Film Review: Hallo Betty – Glam Adelaide

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Read the Glam Adelaide story about the festival here: 2026 HSBC German Film Festival begins 6 May to 27 May at Palace Nova Cinemas – Glam Adelaide

In the mid-50s across the Western world, advertising was going through a major leap in both reach and sophistication. Many agencies started to develop characters with which to help sell client’s products, such as Betty Crocker for General Mills. In Switzerland copywriter Emmi Creola nearly concussed herself on the glass ceiling in her battle to create the character Betty Bossi for her margarine client. But contrary to the beliefs of her male colleagues, Betty becomes a huge hit. Once Betty moved into television, Emmi herself emerged from behind the avatar to become known as “the nation’s cook”. In her incarnation as Betty she helped move the nation away from predominantly bland food towards more flavoursome dishes from areas such as Italy. In that way she was perhaps Switzerland’s answer to Elizabeth David.

In Hallo Betty director Pierre Monnard and screenwriter André Küttel have shaped the beginnings of Betty Bossi into a stylish, witty, and rich, piece of cinema. But this is no mere cutesy trip into cultural nostalgia, delivering as it does a portrait of 50s advertising’s (and by extension, society’s) views of gender roles, and the way in which collective fear (in this case of the atomic bomb) leads to a conservative battening down of the hatches. Of particular interest is the way in which advertising has learnt surprisingly little since that time. Still a highly male-dominated industry, advertising is often aimed at women, and created by men, usually along the glib lines of “shrink it and pink it.” This has led to such shockers as the recent Samsung debacle where an ad showed a woman happily jogging at 2 am with earphones in.

Monnard’s film captures more than just one moment in time. It still speaks to today.

Starring as Emmi is the delightful Sarah Spale, and alongside her as husband Ernst is Martin Vischer. Spale and Vischer work together to give us a “traditional” marriage on the brink of becoming modern, as Ernst, although supportive of his wife’s career, struggles as his own business falters, and he finds himself picking up more of the domestic duties. In real life, Emmi and Ernst remained married and in love until Ernst’s death in the late 80s. The entire ensemble cast around them is pitch perfect, including the wonderful young actors who play the Creola children.