The Notorious Bettie
Page
Directed by the Mary Harron who also directed American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page uses the hearing at which Page was called
to testify as a framing device. Switching between black and white and glorious
Technicolor it follows the life of the Queen of Pin Up and Bondage from small
town girl with a rough upbringing to the icon she is remembered as. The film
mixes raunch with quieter moments of reflection showing Page as a multi faceted
character with vulnerability and naivety rather than just a body to be gawped
at.
Howl
An arty film with a mosaic like structure. Firstly we have a
New York publisher on trial for publishing a collection of poems by Beat
Generation icon Allen Ginsberg, then there is Ginsberg being interviewed and
reflecting on his life and writing career and this supplemented by flash backs
which is interspersed with gorgeous animation and James Franco as Ginsberg
reading the eponymous poem. It is visually engaging with a dreamlike feel to it
and doesn’t alienate those (like myself) who were unfamiliar with Ginsberg’s
work before.
All That Jazz
Not strictly a biopic but the life of the main character
mirrors that of writer/director Bob Fosse to a tee. Fosse juggled editing a
biopic about comedian Lenny Bruce with trying to stage the Broadway musical Chicago, hence the title. Similarly, Joe
Gideon (played by Roy Schieder) uses a cocktail of drugs and sex to plough
through his own fanatic attempts to stage a Broadway Musical and edit a
Hollywood film. He isolates everyone around him as he flirts with death
(literally. She keeps appearing in dream sequences) and experiences heart
complications. It isn’t a musical itself though it does show the performers
sings and dancing. However it does have one of the best final scenes of any
film I have ever watched.
Adaptation
Again not strictly a biopic but screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
makes himself a character in the film and gives himself a fictional twin
brother. It follows him struggling to turn the book The Orchid Thief into a film and Kaufman penned the script while
struggling to turn The Orchid Thief
into a film… Add to that the fact that the real life author of the book is a
character in the film (played by Meryl Streep) and some of the book is
dramatized and you get a mind bending, oddball film that is worth watching for
Nicholas Cage’s portrayal as the goofy Kaufman brothers alone.
