The Notorious Bettie Page

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The Notorious Bettie Page

R

2006

1h 30m

Biography

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

58%

Tomatometer

131 Reviews

51%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Following a failed marriage and a gang rape, Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) arrives in New York City and soon begins a career as a model and an aspiring actress. She becomes a celebrated pinup girl but experiences a series of missed opportunities and failed relationships.

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Critics Consensus

This biopic only skims the surface of Bettie Page's life, leaving her as a cipher, and additionally fails to place her iconic status in historical context.

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Linda Ruth Williams

Sight & Sound

The Notorious Bettie Page may be nothing but a series of beautiful poses, but audiences will be more than happy with the result.

Sep 28, 2006

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Olly Richards

Empire Magazine

A small, strangely sweet tale well told. But this is all about Mol, who puts in a performance that gives her a very early lead on next year's Oscar race.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 4, 2006

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Ben Walters

Time Out

A portrait of the centrefold as a closed book.

Aug 3, 2006

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

Conveying neither the joy nor the agony of its subject, "The Notorious Bettie Page" emerges as a real emotional zero — shocking, coming from a director of Mary Harron’s intelligence and vision.

Rated: C

Sep 20, 2022

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Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

It was often said that even when Bettie Page was nude, she wasn't naked. Same is true of The Notorious Bettie Page. Visually stunning. Enjoyable. Funny. Entertaining. And clothing optional.

Nov 13, 2019

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Dan Sallitt

Senses of Cinema

A rote assembly of as many character quirks as could be dug out of the public record.

Oct 16, 2018

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Alec B

Gretchen Mol was born to play this part. Its interesting how Mary Harron explores the innocence in the type of photography and films Bettie Page did and wisely sidesteps a lot of the clichés associated with the biopic genre by keeping the film small.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/13/23

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Gareth v

A solid but far from perfect biopic on the life of pin-up Bettie Page. Gretchen Mol is perfectly cast in the lead.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/19/23

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Audience Member

It did nothing to make me more or less interested in the titular character, partly because there wasn't a whole lot to the character after the 1950's. She was basically just a normal, kinda boring, model who just happened to be one of the first and most notorious bondage fetish models from the 1940's and 50's after which she moved to Florida and become an Evangelical Christian, leaving the spotlight behind. Truth is, there probably wasn't a whole lot of source material to make a biographical movie on.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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steve d

Gretchen Mol makes a great Page and the film is a really well done biopic of an extremely interesting woman.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

This is a bio. movie based on the life/times/career of racy X rated picture model of the 50's. It follows her story to old age as she left the life behind to become a born again christian. Not really all that much to the movie, I seen this movie once passed the time alright movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Audience Member

During the 80's I had a picture of Bettie Page and Marilyn Monroe on my wall. I didn't know anything about Bettie Page until now after watching this film. I didn't know during the 50's you could be arrested for buying porn. Gees how life has changed.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

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Mary Harron

Director

Gretchen Mol

Bettie Page

Chris Bauer

Irving Klaw

Jared Harris

John Willie

Sarah Paulson

Bunny Yeager

Cara Seymour

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Synopsis

Following a failed marriage and a gang rape, Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) arrives in New York City and soon begins a career as a model and an aspiring actress. She becomes a celebrated pinup girl but experiences a series of missed opportunities and failed relationships.

Director: Mary Harron
Producer: Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel, Christine Vachon
Screenwriter: Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner
Production Co: Killer Films, IFC Productions
Rating: R (Sexual Content|Nudity|Some Language)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Original Language: English
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Apr 14, 2006
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 15, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.4M
Runtime: 1h 30m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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