"What is art?
What makes it good or bad? And
who decides?" (Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003)
Professor Katherine Watson asks of her students in "Mona Lisa Smile."
What Professor Watson is doing is having her students define a movement in
popular culture of the time. The movie
"Mona Lisa Smile" uses art to depict high culture in this time, as
the girls of the fictional college, Wellseley, are members of an elitist
society made up of all white families, which separates them from their
professor, as she is considered of low-culture because of her marital status as
much as her upbringing and breeding.
With the use of such things as advertisements and paint by numbers art
sets, Professor Watson explains to the audience not only how popular culture
shifts and moves but how it compares to high culture, which is a similar motif
in many other films, such as "Titanic." Ultimately, this film is a good example of
how high culture and popular culture differ as well as come together.
First, the story of "Mona Lisa Smile" moves in
a linear pattern, flowing in a sequential order; however, it does start at the
end, with a reformed student, Betty Warren, writing an editorial about her now
favorite professor, Ms. Watson. As Betty
narrates, the movie opens with Professor Watson as she rides a train towards
Wellseley, on her way to her first job as an arts history teacher. It does not use flashbacks, only offers
backstory through the gossiping and later questioning of their professor. The
audience learns that Professor Watson is in fact, an unmarried woman with low
breeding, but Betty states, "It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a
first year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in
pedigree" (Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003). Professor Watson, having gone to school, and
presumably grown up in a liberal state, moves to one of the most conservative
states in the United States, and has to adjust to their standards and way of
life. She is called
"subversive," which, in that place, is considered a profound insult.
Professor Watson is depicted as a woman way ahead of her
time. She says in the movie, in response
to an editorial written by Betty, "I didn't realize that by demanding
excellence I would be challenging . . . the roles you were born to fill"
(Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003). Enraged, she confides in another professor
and further states, "A finishing school disguised as a college . . . I
thought that I was heading to a place that would turn out tomorrow's leaders,
not their wives" (Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003). Professor Watson has a difficult time
adjusting to this conservative way of life.
In the end though, she does have a profound effect on the girls in her
class, except maybe not the way she'd intended. They do not go off to become
the leaders of tomorrow, but instead think about the world around them in a
different way.
Secondly, the theme of popular culture in this movie is
shown through the art that appears all throughout. The first piece of art shown is actually an
advertisement for Camel Cigarettes. The
ad reads, "When your courses are set, and a real dream boat you've met . .
. have a real cigarette!" (Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas &
Newell, 2003). The ad reads as though
enjoying a cigarette is synonymous with good grades and love, every woman's
"desire." This is a reflection
of the culture that would read the paper or magazine this advertisement is
featured in. It is not just high culture
advertising though, it would be considered popular culture, and according to
John Storey in Cultural Theory and Popular Cutlure: An Introduction
(2009), advertising is considered the main reason of cultural decline by Leavis
(p. 24). Advertising itself is the
reason for the lessening of culture and the standard way of living according to
Leavis (Storey, 2009, p. 24). In reading
and agreeing with the advertisements of the day, ladies of Wellesley are
debasing themselves to a lower culture then they were born into.
Then, Professor
Watson explains to her students about Vincent Van Gogh, "With the ability
to reproduce art, it is available to the masses. No one needs to own a Van Gogh original . . .
they can paint their own: Van Gogh in a box ladies, the newest form of mass
distributed art, paint by numbers" (Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas
& Newell, 2003). In the 1950s, paint
by numbers were all the rage, bringing high culture art to low culture
individuals. Van Gogh, a painter who is
considered to be fine art, is now produced for the masses, transforming it to
popular culture. Van Gogh is no longer
high culture for the elite to enjoy, but part of popular culture for everyone
to enjoy. "Ironic, isn't it? Look
at what we have done to the man who refused to conform his ideals to popular
taste, who refused to compromise his integrity.
We have put him in a tiny box and asked you to copy him" (Schiff,
Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003), Professor Watson explains to
her students, which is a good example of how high culture becomes part of
popular culture.
Storey (2009) explains another point with regards to high
culture, that Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel believe that not all high culture
is good, nor is all popular culture bad, that there are shades of gray based on
popular discrimination (p. 52). In the case
of "Mona Lisa Smile," Professor Watson is asking her students to look
at the world around them from outside of themselves, to see what others
see. She says in the movie,
"Contemporary art . . . what will future scholars see when they study us? A portrait of women today. There you are ladies" (Schiff,
Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003). Professor Watson is showing them a slide of
an advertisement which is exactly what a Wellseley graduate is expected to do,
what she is trained to be: cook, clean, and care for her husband and children. That is all she is expected to do, regardless
of pedigree, education, or even what she wants.
The advertisements of the day are not good or bad, simply are a
reflection of what is.
Finally, the story told in "Mona Lisa Smile" is
comparative with other movies of similar interests, such as
"Titanic," in which an upper class woman is challenged by a man of
lower-class to be herself regardless of her station in life. She appears to be all that she should be, and
yet early on in the film, the audience is shown that she has appreciation for
the art of Monet, which in her time is a contemporary artist, but who is now
considered fine art even though it is mass produced for everyone to see and
enjoy, which shows another example of where high culture becomes popular
culture.
In conclusion, "Mona Lisa Smile" tells a
gripping story about a woman who is attempting to break the social norm by
giving the women of Wellseley College something more to aspire to. Professor Watson shows the students in her
classroom just how effective art can be in regards to culture, whether it is
high or low, good or bad, does not matter, but that each woman sees for herself
the truth and questions that truth. The
art depicted in the film is a reflection of the setting in which the story is
told from, which is conservative, privileged, and elitist, where the women at
Wellseley are taught, "Your sole responsibility will be taking care of
your husband, and children . . . but the grade that matters the most is the one
he gives you" (Schiff, Schindler, Goldsmith-Thomas & Newell, 2003),
meaning her husband.
References
Schiff, P. (Producer), Schindler, D. (Producer), and Goldsmith-Thomas,
E. (Producer) & Newell, M. (Director). (2003). Mona Lisa Smile [Netflix]. United States: Revolution Studios.
Storey, J. (2009). Cultural
Theory and Popular Culture An Introduction. Dorchester, Dorset: Pearson
Education Limited.
