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Song of the Day: “Desperate Guys” - The Faint

• Director: Mary Harron
• Genre: Biography/Drama
• Year: 2005

For a film dealing with the Notorious Bettie Page, this film is surprisingly tame, light hearted and comic almost to a flaw. It is not that this film is necessarily bad, but rather that it fails to truly connect the audience with the subject, which is always kept at an arm’s length. Obviously, this is a subject matter that needs to be treated with care, for anybody that is aware of Bettie Page knows that the pin up girl was in the naughty business of modeling and not always for cutesy swimsuit pictures.

On the basics, this film delivers nicely. The story is interesting, giving an very brief overview of Bettie’s childhood, a brush through of her adolescence and focusing for the most part on her rise to fame. The story is told mostly in black and white, with the occasional scene in color, brightly saturated matching the color quality of film at the time. This technique makes for an interesting look which although it does not quite actually match the grainy film footage used between some scenes, it is close enough to bring a convincing nostalgic mood to the film. From her religious, conservative background to her modeling fame and her return to religion, we see Bettie enter a highly questionable, but also lucrative business with the wide eyes, the easy smile and the naiveté of a little girl.

There is a fun, entertaining, almost tongue in cheek attitude to this film that bothers me, because it fails to recognize the subject matter at hand. The film almost seems guided, in the sense that through out the main body of the film one sees the fun shoots, the laughing, the goofy footage of spankings and S&M in a way that is almost reminiscent of grown girls doing nothing more adult than say…a tea party. And yet, on occasion, when a certain pamphlet of photographs is brought up to Bettie to sign or certain footage is shown during the court scene, we see a quite darker side of what transpired, much more realistic and one that fails to amuse quite as much. It is during those small bursts that this film gains its seriousness. But the inability of the director to project this reality throughout left me in the end feeling that she was opening windows and telling me when to look where.

My wife, who watched this with me brought up some interesting insight, which makes for a valid point in the defense of the director’s choice to show the movie in this fashion. Perhaps, we are meant to see the movie through the eyes of Bettie, who throughout is extremely naive and childish in her approach to her shooting sessions. And the bursts that we see in the pamphlets and the court are meant to be seen the way the public sees it.

This is a valid argument, though one that fails to convince me personally. Why then bother to show the key points in Bettie’s childhood that would traumatize any person. I do not with to spoil the film by discussing it in detail, but suffice it to say that there are a pair of incidents that should have given Betty more insight as to the reality of the world, a lesson which according to this movie was not learned. And it is quite possible that Bettie Page was actually this foolish, in which case, I would be fine with it as long as the director did not hold my hand for so long. I think that even in matters such as S&M I am perfectly capable of being able to tell the fun from the serious and do not need it funneled in the fashion that was done here.

That being my chief complaint on the film, the story itself is quite engaging, and as I said, tame enough that makes it approachable even to the person that may not quite be comfortable with this subject. It is actually quite easy to laugh during this movie and label it a bit of naughty fun without coming out of it with a feeling that something terrible just happened.

It also should be noted that the acting was quite impressive, by Gretchen Mol in the lead role and by the supporting cast who make a convincing job portraying the characters of that time. The technical aspects of the film, including the choice of coloration when it happens, the black and white shots and the old school transitions also do a very good job of making this film fit with the times that it deals with.

Bottom line? Expect a fun, naughty film that will deliver entertainment, but will not necessarily a great drama.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Notes: Adult themes, nudity, S&M imagery…do not get me wrong, I say this film is tame in proportion to the subject matter it deals with, there is still a number of provocative scenes, acts and nudity to make some people blush.
Quote: John Willie: Do you mind if I ask you a question, Bettie? What do you think Jesus would think about what you’re doing now?
Bettie Page: Well, Mr. Willie, I’ve thought about this quite a lot and I’m not really sure if I know anymore. I think God has given us some kind of talent and he wants us to use it. That’s why he gives it to us.