“BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL” My rating: B (Opens Jan. 17 at the Tivoli)
101 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Even those who don’t know her name will recognize the look — the black bangs, the gorgeous body (not skinny, not plump, just right), and especially the attitude she wore like other women wore clothing — a heady blend of healthy sexuality and girl-next-door good humor.
Bettie Page was the pinup girl of the 1950s. Then she vanished, only to return in recent years as an iconic image, the stuff of advertisements, book covers and tattoos.
Her face and form are so universally recognized and accepted that she’s become a brand, and as is the case with Walt Disney, many young people don’t even realize that Bettie Page was a real person.
Mark Mori and Doug Miller’s documentary, “Bettie Page Reveals All,” means to set the record straight. And they have an unexpected ally: Bettie herself, who a few years before her death at age 85 in 2005 sat down to tape a long audio interview about her life and career.
She’s not the only voice here — the film is packed with talking-head sexperts ranging from Hugh Hefner and Dita Von Teese to pop culture academics and, poignantly, one of Bettie’s former husbands. But Bettie’s is the voice you remember, a grandmotherly voice with a Southern drawl and a tendency to make even horrific memories somehow less ghastly.
Butler's Cinema Scene 