When a painting, a book or a film can change our view of the world, it is there that the magic of art happens. Because it is through them that we can travel, discover and broaden our views, confuse boundaries to redesign them with a new awareness. We would like to take you there where small revolutions take place, through those works that have moved you and perhaps even changed your life a little. This time we take a dip in the past and go back to December 2003, when Mona Lisa Smile
was released in cinemas, the film directed by Mike Newell, starring a beaming Julia Roberts and a cast of young movie stars, including Kirsten Dunst and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Inspired by a true story, the film shows a glimpse of America in the 1950s, the era of the Cold War and McCarthyism, of the hypocritical respectability which by contrast encouraged the birth of the first feminist movements. History
In the fall of 1953, a new art history teacher, Katherine Watson, arrives at the prestigious Wellesley girls’ college. Idealist and armed with the best of intentions, Katherine is forced to deal with a conformist, bigoted and repressive reality, where young students are trained to become perfect wives and hosts. After her initial resistance, Katherine manages to win the trust of her students, encouraging them not to sacrifice their aspirations and not to abandon their studies in order to have a husband. But Professor Watson’s “unorthodox” teaching methods are not well regarded by the college management and Katherine, opposed to giving up her belief, decides to drop out of school.
Memorable is the final scene that we propose here:The courage to break the mold
Beloved by the spectators, “Mona Lisa Smile” is considered a hymn to female self-affirmation, a tribute to women of all times who with intelligence and courage have broken gender stereotypes. Because the liberation from taboos and prejudices passes through the women who preceded us. Women who have made history, but often also unknown faces, figures forgotten and left in the shadows who, often silently, have given us the fruit of their battles. Going out of the box presupposes an aspiration to recognize oneself outside approved models and to do so you need courage and a sense of research.
Not all those who wander are aimless especially not those who seek the truth, beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond appearance The professors who have changed us
School is often the first view of the world, the place where we emancipate ourselves from the family and where it happens to meet that professor who will change our life. Often compared to L’Attimo Fuggente , Mike Newell’s film proposes to the female the figure of the Teacher, the professor who “rises to the desk” to teach us to look at the world from different angles, to break conventions when they are oppressive, to seek who we are without fear of being different.
Katherine Watson lives by her beliefs and doesn’t compromise even for college. I dedicate this latest article to an extraordinary woman who was an example to us and convinced all of us to see the world through new eyes.
