Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Maggie Gyllenhaal: Giselle Levy
Photos
Quotes
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[Giselle has been secretly seeing a married psychologist]
Betty Warren : Does he pay you for sex? I mean, at the rate you're going, you could make a fortune.
Joan Brandwyn : Betty!
Betty Warren : Everyone thinks so. Do you know what they say? They say you're a whore. And pretty soon, once they've all sampled you, they'll toss you aside like a used rag.
Joan Brandwyn : Betty, stop! Now!
Betty Warren : The men you love don't even want you! Your father doesn't want you!
Giselle Levy : [to Connie] I'm gonna meet you downstairs.
Betty Warren : Professor Dunbar?
Connie Baker : Betty, that's enough!
Betty Warren : Everyone knows that you hide outside his house! It must be torturous running after a man who doesn't even care about you. Who's in love with someone else. Who hates you!
Giselle Levy : Betty...
Betty Warren : He *hates* you!
[Giselle pulls Betty into a hug]
Betty Warren : Get off of me!
[Betty struggles, but gives in a sobs on Giselle's shoulder]
Betty Warren : [about her husband] He doesn't want me!
Giselle Levy : [sympathetically] I know...
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[referring to a childlike drawing of a cow]
Katherine Watson : 25 years ago, someone thought this was brilliant.
Connie Baker : I can see that.
Betty Warren : Who?
Katherine Watson : My mother. I painted it for her birthday. Next slide. This is my mom. Is it art?
Susan Delacorte : It's a snapshot.
Katherine Watson : If I told you Ansel Adams had taken it, would that make a difference?
Betty Warren : Art isn't art until someone says it is.
Katherine Watson : It's art!
Betty Warren : The right people.
Katherine Watson : And who are they?
Giselle Levy : Betty Warren! We're so lucky we have one of them right here.
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[about Vincent van Gogh]
Katherine Watson : 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, sixty years later, where is he?
Giselle Levy : Famous.
Katherine Watson : So famous, in fact, that everybody has a reproduction. There are post cards...
Connie Baker : We have the calendar.
Katherine Watson : you go. 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.
Connie Baker : [reading from the box] "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."
Giselle Levy : Van Gogh by numbers?
Katherine Watson : 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.
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[about a contemporary abstract painting]
Giselle Levy : That's Jackson Pollock.
Susan Delacorte : In a word.
Connie Baker : I was just getting used to the idea of dead, maggoty meat being art. Now this?
Susan Delacorte : Please don't tell me we have to write a paper about it.
Katherine Watson : Do me a favor. Do yourselves a favor. Stop talking, and look. You're not required to write a paper. You're not even required to like it. You *are* required to consider it.
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Connie Baker : And, it was perfect, romantic, we stayed up all night, talking.
Joan Brandwyn : [to Giselle] You're late, what happened to Sunday brunch?
Giselle Levy : We stayed up all night, too. Not talking.
Connie Baker : The psychoanalyst again.
Giselle Levy : Divine exhaustion.
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Susan Delacorte : [Katherine shows the class a painting of a rotting animal] What is that?
Katherine Watson : You tell me. "Carcass", by Soutine, 1925.
Susan Delacorte : It's not on the syllabus.
Katherine Watson : No it's not. Is it any good? Hm? C'mon, ladies, there's no wrong answer. There's also no textbook telling you what to think. It's not that easy, is it?
Betty Warren : Alright, no. It's not good. In fact, I wouldn't even call it art. It's grotesque.
Connie Baker : Is there a rule against art being grotesque?
Giselle Levy : I think there's something aggressive about it. And erotic.
Betty Warren : To you, everything is erotic.
Giselle Levy : Everything *is* erotic.
Susan Delacorte : Aren't there standards?
Betty Warren : Of course there are! Otherwise, a tacky velvet painting could be equated to a Rembrandt!
Connie Baker : Hey, my Uncle Ferdie has two tacky velvet paintings. He loves those clowns.
Betty Warren : There *are* standards! Technique, composition, color, even subject. So, if you're suggesting that rotted side of meat is art, much less *good* art, then what are we going to learn?
Katherine Watson : Just that. You have outlined our new syllabus, Betty, thank you. What is art? What makes it good or bad, and who decides?
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Giselle Levy : Do I look a little bit like her? I think she's fabulous.
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Katherine Watson : Katherine Watson, nice to meet you.
Giselle Levy : Dr. Watson, I presume?
[the class laughs]
Katherine Watson : Not yet.
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[about Charlie Stewart]
Connie Baker : We spent last weekend at the Cape! A little hideaway he knew about.
Betty Warren : Operative word, 'hide'. Men take women to the Cape in the winter when they're embarrassed to be seen with them. He's using you.
Giselle Levy : He's not using you if you want to go. Come here, don't listen to her.
Betty Warren : I love you, and I swear I'm not saying this to hurt you. Charlie's promised to Deb McIntyre. She wears his pin. Giselle, you know it's true.
Giselle Levy : I don't know anything about a pin.
Connie Baker : Are her parents named Phillip and Vanessa?
Betty Warren : You know them?
Connie Baker : Only from a distance.
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Giselle Levy : [in reference to the husband in etiquette class] Whatever you do, don't put the boss's wife next to your husband.
Betty Warren : Why not?
Giselle Levy : She's screwing him.
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Katherine Watson : From the beginning, man has always had the impulse to create are. Can anyone tell me what this?
Joan Brandwyn : "Wounded Bison", Altameera, Spain, about 1500 BC.
Katherine Watson : Very good, Joan. Despite the age of these paintings, they are technically very sophisticated...
Joan Brandwyn : Because of the shading, and the thickness of the lines as it moves over the hump of the bison. Is that right?
Katherine Watson : Yes, that's exactly right. Next slide. This one, you are probably less familiar with. It was discovered by archaeologists in...
Betty Warren : [dryly] 1879, Lascaux, France, dates back to 10 000 BC, singled out because of the flowing lines depicting the movement of the animal.
[the class laughs]
Katherine Watson : Impressive. Name?
Betty Warren : "Herd of Horses."
Katherine Watson : I meant yours.
Giselle Levy : We call her Flicka.
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[Last lines]
Giselle Levy : [when all girls stop but Betty continues to ride by Katherine's cab] Betty! Betty! Betty!
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Connie Baker : [holding up a diaphragm] This isn't what I think it is, is it?
Joan Brandwyn : Where'd you get it?
Giselle Levy : From the school nurse.
Betty Warren : It's against the law!
Giselle Levy : No, honey, it's a girl's best friend.
Betty Warren : A certain kind of girl.
Giselle Levy : Meet the last virgin bride.
Betty Warren : Spencer is a gentleman.
Giselle Levy : And even gentlemen have dicks.
Connie Baker : Maybe I'll get one!
Giselle Levy : What, a dick?
Betty Warren : Don't be stupid, Connie!
Connie Baker : [hurt] Someone, somewhere, someday might be interested. Just in case, I'll be prepared.
[Connie leaves, fighting back tears]
Joan Brandwyn : Was that necessary?
Betty Warren : I was taught it's best to speak honestly.
Giselle Levy : You're a bitch.
