Genre": "Rock - Rock'n'Roll", "Format": "Multiple Formats, AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen", "Contributor": "Various", "Language": "Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)", "Number Of Discs": "1", "Is Discontinued By Manufacturer": "No", "MPAA rating": "R (Restricted)", "Product Dimensions": "7.75 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches; 3.2 Ounces", "Director": "Various", "Media Format": "Multiple Formats, AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen", "Run time": "1 hour and 30 minutes", "Release date": "September 26, 2006", "Actors": "Various", "Subtitles": "English", "Studio": "HBO Studios", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : Notorious Bettie Page, The (DVD).