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The Notorious Bettie Page Returns on the Big Screen
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=11D1346:3919ACA Icon of 1950s pop
culture caused uproar with provocative photos A new film exposes an
icon of 1950's pop culture in the United States: a pin-up model whose
provocative photographs, though tame by today's standards, created an
uproar all the way to the halls of Congress.

"What do you think of all this business?""Oh, I enjoy acting."







Gretchen Mol in "The Notorious Bette Page" The first time Bettie Page
appears in the film, she is in a demure suit and proper white gloves,
waiting outside a Capitol Hill hearing room in Washington, D.C. Inside
the chamber, Senators wave about photographs showing the stunningly
beautiful young woman wearing little, if any, clothing at all as they
investigate - and gain political advantage from - the impact of such
photos: what one witness decries as "a greater menace to America than
Communism."

It is 1955 and just six years since Bettie arrived in New York from
her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Fresh-faced and optimistic, like
so many before her, she came to the big city to find fame as an
actress; but, following another well-worn path, the only work she can
get in front of a camera is as a photographic model for pictures that
were then considered pornographic:

"Hi, I'm Bettie.""I'm Art. Step this way. Did Jerry tell you what the
set-up is? You can change in there. The other girl has a half hour to
go. That's Maxie. You can learn from her. She knows all about the
three essentials: clothes, pose and expression.""Clothes, pose and
expression.""Do you think you can do it?""Well, I can sure try."

The clothes and poses were less revealing and graphic than the typical
perfume ad in today's magazines, newspapers or prime-time television;
but at the time they were considered so provocative, they could not be
sent through the U.S. Mail. Men who were interested in such artistic
photography joined private clubs to snap their own pictures of
professional models in lingerie; and in that surreptitious setting,
Bettie Page quickly became a sensation.

"First of all, I think she did have a kind of natural talent in front
of the camera, where she really came alive," says Gretchen Mol, who
portrays the title character and explains that the apparent
contradictions in many of those pictures, such as Bettie's bright,
wholesome smile while posing in fantasy outfits, provided her insight
into the character. "I felt a lot of responsibility to Bettie, really,
and I can only hope she is pleased with the performance and with the
depiction of herself. That was probably one of the bigger challenges,
but it was also really wonderful to take on a character who was so
fascinating and there was so much material. There was an infinite
number of photographs and (film) loops. Everything that I uncovered
and that I found about her kept kind of butting up against each other.
There were so many dichotomies," she says.

"It's like when you're in church.""Uh huh.""Sometimes with the
preaching and the singing and all you get lifted up out of yourself.
It's like you're taken to another place."

"Here was a place where the camera really loved her. It was completely
loving and respectful where she seemed to create a bubble around
herself when she would do her posing. She was in her own world. She
didn't seem to need to get something out of it. Instead, she was just
completely there giving," says Ms. Mol.

"The Notorious Bettie Page" is co-written and directed by Mary Harron,
who chose to shoot much of the film in black and white to match the
tone of those famous original photos. "In a way I wanted to do the
story of Bettie Page like a 1950's black and white movie, but somehow
breaking the conventions of those movies ... because I think they
would have done it more as a melodrama. It has a lot of the stylistic
conventions of the movies of that era, but I think the story works out
in a more unexpected way ... and, in a way, also more ambiguous," she
says.

"It takes all types to make a world.""What kind of types?""You see,
the customers who want this stuff are very respectable, very high
quality people: doctors, lawyers, diplomats ... even a judge. They're
not people like us. The pressures they've got ... they're not the
'average Joe.' So what if they want something that seems a little
strange. If it makes them happy, sure."

"It is not a 'message picture' in terms of trying to teach. It is more
opening a door on a world that was kind of hidden," says Ms. Harron.
"We sometimes have a view of the 1950's as this 'Disney-fied,'
wholesome, pristine place; but, even if that is the public image of a
society, there are usually many, many dark undercurrents and whether
it's above ground or you keep it hidden, those things will be there.
The vision that people have of the '50's is not necessarily how the
50's really were."

Shortly after those Senate hearings, the real Bettie Page dropped from
the public eye until the late 1970's when her earlier pin-up photos
inspired a new generation of artists and models. She survived many
personal tragedies and devoted her life to Christian missionary works,
but never denounced or denied the iconic image that brought her fame
as a young woman. Now in her eighties, she no longer allows her face
to be photographed, saying she would rather be remembered as she was
when she was The Notorious Bettie Page.

"Will you take a picture of me? It's silly ... people take pictures of
me all the time, but I don't know how to take one of myself."