Mona Lisa's smile

Movie
German title	Mona Lisa's smile
Original title	Mona Lisa Smile
Country of production	United States
original language	English ; Italian
Publishing year	2003
length	117 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0 JMK 0
Rod
Director	Mike Newell
script	Lawrence Konner , Mark Rosenthal
production	Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas , Paul Schiff , Deborah Schindler
music	Rachel Portman
camera	Anastas N. Michos
cut	Mick Audsley
occupation
Julia Roberts : Katherine Ann Watson Kirsten Dunst : Betty Warren Julia Stiles : Joan Brandwyn Maggie Gyllenhaal : Giselle Levy Ginnifer Goodwin : Connie Baker Ebon Moss-Bachrach : Charlie Stewart Dominic West : Bill Dunbar Juliet Stevenson : Amanda Armstrong Marcia Gay Harden : Nancy Abbey John Slattery : Paul Moore Topher Grace : Tommy Donegal

Mona Lisa's smile (Original title: Mona Lisa Smile ) is an American film by director Mike Newell from 2003. Julia Roberts plays the role of Katherine Watson , who tried to give her students independence in the 1950s as a lecturer at Wellesley College to teach. It is similar to Peter Weir's The Dead Poets Club from 1989.

action

In the fall of 1953 , the motivated Katherine Watson began teaching art history at the renowned Wellesley College , which only accepts women . The young woman very quickly feels disturbed by the conservative mentality of the teaching staff, but also of some female students, who consider a wedding to be more important than a good education.

At the risk of annoying her colleagues, Katherine begins to get involved with her students and teach them to think for themselves and to find their lives off the beaten track.

Betty, an already married college student, becomes one of her strongest adversaries as Katherine convinced her best friend Joan to enroll for law school at Yale University instead of waiting for her boyfriend to propose to her.

For the intelligent and quick-witted Giselle and the shy Connie, Katherine becomes a great role model, and they find in her the security to go their own way.

But Katherine is also changing, as is her approach to life, as she learns from her students.

criticism

film-dienst 2/2004: Dramatic film against the backdrop of the McCarthy era , whose critical role reflection remains stuck in clichés; in the end, he only presents a simple portrait of society full of sentimentality.

Nominations

Elton John (music) and Bernie Taupin (text) were nominated for the song "The Heart of Every Girl" for the BFCA Award and the Golden Globe in the category "best song". There was also a " Golden Satellite Awards " nomination for the same song for Elton John . Kirsten Dunst was nominated for the “ Teen Choice Award ” in the “Sleazebag” category.

Others

• The singer Tori Amos has a brief guest appearance as a singer in one scene.
• Some of the exterior views were taken on the Wellesley College campus .
• The scenes in the lecture hall were shot in a 50-year-old lecture hall at Columbia University that has also been used for other films.
• The synchronized swimmers in the pool scene are the members of the Wheaton College team for the 2002/2003 season.
• In January 2004, the film was shown on posters with the phrase "In a world that told them how to live, she taught them how to think". Applied. This caused amusement and discussions about German grammar in the feature pages ; Finally, the film addresses issues of teaching and education. When the film was later released on DVD , the sentence on the case was read in a modified form: "In a world that told them how to live, it taught them how to think".

Web links

• Mona Lisa Smile in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official Homepage (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Release certificate for Mona Lisa's smile . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2004 (PDF; test number: 96 667 K).
2. ↑ Age rating for Mona Lisa's smile . Youth Media Commission .
3. ↑ Mona Lisa's smile. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .