Bettie Page's journey from Jesus to Sodom and back again
• Amorous Pop Culture
Near as I've been able to tell the Bettie Page revival began when Dave Stevens used her likeness as the basis of the girl the hero of the Rocketeer comic book was hot for.
That was - what? - 20 years ago? While I was expecting interest to Page to slacken it only deepened. One of the many proofs I've had that I just don't understand mass culture.
Even kinky popular culture. I've seen Bettie Page's bondage clips. They don't do anything for me. (Then again it wasn't as if she was tying up a guy.)
That she had that girl next door face on top of a handsome body I understand. Once you venture into erotica it isn't that rare. I guess it is what you invest in Bettie. One of the first Bettie Page fans that I ever knew said that she looked so "cruel." Eh? Cruel? To me she looks like a well-mannered waitress at a diner.
Anyway, I'll have to settle for the Bettie Page cult remaining a mystery.
Maybe The Notorious Bettie Page will kill the Page mystique. From Variety's review:
Result is a strangely placid, unchallenging picture with no blood in its veins. Gretchen Mol is splendid to behold in every stage of dress or undress, but Harron and co-scenarist Guinevere Turner offer no clues as to what might be going on inside the dark-haired beauty's head and heart. As Bettie Page was a sexual fetish for '50s men, so does she seem little more than a cultural fetish for these modern filmmakers.