USA: The Notorious Bettie Page. 2005

Director: Mary Harron
Stars: Gretchen Mol, Lili Taylor, Jonathan M. Woodward, David Strathairn, Cara Seymour.
Release date: USA - 14 April 2006
Genre: Drama/Bio-pic
Length: 100 mins

Why? Cause it's Bettie Page. One of those pop icons that many are familiar with, visually, yet don't actually know much about. So hence the interest to learn about her history would be the major factor in seeing this film. It's having a limited cinema run in the US. Probably because it's a HBO connected film & therefore that will maximise attention for it's cable TV showing. Gretchen Mol, who plays Page, is one of those people who has been in over 25 films, yet I can't name any of them. Hope she pulls it off. Imagine the Bettie fanclubs critique when it does come out. That'll be the test. I guess we'll see it on DVD next year.

The Canadian director made the film version of Bret Easton Ellis' book American Psycho, but seems to have recently diirected well known TV shows.

Synopsis
Page was the ultimate girl-next door, and one of the most popular Playboy centerfolds. Page challenged the conservative 1950s, posing as a fierce dominatrix and earning both a cult underground following and Senate Committee investigation on juvenile delinquency, essentially a witch-hunt orchestrated by a senator from her home state of Tennessee bent on exploiting her as a stepping stone to the White House. At the height of her popularity, Bettie disappeared. But in 1979 and 1982, Page (a diagnosed schizophrenic) tried to stab several people to death and was institutionalized.

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