Mona Lisa Smile Page #5

If you need me for anything else,

my number's on the refrigerator.

I feel so guilty

leaving you alone after-

I'm fine. I have lots of research

to do.

That's right.

Throw yourself into work.

I'll be back...

...on the 2nd.

See you next year.

Sunflowers. Vincent van Gogh. 1888.

He painted what he felt,

not what he saw.

People didn't understand. To them,

it seemed childlike and crude.

It took years for them to recognize

his actual technique...

...to see the way his brush strokes

seemed to make the night sky move.

Yet, he never sold a painting

in his lifetime.

This is his self-portrait.

There's no camouflage, no romance.

Honesty.

- Now, 60 years later, where is he?

- Famous?

So famous, in fact,

that everybody has a reproduction.

- There are post cards-

- We have the calendar.

With the ability to reproduce art,

it is available to the masses.

No one needs to own

a van Gogh original.

We do. In the Newport house.

But it's small. Tiny.

They can paint their own.

Van Gogh in a box, ladies.

The newest form

of mass-distributed art:

Paint by numbers.

" Now everyone can be van Gogh.

It's so easy.

Just follow the simple instructions...

...and in minutes, you're on

your way to being an artist. "

Van Gogh by numbers?

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.

So the choice is yours, ladies.

You can conform to what

other people expect or you can-

I know. Be ourselves.

You're a sight for sore eyes.

I would've been on time but, silly me,

I thought class was in the classroom.

Glad you could join us, Mrs. Jones.

We thought we'd lost you.

- There's an unwritten rule for marr-

- Don't bother.

Since your wedding, you've missed

six classes, a paper and your midterm.

Well, thank God I didn't miss

the paint-by-numbers lecture.

I was on my honeymoon

and then I had to set up house.

- What does she expect?

- Attendance.

Most of the faculty turn their heads...

...when the married students

miss a class or two.

Then why not get married

as freshmen?

That way you could graduate without

actually ever stepping foot on campus.

Don't disregard our traditions

just because you're subversive.

Don't disrespect this class

just because you're married.

Don't disrespect me

just because you're not.

Come to class, do the work,

or I'll fail you.

If you fail me,

there will be consequences.

- Are you threatening me?

- I'm educating you.

That's my job.

Miss Watson!

Miss Watson!

What's this?

Every year, the ARs nominate a

member of the faculty to be our guest.

The what?

You'll see. Come by tonight at 5:00.

Adam's Ribs. A very secret society.

Wait here.

First, the oath.

Please raise both hands.

Do you swear not to repeat what

you see, hear or smell tonight?

- Smell?

- Keep your hands up!

Yes, smell.

I do.

It'll only burn for a second.

Go on.

And now that you've taken the oath,

we get to ask you whatever we want.

- Oh, is that how it works?

- And you have to answer.

Who invited her?

You're in time

for truth or consequences.

I go first. Why aren't you married?

Well...

That's poisonous.

I'm not married because...

...I'm not.

I was engaged to Patrick Watts.

Everybody called him Leo,

and I never knew why.

He was the first person

that I ever danced with...

...or smoked with,

got incredibly drunk with and-

Well, a lot of first things.

We were 18 and getting married,

Christmas of '41.

Then Pearl Harbor happened

and everything changed.

Everybody changed.

And by June, he was sent overseas.

- Did he come back?

- Yes.

- Was he changed?

- They both were.

I'm sorry.

- Your parents?

- Yeah.

After the war...

...they didn't know each other

anymore, didn't like each other.

He left. He got a whole new family.

Divorce.

What?

Yeah. First on my block.

That's a city block.

People change. Things happen.

It's the same with me and Leo.

He went off and married

someone else.

- And I got to go to graduate school.

- UCLA, right?

- Which is in Hollywood?

- It's close.

Anyway, aren't you gonna tell

everybody about, you know...

- ... your big news?

- What are you talking about?

- She got engaged over Christmas!

- Congratulations!

I'm sorry to blab.

It's just so romantic.

How fantastic!

We split up.

- What?

- We split up.

Well, that was fast.

Well, not every relationship

is meant for marriage.

- Some are strictly affairs?

- Bill Dunbar.

He'd be an affair. Let's talk

about that, Miss Watson.

You don't believe in withholding,

do you?

No. I do, however, believe in manners.

But for you, I'll make an exception.

That's what we're supposed to do

for married students. Right, Betty?

Professor Dunbar and I

are not having an affair.

Did you have one

with William Holden?

- Connie!

- She asked about Bill Dunbar.

- How did you hear that?

- Oh, it is true!

Betty, I told you.

- Won't you regret never marrying?

- There's still time.

I guess I assume that I will

at some point.

- I'm not gonna plan my life around it.

- Neither should we.

- I didn't say that.

- You did to Joan.

- That's what she told me.

- What are you saying?

She knew you and Tommy

were getting engaged.

And she practically filled out

your application.

- I didn't say that.

- She's been accepted.

Now she just has to figure out

a way to tell Tommy.

Why don't you do it? You're good

at butting into people's business.

Funny, that's what they say

about you.

- Spencer, do I look all right?

- Yeah, fine.

- I don't have a lot of time. Speed it up.

- Mr. Grouchy.

- All right, here we go again.

- All right, go ahead, Louise.

Married Wellesley girls have become

quite adept at balancing obligations.

One hears such comments as.

"I baste the chick en with one hand

and outline the paper with the other. "

While our mothers were called

to work for Lady Liberty...

...it is our duty, nay, obligation

to reclaim our place in the home...

...bearing the children that will carry

our traditions into the future.

One must pause to consider why

Miss Katherine Watson...

...instructor in the Art History

department...

...has decided to declare war

on the holy sacrament of marriage.

Her subversive and political teachings

encourage our Wellesley girls...

...to reject the roles

they were born to fill.

Thank you.

Slide.

- Contemporary art.

- That's just an advertisement.

Quiet!

Today you just listen.

What will the future scholars see

when they study us?

A portrait of women today?

There you are, ladies.

The perfect likeness

of a Wellesley graduate.

Magna cum laude, doing exactly

what she was trained to do.

Slide.

A Rhodes scholar.

I wonder if she recites Chaucer while

she presses her husband's shirts.

Slide.

Now, you physics majors can calculate

the mass and volume...

...of every meat loaf you make.

Slide.

A girdle to set you free.

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