‘Notorious Bettie Page’ a magnet for controversy

loading...

On DVD

THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, directed by Mary Harron, written by Harron and Guinevere Turner, 94 minutes, rated R.

Earlier this summer, when director Mary Harron came to Bangor to give a talk at the Bangor Opera House about her work, what she didn’t bring with her was her latest film, “The Notorious Bettie Page,” which had recently been released and was then generating a buzz.

Now that “Page” is available on DVD, the good news is that the movie was worth the wait. The film, which Harron co-wrote with Guinevere Turner, stars Gretchen Mol in a terrific comeback performance as Page, the God-fearing woman from Tennessee who left Nashville for New York, where her aspirations of becoming an actress were interrupted, you might say, by a whip and a ball gag.

This unusual film, which is shot mostly in black-and-white with the occasional cutaway to full color, begins in 1955 with Page waiting to testify in the government’s case against pornography – the bondage sort, for which Page was known.

On the bench is Sen. Estes Kefauver (David Strathairn), who is interviewing those who find Bettie’s choice of artistic expression appalling. A priest, for instance, notes that this “insidious filth is corrupting. It is rotting at the very roots of our nation. Communism will never defeat America. It’s something from within the nation that will rot and corrupt it.”

Could images of Bettie’s body decked out in leather and stilettos really bring down a nation? Unlikely. Still, Harron understands there are those who have made their livelihoods by publicly claiming it could in spite of owning secret stashes of porn themselves. She also knows there are those whose lives genuinely have been damaged by the industry.

And so, armed with this dichotomy, what she creates is a movie that’s almost as limber as Page herself. Throughout, Herron strikes a serio-comic tone, with her long glance back at Bettie’s curious life revealing a naive, complicated woman who was sexually abused by her father and gang raped as a teen, yet who believed as an adult that the nude modeling she came to do for the Klaws (Lily Taylor and Chris Bauer, perfect) was absolutely pure. She revered her body as a temple made by God. Why not show it off and have a little fun doing so?

As with Herron’s previous movies – “American Psycho” and “I Shot Andy Warhol” – “Notorious” is a shiny lure, a magnet for controversy. Is the film a celebration of pornography? Does it misinterpret Page? Are there misogynist undertones? Discuss.

What’s undeniable is how good Mol is in the role, how refreshingly free and likable she is. What she seems to have taken from the iconic images of Page’s work is that for Page, bondage was playacting. Regardless of whatever whip she was wielding or bottom she was paddling, that infectious smile of hers wasn’t forced and it didn’t come from a place of depravity. Instead, as Herron and Mol see it, it came from a sense of humor and a bright spot within.

Grade: B+

On HD DVD

LAND OF THE DEAD, written and directed by George A. Romero, 94 minutes, rated R.

Now available on HD DVD, George A. Romero’s “Land of the Dead” moves the franchise forward with ease, giving new purpose to the zombies Romero conceived in his 1968 classic “Night of the Living Dead,” while offering fans plenty of high-definition gore in the process.

What the film proves is that there still are fresh ideas to be found in the familiar rot of Romero’s world. Shrewdly, the director remains firm in his belief that it takes more than just ropes of dripping entrails and severed heads to make a horror movie satisfying. While those elements certainly are welcome and they do flourish here – some might never wear a bellybutton ring again – the film has other targets to explore, starting with society.

Shooting his film in the blues of a corpse, Romero casts Dennis Hopper as Kaufman, an evil investor whose grand tower, Fiddler’s Green, is located smack in the midst of a fortified Pittsburgh. For those lucky and wealthy enough to be chosen to live there, this is the place to be, especially since just beyond the river that frames it are the walking dead.

The zombies are just as you remember them – still hot for human flesh. More important is that they have apparently stumbled down a Darwinian path that finds them evolving with the ability to reason. It’s that twist that not only makes them more dangerous (and funny), but which allows Romero to broaden the social, philosophical and political themes that have laced through his franchise from the beginning.

In “Night,” he tackled issues of race, prejudice and family. In “Dawn of the Dead,” he took his zombies to the mall and lampooned consumerism. Later, in 1985’s “Day of the Dead,” he skewered science and the military. Finally, in “Land,” he attacks America’s love affair with land and real estate.

Across the board, the acting is surprisingly good, particularly from John Leguizamo and Robert Joy, but even from lead zombie Big Daddy (Eugene Clark), a hulking beast whose idea it is to cross the river to Fiddler’s Green, where fresh meat awaits.

Audiences should thank him for it. The moment Big Daddy gets his feet wet and bulldozes forward, the movie flips into overdrive, with thousands of zombies trailing after him and igniting the film’s fiery climax.

Grade: B

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening and weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekin

rewind.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Agatha Christie Classic Mystery Collection – A-

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

ATL – B-

Basic Instinct 2 – D+

The Benchwarmers – D

Big Momma’s House 2 – D

Breakfast on Pluto – B

Brokeback Mountain – A-

Capote – A

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

The Constant Gardener – A-

Curious George – B

Date Movie – D-

Derailed – C+

Double Indemnity – A

Eight Below – B+

Failure to Launch – C-

The Family Stone – D

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – B

Freedomland – C-

Friends with Money – B

The Hills Have Eyes – D

A History of Violence – A

How Art Made the World – A

Howl’s Moving Castle – A-

Inside Man – B+

Junebug – A

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

Lucky Number Slevin – B

Martha’s Halloween Ideas – B+

The Matador – B+

Match Point – A

Munich – A-

Nanny McPhee – B-

North Country – C

Paradise Now – A-

Poseidon – B

Pride & Prejudice – A

The Producers – B+

Red Eye – B+

Rumor Has It… – C-

Saving Shiloh – B

Scary Movie 4 – D+

Seabiscuit: HD DVD – C

The Shaggy Dog – C-

Shakespeare Behind Bars – A-

Silent Hill – C-

16 Blocks – B

Space Cowboys: HD DVD and Blu-Ray – A-

The Squid and the Whale – B+

Stay alive – D-

Swordfish: Blu-Ray – C

Syriana – B+

Take the Lead – C-

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride: Blu-Ray – B+

Transamerica – B

Troy: HD DVD – C-

United 93 – A

Walk the Line – A-

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – A

The Warrior – B