This film is a biopic about Bettie Page (played well by Grethen Mol), who become notorious in the 1950's as the "the pin up girl of the universe," she also was photographed in bondage scenes. The film shows her early life in a strict Southern family from Nashville. The film also chronicles her Christian faith journey, which for most of her life went unquestioned and she did not see her work as rebelling against it. Later in life she recommitted her life and gave up working as a model. She was also called as a witness for a Senate investigation about the effects of bondage and nude pictures on society. She lead a very strange life, but the film is able to make it a coherent narrative of a woman on the search for transcendence and authenticity. The time period of the film is also associated to the cultural reactions to the work of Alfred Kinsey. The film is beautifully shot by Mary Harron, mostly using black and white, with a few small sequences in color.
September 28, 2006
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2 comments:
Greg I was wondering if you have ever seen Magnolia. I saw that it was not on your list and I was just wondering if you ever wrote a review of it before and if so what do you think?
Yes, I actually own it. It was the first on campus film I ever saw when I went to Calvin. It changed my life, as my blog attests. I knew there was a better way to watch films than my high school ways, which was that film had to be enjoyable. Magnolia showed me that engaging film is complex and it will change you. The reason it doesn't show up on my blog is that I haven't watched it since I started the blog and everytime I am about too, I think, that is a long film and I've seen it at least 4 times- yes, all the way through. Everytime someone says "I have no regrets about my life." I roll my eyes and think about Magnolia, and how sad it is for people not to realize that what they regret might show them what there life means and tell them who they are. It is hard to watch, but it makes you see your own life in a new way.
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