| |
 |
|
|
Movies Forum Index » Current Movies Forum » A TASTE OF FEMINISM IN THE FIFTIES
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Dr. Jai Maharaj |
 Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:12 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
A taste of feminism in the Fifties
"Mona Lisa Smile" captures the 1950s American campus
contradictions in a plot that does not quite harp on
teacher-student ties as it does on the spirit of freedom
and the right to differ from tradition, writes GAUTAMAN
BHASKARAN.
By Gautaman Bhaskaran
The Hindu
Friday, April 9, 2004
WHEN ONE was watching Mike Newell's latest offering,
"Mona Lisa Smile" in Chennai last week, one was struck by
a certain similarity. Was there not something common
between the film's lead character, Katherine Watson, and
America's former First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton?
Indeed, there is, one was told later. Screenwriting
partners, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal ("Jewel of
the Nile" and "Planet of the Apes") saw an article about
Hillary and her years at America's Wellesley College in
the 1960s. They traced a line of commonality between
Hillary and Katherine, and spun a yarn around this theme.
But, in Hillary's days at the college, the curriculum was
quite modern, and students could exercise their choices.
However, a decade earlier, the girls at Wellesley were in
a situation that most of us today would find ridiculous.
They were learning French literature and physics in the
morning, and how to serve tea to their husband's boss in
the afternoon !Katherine Watson in "Mona Lisa Smile"
fights precisely this, and we know that her battle is an
awfully difficult one. Even the progressive educational
institutions in the America of the 1950s were stiflingly
conservative; an inward looking tradition had overtaken
and overwhelmed post-war existence, and this was in many
ways anti-woman.
There was a reason for this swing towards conservatism.
America believed that its men had suffered during the
years of the war, and needed to be pampered. And, how?
Women had to be model housewives. They had to look
pretty, keep a manicured home going, raise children and
be meekly submissive.
"Mona Lisa Smile" is full of such images. We see the
upper crust Betty Warren -- who marries in the course of
the movie's 90-odd minutes -- running a vacuum cleaner on
the floor with her right hand as she studies art history
from a book held in her other hand. She tends to her
baby, makes love to her husband and goes about with her
daily grind at home even as she tries mastering the
contents of her syllabus.
When Betty misses six of Katherine's classes -- who
teaches art history at Wellesley and pushes her students
to take in a whiff of the free Californian spirit that
she has brought along with her -- and justifies her
absence by saying that she was on an extended honeymoon,
she is ticked off.
Betty grows hostile, and slanders Katherine in the campus
magazine she edits (Did college magazines come in colour
in the 1950s?). The Wellesley administration and the
faculty are not amused by Katherine Watson's
"behaviour", and support Betty Warren's line of
thinking. Admittedly, Katherine's lessons that stretch
beyond mere identification of art slides do catch the
fancy of some girls who love their teacher when she poses
questions such as why is an original Van Gogh a work of
art and a reproduction not one.
These make the film's narrative almost gripping. And its
message, you can bake a cake and eat it too, may have
seemed radically feminist in the 1953-4 Wellesley, but
today it can well mean a certain kind of balance.
Interestingly, Katherine herself conveys this: she does
not quite dispel her dream of being swept off her feet by
Prince Charming. Yet, the independence and self-assurance
that she displays are enough for her to be termed
subversive.
However, "Mona Lisa Smile" must be seen as a work that
travels beyond the stated and the obvious. In Watson's
art history classes, which inspire the screenplay's most
intelligent writing, she challenges her students to
pursue excellence and knowledge. Let one not forget here
that the early 1950s also brought the ascendance of
Abstract Expressionism. And, the appearance of a Jackson
Pollock canvas on the campus stirs up ripples of
controversy, and it was women (and I am sure there were
men too) like Katherine Watson who injected life into
this radical form of thought.
Konner and Rosenthal do manage to capture this dramatic
tension between what was expected of women and the dreams
and desires that were simmering in them. Newell helps
here by picturising this conflict in a subdued manner,
though the undercurrents of the rising storm are felt
strongly.
Of course, one has one's quarrels with the movie. Julia
Roberts is somewhat of a miscast as Katherine Watson, and
the script does not always help. There is some confusion
as far as her characterisation goes: the moment her
boyfriend slips an engagement ring on her finger, she
calls off the relationship even as she keeps yearning for
male company. Which she finds later in a colleague. But
she is unhappy here as well: when she learns he has been
lying about his Italian connection, she breaks away from
him. One found these irritating contradictions.
These, in any case, Julia Roberts said in an interview,
were what made "Mona Lisa Smile" such a delightful
picture. "I think (Katherine) Watson is definitely a
flawed character and that's the thing that makes her
interesting. The things that make her the most
intellectually aware are the things she probably
understands the least about. Like her conviction that
she's right, really."
Roberts added, a trifle hastily, that she would not want
to do a role just to shock people. "I do not think I
played Watson for that."
"Mona Lisa Smile" -- going by current trends -- hardly
shocks you, though it does contain some explicit sexual
conversation and content. But these have been woven well
into the plot, and they do not seem to be out of context
at all. On the whole, "Mona Lisa Smile", despite a
certain shallowness, is fairly enjoyable, provided you do
not ask too many uncomfortable questions.
More at:
http://www.hindu.com
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of
this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent
the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright law
and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name,
current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others
are not necessarily those of the poster. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:00 pm
|
|