Mona Lisa Smile

I’d like to share with you an enjoyable film with the performance of Julia Roberts: Mona Lisa Smile. If you have already seen the film I hope you you will enjoy this reminder, and if you have not seen it yet, you should see it without further delay.
This film depicts American society in 1953, a transition period after which the modern independent woman will emerge.The story is set up at Wellesley College, a conservative girl’s college with prestigious reputation for academic excellence. Katherine Watson gets a teaching position in the Art History Department with the intention of making a difference by changing women’s attitudes towards their roles in society.
There are several aspects that lead to a confrontation between Katherine and the school’s directors: her ways of teaching, her points of views about feminism and the future of women, and the interaction with students.
Her methods are contrary to the ones considered acceptable by the school’s directors. Instead of following the programme stipulated, she bases her classes on modern art dealing with, at that moment, controversial and still not accepted painters such as Picasso.
Katherine strongly believes that women are not meant to become just housewives and mothers, but that they can match these roles with a career. She wants to show girls the point of attending high school which is not waiting until getting married but starting a career. She tries to open the student’s minds to their freedom to do whatever they want with their lives.
In order to achieve her objectives she interacts with students as no other teacher does. She gives them advice and helps them to find their way. She even tells a student not to get marry and helps her to apply for a university. When the student decides getting married and forgetting about university, she becomes upset because she thinks the student is wasting her future.
Though Katherine wanted to provoke the students to think for themselves and arrive at their own judgements of things, she actually tries to make them find her way and follow the path she had choosen.

Cheeps