Mona Lisa Smile
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- Released
- 12/07/2004
- Film and TV Genre
- Drama, General
- Video Format
- PAL
- DVD Region
- 2 (will only play on Region 2 and Multi-Region DVD players)
Description
Mike Newell's MONA LISA SMILE is a pretty period film that combines a quaint pedagogical tale with a feminist dissection of traditional female roles in 1950s society. Julia Roberts leads an impressive cast of top young actresses including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles. Roberts is Katherine Watson, a revolutionary art history teacher at Wellesley College in 1953. Though she has true admiration for her intelligent all-female students, she is perturbed that their interest in finding husbands takes precedence over their studies. Determined to instruct them in feminist values and teach them to be independent--defying the college's emphasis on breeding good wives, mothers, and homemakers--Watson is deemed subversive by the administration. Even Watson's identity--from California, over 30 years old, and unmarried--is problematic. And when she turns her class onto modern art rather than teaching the recommended classical curriculum, Watson is severely chastised by the staunchly conservative students and faculty. Beautiful photography of the picture-perfect Wellesley campus combined with a perpetual parade of lovely period costumes makes MONA LISA SMILE a visual delight. Strong performances by each of the actresses, including Dunst uncharacteristically cast as a prim and proper prude, and Marcia Gay Harden as a boring tv-addicted spinster, only add to the splendour of this enjoyable film.
Plot Synopsis
Set in 1953, Katherine Watson joins the staff at Wellesley College, a prestigious 'women-only' school. Katherine becomes determined to make her pupils confront the social mores of the time and lead the lives they want to live rather than the ones society expects them to.
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Product Details
- Actors
- Director
- Mike Newell
- Year of release
- 2003
- Aspect Ratio
- 1.85:1
- 1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
- Audio Format
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French
- Stereo Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 English Hungarian
- Disc Features
- Featurette
- Interactive Menus
- Making Of
- Scene Selection
- Art Forum Featurette
- College Then And Now Featurette
- more »
- Subtitle Language
- Arabic,
- Bulgarian,
- Croatian,
- Dutch,
- English,
- Greek,
- Hindi,
- Hungarian,
- Icelandic,
- Romanian,
- Serbian,
- Slovene
- Film Format
- Anamorphic
- Media Format
- DVD-Video
- Film Rating (Australia)
- M
- Number of Discs
- 1
- Film Rating (UK)
- 12
- Run Time (minutes)
- 114
- Tags
- Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- English
- Cast & Crew
- Rachel Portman (Composer)
- Anastas Michos (Director of Photography)
- Jane Musky (Production Designer)
- Lawrence Konner (Screenwriter)
- Mark Rosenthal (Screenwriter)
Additional Information
- Contains moderate sex references
