The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Docudrama	Short Film-Presenting Bettie Page
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	86:58
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (47:24)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mary Harron
Studio Distributor	Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Gretchen Mol Chris Bauer Jared Harris Sarah Paulson Cara Seymour David Strathairn Lili Taylor
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Mark Suozzo

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) was a notorious pin-up girl in the 1950s. One of the first sex icons in America's history, unusually Bettie's notoriety stemmed from what she wore rather than what she didn't wear. Although she did start out posing for "naturist" photos, Bettie's most notable photographs were sold under the counter to fetishists. She was the centre of a Senate enquiry into her bondage photos, taken by Irvin and Pauline Klaw (Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor).

    The Notorious Bettie Page skims over the life of Bettie Page from her late teen years and early marriage, over her pin-up career, through to the point she dedicated her life to her faith at the end of her career. Most of the film is spent re-enacting famous photo and film shoots. Many of the details are lost by the brisk pace of the movie and Gretchen Mol, whose performance is spot on, is robbed of the chance to really flesh out her character.

    The film has a very artistic look about it. The bulk of the movie is presented in black-and-white (albeit a slightly artificial looking black-and-white), while key scenes are presented in colour to suit the era (soft colours, soft focus, greenish blues). The cinematography does an excellent job of capturing the mood of the film and goes a long way toward making up for the underwritten script.

     It is hard to believe that The Notorious Bettie Page comes from the same writing and directing team that created American Psycho. Not so much because of the difference in subject matter, or the different tack taken in presenting the subject matter, but because this film seems so amateurish by comparison. The script never gets deep enough into the interesting parts of Bettie's life – indeed, it skims right past many major events in her past, and the direction seems competent but lazy.

    The Notorious Bettie Page is an entertaining but disappointingly shallow biopic.

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (close enough to its original 1.85:1 ratio) and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video looks very good. The image is razor sharp, save for a few scenes that have been given a deliberate soft focus. There is an excellent level of shadow detail, especially in the black and white scenes of the movie. A very mild level of grain is visible in throughout the film, but it is never distracting.

    The film if predominantly black-and-white, which looks a tad artificial but is even throughout (in fact, the film's consistent lighting levels and even colour is probably one of the things that makes the black-and-white seem artificial). Scenes that employ colour do so very artistically, using colour balances that reflect the look of film stock of a bygone era, with lots of soft colours and greenish blues to mimic the old Fujifilm flavour.

    The filmmkers employed a few video effects to give an aged look to certain scenes (deliberate film artefacts, grain, colour bleed and fade), but no obviously unintentional artefacts are visible.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 47:26 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (224 Kbps) audio track is present for the film. The track sounds very flat and has a mild echo in many scenes, indicating that the stereo track was probably collapsed from a surround track (indeed, the Region 1 edition features a Dolby Digital 5.1 track).

    The film's dialogue is reasonably clear and easy to understand. There are no significant issues with sync, although the ADR looping is obvious in a few scenes.

    The film features a great score, comprised of toned-down period jazz, much like what you would expect of a burlesque show in the early 1950s.

    There is no noticeable surround speaker or subwoofer usage in the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Presenting Bettie Page Short Film (2:47)

    A short striptease and pose from by the real Bettie Page, transferred from an original Super 8 short. As well as being a titillating short, this really does drive home how well Gretchen Mol managed to capture Page's mannerisms.

    The Region 1 edition of The Notorious Bettie Page features the same short film contained as an extra on the Region 4 edition, as well as:

• Commentary by actress Gretchen Mol, director Mary Harron, and co-writer Guinevere Turner
• Pin-Up Queen of the Universe Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (in place of the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack of the Region 4 edition)
• Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack
• English Subtitles

    The clear winner is the Region 1 edition.

    The Notorious Bettie Page is a bit of a missed opportunity. Whilst it is reasonably entertaining viewing, this movie barely scratches the surface of its subject.

    The video looks very good. The audio is rather lacklustre and presented in collapsed stereo.

    The lone extra is a goodie, but this Region 4 edition misses out on quite a bit from foreign editions.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall