NEWS: An Interview with the Director of "The Notorious Bettie Page"

Do you follow the neo-burlesque movement?

I love the neo-burlesque stuff. I like the way it's being taken up again as an art form. Clearly Bettie is a very inspiring figure to young women because she had a strong independent streak. She did what she wanted to do and she wasn't just doing it for men. I think the fact that she enjoyed posing so much is what gives her this inner glow. You don't feel like she just wanted to be liked. But I think it's a huge mistake to think of her as a conscious feminist heroine. As far as I can see, she didn't have an agenda, ever. She just followed her own path unconsciously. I don't think she thought of herself as a rebel in any way. She was kind of in her own world of dress-up.