Bettina tells an incredible story. Bettina is also Sam Bassett’s second professional film project ever, and he’s come through with flying colors. It’s a low-budget film, and it shows, as it’s meant to, and most definitely not in a bad way. Actually, it enhances the movie, lending an extra soupcon of authenticity, and driving home the fact that this is a true story. You’ve got the jerky, handheld camera action, the almost cheesy music, the film opening on a roof shot of a Manhattan neighborhood — absolutely perfect!
The camera walks down the stairs from Bassett's place on the roof of the hotel, in the very same eagle’s nest where the actress Sarah Bernhardt was rumored to have kept a coffin to entertain her lovers. We enter into the apartment building, with quick shots of Bassett’s working area, then the hallway in front of the star’s - Bettina’s - apartment, Bassett sitting on a tiny stool. Bettina is preparing to be evicted. She’s obviously quite distraught. Think John Prine, singing “Hello In There.”
It’s heartbreaking to watch the near-destruction of a gifted artist, one who’s now withdrawn from the world, into her shell, preparing to put the final seals in place. Her insecurity is perfectly exemplified by the ring of keys she carries, which fit the multiple locks on her door. Siege mentality is the order of the day. Think Armageddon.
“I can’t concentrate!” she exclaims.
The aspect crystallizes; bongos, another filmstrip shown over top of this film, Bettina dressed in a heavy quilted coat and her retro hightops, bending down and collecting leaves. Again, perfect. If you didn’t know better, you’d think she was a bag lady, the desperation and hopelessness etched into her face. In actuality, she’s collecting leaves for yet another artistic project, her next masterpiece, and her face is etched in study and concentration, rather than desperation. Hope hasn’t died, not quite yet.
Bettina, sitting on a bench in the hallway in front of her apartment, talking to Bassett about the Nouminon, and how she’s mining its secrets, finding the invisible secret of things and filling in the pages. “It’s God,” she says. “There are 32 paths of wisdom,” she continues. “And you start becoming wise with the first path, and then you have to keep progressing until … until you … reach God.”
Bettina. Bettina is Bettina Bashyi, aka Bettina Grossman, in her electric blue wig, pushing a shopping cart. Bettina is espousing Socratic wisdom about string theory one minute, then your soul the next, and then she moves into “Word Work, Without :: There Isn’t.”
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