Friday, December 12, 2008

RIP The Notorious Bettie Page


She was 85. Go watch Mary Harron's quite delightful film from 2006, The Notorious Bettie Page. It's flawed, but insanely watchable and fun with hints of sadness. Now if only Harron would make another movie plzthnxokaybye.
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Written by Glenn Dunks @ 7:49 AM
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8 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

This is very sad news but with the health reports I rather expected it. RIP Bettie.

Gretchen Mol was so good in this film but it does seem like it wasn't quite the career changer we thought it would be. I mean... what is that television show she is doing?

8:27 AM
Anonymous said...

Was there any truth in the rumour that Liv Tyler was set to play Bettie Page, with Martin Scorsese to direct, but they were beaten to it by Mary Harron and Gretchen Mol?

8:30 AM
NATHANIEL R said...

it is true that Liv was attached to a Bettie Page project originally but I don't know if it was ever true that Scorsese was going to direct.

8:33 AM
Anonymous said...

Hi Nathaniel!

I LOVE this post!

I don’t know what you mean with “flawed”, THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE is P-E-R-F-E-C-T (at least to me). I think that Mary Harron is a great director and she did a fantastic job creating a glossy, artistic, engaging, moving and funny biopic (and I hate biopics), not to mention the TERRIFIC (almost absurdly terrific) Gretchen Mol’s performance… she is so good! – sexy, funny, natural, 100% in character – she deserved an Oscar nod (or an Oscar) for her work but she was egregiously snubbed (as well as other great actresses showing amazing acting skills like Naomi Watts for “Mulholland Dr.”, Meg Ryan for “In the Cut” or Uma Thurman for “Kill Bill”).

THANKS FOR THIS POST! I love THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE a **** stars film to me (or an A according to your rating system).

10:19 AM
Anonymous said...

RIP Bettie Page and thanks for everything!!!



I liked Mary Harron's movie too, expecially Mol's performance. She's a too unheralded actress. I hoped after Bettie Page she could receive better offers, but actually, except her perf along Christian Bale in 3:10 TO YUMA (a good perf if you want, but not so riveting...) I don't think it happened so far...

mirko s.

10:45 AM
Deborah said...

I thought The Notorious... sort of petered out without ever really finding itself. But it did find Betty; you certainly felt you knew her.

I'm watching Life on Mars, which is Gretchen Mol's show. She's bland in it, the writing doesn't serve her. Her ten minutes in 3:10 to Yuma were more dynamic than anything she's doing on TV.

11:44 AM
Anonymous said...

she just is not star material.

4:39 PM
Glenn said...

Why is anybody watching an American version of Life on Mars?

Luigi, Nat didn't actually write this entry. I did (he's away from his computer throughout Friday). I liked Mol a lot and the film too, but something just didn't quite click within it's typical structure and by the I was just a bit underwhelmed. Having said that, Harron's American Psycho is the third best film of the decade (after Mulholland Drive and Moulin Rouge!) in my eyes and I really wish she'd sit down with Genevieve Turner and crank out another screenplay as good as that Psycho one and direct it. She's stuck in TV-land and I don't like it.

9:05 PM

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