mona lisa smile

For centuries, art lovers and academics have debated over the smile on the face of the Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpieces, which is now housed in the Louvre in Paris.

Nowadays, at any rate, the smiles of Indonesian people leave foreigners, be they first-time tourists or expatriates, guessing.

The problems start for foreign tourists as soon as they arrive at the airport, just because they misinterpret the smiles of tip-hungry airport officers or mischievous taxi drivers. The tourists easily fall prey to hoteliers or souvenir hawkers who look friendly but turn out to be little more than extortionists.

More difficulties await foreigners if they want to do business here. The bureaucratic labyrinth they have to go through is full of people with broad, smiling faces, but the hospitality can quickly turn to hostility if the prospective investors refuse to provide "grease" money.

Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik is right in asking ordinary people to flash their smiles in support of the government's effort to boost tourism with Visit Indonesia Year 2008, which will be inaugurated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Jan. 1.

The minister has also called on local administrations to facilitate investors by simplifying licensing procedures for the establishment of tourist facilities, such as hotels and resorts.

The challenges facing Visit Indonesia Year 2008 may be much more onerous than Minister Jero has imagined. As an official dealing with culture, we assume that he knows it's quite easy to smile without necessarily being friendly, let alone helpful.

Long proclaiming itself to be a friendly nation, Indonesia raised many eyebrows across the world when thousands of people went on a rampage and looted shops during the May 1998 riots, or killed each other in the ethnic conflict between the indigenous Dayak and migrant Madurans, and in the sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians in Ambon and Poso.

The recent attacks on followers of Islamic sects provides further evidence that Indonesian people are prone to violence and the use of force to eliminate differences.

Scholar Azyumardi Azra has warned that the country's self-image of kindness, tolerance and hospitality must be questioned as local cultures have always been very partial to violence. Although there has been increasing unrest since the demise of authoritarian rule in 1998, there have been numerous ethnic conflicts since the 1950s.

Just ask expatriates and the foreign business community about the unfriendly environment they have to deal with when doing business here. An international political and economic risk consultancy has always ranked Indonesia at the bottom due to the rampant red tape in government offices, both in Jakarta and the regions. It also takes foreigners longer here to process business licenses and other documents than in other countries.

In many cases, nationalism has been hijacked to justify hostility to foreign investors, ironically at a time when Indonesia badly needs them to help the country overcome unemployment and eventually poverty.

The government may claim that foreign investment is still flowing in, but much of this is short term in nature, which means the investors can withdraw their money at any time.

This hostile reality will be the biggest hurdle facing Indonesia if it wants more foreigners to visit and spend their money here.

Smiles alone will not be enough to boost the tourism industry and other revenue-generating sectors. Foreign tourists and investors need Indonesian people who are eager and willing to help them, as quickly as possible, if necessary. They will stay longer if they feel secure, surrounded by people who are ready to lend a hand at any time it is needed. Smiles in the absence of proper service are worthless.

Foreign investors will commit to long-term involvement if both the Indonesian people and regulations are inviting and generous in terms of incentives.

Neighboring countries offer many facilities to foreigners, particularly those who want to invest, while Indonesia deliberately restricts, if not actually deters, them. This contradicts the claims that Indonesia is tolerant and open to the world.

It will require more than a tourism
Mona Lisa Smile
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Mona Lisa Smile

Directed by Mike Newell
Produced by Joe Roth
Starring Julia Roberts
Kirsten Dunst
Julia Stiles
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Ginnifer Goodwin
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) December 19, 2003
Running time 117 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $65,000,000
IMDb profile
Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 American film that was produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles. The title is a reference to the Mona Lisa, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and the song of the same name, originally performed by Nat King Cole, which was covered by Seal for the movie. The film is a loose adaptation of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a novel by Muriel Spark, and the title also references that text.

Contents
1 Box office performance
2 Synopsis
3 Reaction from Wellesley alumnae
4 Campus Controversy
5 Trivia
6 Cast
7 External links

[edit] Box office performance
Costs (approximate):
Production: $65,000,000
Marketing: $25,000,000
Income:
United States: $63,860,942
Worldwide (excluding US): $76,972,150

[edit] Synopsis
Mona Lisa Smile tells the story of a feminist teacher who studied at UCLA graduate school and left as a first-year teacher from "Oakland State" University (thought to be a fictionalized University of California, Berkeley), leaves her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles, California in 1953, to teach at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, United States.

Watson tries to open her students' minds to their freedom to do whatever they want with their lives. She encourages her students to believe in themselves, to study to become career professionals, and to improve their economic futures. She uses her art teachings as a vehicle to put across her opinion to the young women; that her students needn't conform to stereotypes of women made by society, or the roles made for them by society, as women born to become housewives and mothers. She felt that women could do more things in life than solely adopt the roles of wives and mothers. In one scene of the movie, she shows her students four newspaper ads, and asks them to question what the future will think of the idea that women are born into the roles of wives and mothers.

Watson's ideas and ways of teaching are contrary to methods deemed acceptable by the school's directors; conservative women who believe firmly that Watson should not use her class to express her points of views or befriend students, and should stick only to teaching art. Watson is warned that she could be fired if she continues to interact with students as she has been doing.

Undaunted, Watson becomes stronger in her speeches about feminism and the future of women. She is a firm believer that the outlook of women in society needed to be changed if women were to achieve better futures, and that she needed to instill a spirit of change among her students.

Watson chooses to leave after the one year but, as she is leaving the campus for the last time, her students run after her car, to show their affection and to thank her for her lessons. Many people have noticed the film's similarity to Dead Poets Society even going so far as to refer to it as "the feminist Dead Poets Society" or "Dead Poets Society with girls" [1]. It was released on VHS and DVD on July of 2004.

[edit] Reaction from Wellesley alumnae
In a message to Wellesley alumnae concerning the film, Wellesley College president Diana Chapman Walsh expressed some degree of regret concerning the distressed reactions of some Wellesley alumnae to the film. Many alumnae who attended Wellesley during the 1950s felt that the film's portrayal of Wellesley as a stodgy, conservative college was inaccurate.

[edit] Campus Controversy
This article or section appears to contradict itself. Please help fix this problem.

During the filming of "Mona Lisa Smile", the Wellesley College campus broke into controversy surrounding the casting of student extras. The use of the phrase "not too tan" in a casting call for current Wellesley students sparked a fear that casting directors were using race to discriminate against potential extras. Producers claimed that they were merely stressing the importance of finding women that had the "look of 1953", but later their response to the growing concern was that the film could not reflect the current Wellesley demographic, and had to be "accurate" to the period.

Students presented their concerns to president, Diana Chapman Walsh to no avail, and began a campus-wide guerrilla campaign entitled "Too Tan for Mona Lisa Smiles", with a photo roster of African-American students denied the chance to participate in the film as student extras.

Student MAC, Jenna O. Bond-Louden, discovered that the film overrepresented the Asian student population, which was believed to be approximately 3 in 1953 (as the "Asian" ethnic group is not listed in the college's records), and significantly underrepresented African-Americans: only one of the about 200 extras were African-American in the entire film (although there were 12 African-American students enrolled, in a total student population of 1685).

The controversy spilled over into the local media, and producers considered a compromise would be hiring willing minority students to act as production assistants. The college released a press statement highlighting the realities of Wellesley in 1953, and defending their decision to allow the film to shoot on campus. When the film's lead cast was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, a select group of African-American students were allowed to attend the show's taping, including the "Too Tan for Mona Lisa Smiles" leader. The film's casting was never altered to accurately reflect the racial diversity of 1953; producers now claim they were not interested in making a "documentary," and accuracy was not necessary.

Students also protested the lack of concern by the studio for their ability to attend classes as normal with the blocking of pathways, streets, and buildings during the 8 days of shooting the film. Producers initially tried to adhere to the class schedule by not shooting in open areas immediately before and after classes, but that lasted only a short while. Student extras frustrated professors by missing class and important exams, and the entire campus began to speak out against the film's presence. The film was so intrusive to the quiet campus, that the board of trustees deemed that Wellesley College will never again open its doors to a film studio[citation needed].

[edit] Trivia
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The classroom in which Julia Roberts teaches is in fact a Chemistry classroom in Columbia University's Havemeyer Hall, Havemeyer 309.
One of the soundtracks, Istanbul (Not Constantinople), was a favorite song of 1950's about the name change of Turkish city, Istanbul.
The office of Professor Bill Dunbar (played by actor Dominic West) is actually the Wellesley College quad; a grouping of four