My OperaSmile when you're satisfied
Monday, December 18, 2006 12:09:45 PM
There’s a painting call “Mona Lisa Smile ”, there’s also a movie call “Mona Lisa Smile”. Today I want to talk about the movie, the “Mona Lisa Smile”.The story happened in the 1953, a time when women’s roles were rigidly defined. In the famous Wellesley Collage, a prestigious all-female collage, which despite its academic reputation, is am environment where success is measured by how well the students marry, but not measured by their knowledge or their career. The heroine, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a novice professor, went to the Wellesley Collage to teach art history. In her teaching time in Wellesley, she faced the elite women of the whole nation. But what disappointed her was that all these elites of women are trained for marriage but not knowledge. She wanted to change their mind. She showed them a different point of view and a different kind of life. She encouraged her students to fulfill their hearts’ content and to trace for their own dream but not only their husbands, she encouraged her students to strive for a more enlightened future and to look beyond the image of what is, and consider the possibilities of what could be. Being challenged by the new art history professor, the school authorities, which represented the convention was mad and that’s where the conflict is in the movie, and where the story started.
Of course, there are so many obstacles in Katherine’s way of enlightening. The antagonist, Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst), one of Katherine’s students, was the representative of the traditional convention. Betty did everything to object Katherine, as Katherine was the one who told her students to challenge the ideal of women, and also Betty did everything to achieve a marriage. But Betty was disappointed by the reality that her husband didn’t love her and refused to have sex with her. Her marriage was not integrated let alone happy. Finally, Betty had realized her frustrated marriage and began to pursue her own life; she got devoiced and moved to New York with her classmate Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal). At the end of the movie, Katherine Watson left Wellesley, all her students rode bikes to traced the taxi Katherine took and to say good-bye to their loving teacher. And there's an other thing i want to talk about, the costume in the movie were good and elegant, anyone who want to have a preppy look could consult the movie, and also the make up and the hair. This could be a reference.
I’ve read some critics about the movie, what they focused was on how the devotion of the teacher. Of course, devotion is in the movie, but what I see more is feminism. (Maybe I haven’t read critic about the movie’s feminism.)
The teacher, Katherine Watson, was the representative of the new women. She believed that women have their own rights, women have their own lives and women have their own fates, which is not only devoting them into marriage. Women, should also pursue knowledge, and career and dream.
The girls, were told to be a good wife, a good mother, to be the behalf of their husband. They don’t know what other ways they could go. Even they were in the best collage of the country; though they were receiving the best education of the nation. No matter how outstanding they were, the only way to go was marriage.
The movie, speaks for the heroine Katherine Watson, speaks for the courageous and brave women, and speaks for feminism. And the name of the movie, “Mona Lisa Smile” also speaks for the theme. Mona Lisa, the woman in Da Vinci’s famous painting, we can regard she represent all women, the smile on her face, is the smile on all other women’s face. A woman, smiles when she follows her heart’s content to do things she wants to do. Also, I think the smile can also be explained as of feminism, which theory supports women to find their own dreams and smile.
So, women, smile when you're satisfied.
Yvonne Larmourvonnie # Wednesday, December 20, 2006 1:38:23 AM
fitchwars # Wednesday, December 20, 2006 8:49:31 AM
when entering the topic of feminism, woman rights or something like that,
you always put it in a ponderous way, like the earth fallen upon on wowen
and make all of them suffocated.
buck up girls, the world is more promising than you thought.