Favorite Scenes in Film; 5.

Its not too surprising, perhaps, that even current movies that I count among my favorites most often take place during my favorite time period, the 1940s and
50s.

Mona Lisa Smile (2004) is about four young women attending Wellesley College circa 1954 and they are on the high road that leads to success...as proper wives and mothers, that is. Julia Roberts portrays the bohemian art history teacher who is fresh out of LIBERAL California. This independent woman decends upon this conservative Massachusetts college town preaching an open minded, all encompassing approach to education and the alumni here fights against her 'subversive' ways tooth and nail.

However, though they prevailed at first, the attitudes of the stuffy high society brass and the hold which they once held on their offspring, give way to acceptance of new ideas and a realization that as young women just coming into their own, they do not need to depend on a husband for support or a sense of worth.

Here, in one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite films, Katharine strikes back with avengeance after a previous defeat against the young women in her class and their 'holier than thou' attitudes toward her, what they percieve as, inferior, education:

(skip to 1:55 for the alotted scene but, watch the beginning for the gratuitious Lucy reference!)




Sunny Side Up!,
Krista