But Bassett had faith, faith in himself and in Bettina, and after two months of persistence, Bettina acquiesced. Sam was the first person to enter her apartment in many years. Sam began to help her straighten up her apartment, categorizing and re-boxing some of her things, building shelves and displaying as much as was possible. Bettina fought him the whole time. Actually, it was Sam who was doing the doing, with Bettina in the background complaining, “I may never be able to have the same order again.” She did, however, slowly begin to emerge from inside herself, the tens of years of abject depression and progressive isolation. Sam’s upbeat commentary clearly frustrated her, but energized her, too, and you could see the fleeting ghost of a smile begin to cross her lips on occasion, the first she’d smiled in as many years as she was withdrawn.
Bettina’s work slowly emerges, as she is doing, from the clutter and we begin to see the depth, the scope, the intricacy, and genius of some of her work.
Considering this is Bassett’s first film ever, it’s especially fascinating and extremely well done. Bassett has a long and prosperous future ahead, even if his future movies are only half as good as this one. Bettina is the first in a planned six-part documentary series Bassett intends to do, one of which will be on the Grand Old Gal herself, the Chelsea Hotel.
Back in the days of black and white television, there was a weekly show called The Naked City. In the narrative lead-in to each show, the announcer said something like, “There are eight million stories in The Naked City. This is one of them.” It also looked like there were eight million stories hiding in Bettina’s apartment, and I, for one, cannot wait to see each and every one of them.
To learn more about Sam Bassett and Bettina, visit Bassett’s website, where you can also get a preview of his upcoming films. This film is currently available only through Sam’s site, and it’s well worth it to seek it out and watch it a few times. There’s so much more than can possibly be described here.
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