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The
Notorious Bettie Page: More than a Kitten with a Whip The best biopics illuminate the subject’s life while still telling a good, concise, cinematic story. Balancing the truth of a person’s life while conforming to the often-necessary conventions of film isn’t easy, as most lives, especially those worth the retelling are decidedly untidy. It’s especially difficult if the person’s story is representative of an era, as Bettie Page’s ended up being. Page, one time Pin-up Queen of the Universe, moved to New York in the early 1950s with the intention of being an actress, but instead became one of the best-known photographer’s models of the era. She was a Playboy centerfold in 1955, but that was almost an aside in her career. Her pictures went from normal cheesecake photography, to nudes, to what were—at the time—fairly serious bondage scenes. While it would be easy to believe that a woman who didn’t set out to have this kind of career would have a helplessness about her, or even a hard resignation from unfulfilled dreams, that was never the case. It was her upbeat personality which made her pictures so unique. Whether she was on a beach in a bikini or in a studio brandishing a riding crop, her wicked grin made whatever she was doing seem fun, deliberate, and surprisingly innocent. In the last gasp of social conservatism before the 1960s, the redemption she gave her pictures set them apart from the rest. The Notorious Bettie Page follows Page from her upbringing in Tennessee, through her modeling career, and finally to her return to her roots, when she went back to church and obscurity. It would have been very easy, particularly in secular American pop culture, to downplay or disregard the driving force of religion in Page’s life, but instead it’s one of the many things the film gets right. Rather than ignoring the tricky question of how a fairly devout Christian rationalizes being photographed naked and sometimes in compromising positions, the character is asked outright. It’s a credit to the writing and to Gretchen Mol’s portrayal that her explanation makes sense. Page is a complex and buoyant character, a woman who remains open and optimistic even when life lets her down, be it by unfortunate circumstances or deliberate mistreatment by her fellow man. While her career was unorthodox, it was never a last resort. If life took a turn she didn’t expect, she welcomed it as warmly as she did anything else. There are hints that some darker truths are omitted—inferences of childhood abuse, for instance—but they mostly function as reinforcement of the steadfastness of Page’s character. A different film could explore how these darker parts of her life interacted with the more sinister scenarios in some of her pictures, but this film’s focus is different enough that it feels like a curious inclusion, rather than an odd omission. Furthermore, the film itself is beautiful. Alternating between color that has the warmth and brightness that typified color films of the ‘50s and period-appropriate black and white, it nicely encapsulates the era it portrays. The scenery and costumes are lush and perfect without stealing the show from the actors, as sometimes happens in films like Far From Heaven. In a time where stock footage is usually used for laughs, to make bygone times seem naÔve and silly, this film uses it to set the scene in a way nothing else could. While plenty of Bettie Page’s career was tongue-in-cheek, this story is delightfully straightforward, and the only winking and nudging done is by Page herself. Bottom line: a fitting tribute for an American icon |
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Wave
Bye-Bye: Poseidon Wolfgang Petersen has now completed his sea trilogy. What began brilliantly with Das Boot, and downsized poignantly to The Perfect Storm, has swelled to non-Titanic proportions with Poseidon. Yes, it’s a remake, but don’t be misled. Few, if any, of the elements that make the 1972 disaster thriller The Poseidon Adventure still a watch-worthy, made it into this one. This Poseidon is just plain exhausting. Technically, you got no complaints. Industrial Light & Magic does the special effects thing with the usual high style. Petersen wastes little time getting the killer wave on the horizon. The doomed luxury liner capsizes with loads of groaning metal, popping electricity, and catapulting passengers. After a very brief respite in which the passengers painfully assess their situation, dashing gambler Dylan Johns, played by Josh Lucas, determines that up is the way to go. He sets off to make his way to the now-exposed stern, and freedom. He does not go alone, of course. Against his wishes, a group of like-minded survivors joins him. Here’s where Petersen begins to break away from the original. In Poseidon Adventure, our heroes were a pretty ordinary bunch—a priest, a retired cop, an elderly couple, a band singer, and so on. Not so here. Robert Ramsey, played by Kurt Russell, is not only a former fire fighter; he’s the ex-mayor of New York (hmmmmm). And Dylan isn’t just a card sharp; he’s an ex-Navy man who served—wait for it—on submarines. And a good thing too, because without these two elements, Poseidon would have been a 20-minute movie. It almost seems like one, anyway. The acting is pretty good—Russell and Lucas play well as older and younger versions of the same heroic guy. Richard Dreyfuss underplays an older gay man, heartbroken over a lost love. Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett and Mia Maestro strike a balance between intrepidity and screaming fear as the women, and young Jimmy Bennett actually behaves the way a real kid would behave in a life-or-death situation. It’s the pace. “Breakneck” begins to describe it. Petersen uses up about three movies’ worth of jump- cuts. I can’t recall any quiet moments. The dialogue, when there is dialogue over and above grunts, groans and shrieks, is of the “oh my god, look!” variety. Fire, water, then fire and water, relentlessly chase the group all the way to the end. It’s exciting, yes, but ultimately tiresome, much akin to the second Indiana Jones movie, the one that most people skip over. There are a few places where Petersen improves on the original version. He gives us a closer look at what happens to the other passengers (it ain’t pretty). He ups the tension stakes by having the ship do what a ship probably would do when capsized—gradually break apart and begin to sink. There are other touches. Still, I’d forgotten Poseidon before the credits had finished rolling. Bottom line: Book on some other line. |
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