you’ve come a long way, baby Fresh out of graduate school in California, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) lands her dream job: Art History professor at Wellesley College, an exclusive all-girl private school in Massachusetts.
THOSE FIFTIES WOMEN… My daughter, who had seen this film and loved it, suggested that we watch it together. I agreed and was very glad I did so, as I really enjoyed this bittersweet film. It is a well-acted, well-directed effort about a free-thinking art history professor, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), who in the nineteen fifties, lacking Ivy League credentials, manages, through a twist of fate, to get a berth as a professor at traditional and conservative Wellesley College. It is here that she hopes to find herself instructing the leaders of tomorrow.
Painful Reminder of What My Mother Was Forced Into This is a great “chick flick” movie, one I’ve watched many times already.When I first watched it, the film brought back painful memories. I can see how my mother, who came from a family of career women (although typical “female” professions such as School Teacher and Nurse), was frustrated at being shoved into the box of housewife and mother. She was never happy in that role, and after seeing this movie, I can see what tremendous pressure women were under back in the 1950′s to conform. When she got married, my mother gave up a job she enjoyed because my father and society expected her to do so.My mother did not get a college education because my grandfather did not think it was worth educating girls; her brother got the college education. Seeing these bright college girls in the movie was sad, because you knew almost all of them would never use what they learned.I went to college in the 1970′s and was still getting ribbed by older men as getting my “MRS” Degree, snicker, snicker. I never found that joke funny and I still don’t. This movie gives the origin of that attitude that still is prevalent today. A college educated woman is still not worth what a college educated man is; otherwise, women’s salaries would be on equal par with men’s in all professions.The superb costumes and hairstyles reflect the period and were historically accurate, except Julia Roberts’ hair seemed a bit too contemporary at times. Yes, she was portrayed as a Bohemian Feminist from California, but her hair and makeup lacked that fifties Bohemian look. (Note Audrey Hepburn’s Hair and Makeup in 1957′s “Funny Face.”) The soundtrack was also excellent, reflecting the time period and popular music of the 1950′s.I would LOVE to see a sequel, featuring all the same characters 10-11 years later, around 1963-64. That was such a turbulent year, and I’d love to see how these characters were affected by the political changes and climate of that time.
you’ve come a long way, baby Fresh out of graduate school in California, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) lands her dream job: Art History professor at Wellesley College, an exclusive all-girl private school in Massachusetts.
THOSE FIFTIES WOMEN… My daughter, who had seen this film and loved it, suggested that we watch it together. I agreed and was very glad I did so, as I really enjoyed this bittersweet film. It is a well-acted, well-directed effort about a free-thinking art history professor, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), who in the nineteen fifties, lacking Ivy League credentials, manages, through a twist of fate, to get a berth as a professor at traditional and conservative Wellesley College. It is here that she hopes to find herself instructing the leaders of tomorrow.
Painful Reminder of What My Mother Was Forced Into This is a great “chick flick” movie, one I’ve watched many times already.When I first watched it, the film brought back painful memories. I can see how my mother, who came from a family of career women (although typical “female” professions such as School Teacher and Nurse), was frustrated at being shoved into the box of housewife and mother. She was never happy in that role, and after seeing this movie, I can see what tremendous pressure women were under back in the 1950′s to conform. When she got married, my mother gave up a job she enjoyed because my father and society expected her to do so.My mother did not get a college education because my grandfather did not think it was worth educating girls; her brother got the college education. Seeing these bright college girls in the movie was sad, because you knew almost all of them would never use what they learned.I went to college in the 1970′s and was still getting ribbed by older men as getting my “MRS” Degree, snicker, snicker. I never found that joke funny and I still don’t. This movie gives the origin of that attitude that still is prevalent today. A college educated woman is still not worth what a college educated man is; otherwise, women’s salaries would be on equal par with men’s in all professions.The superb costumes and hairstyles reflect the period and were historically accurate, except Julia Roberts’ hair seemed a bit too contemporary at times. Yes, she was portrayed as a Bohemian Feminist from California, but her hair and makeup lacked that fifties Bohemian look. (Note Audrey Hepburn’s Hair and Makeup in 1957′s “Funny Face.”) The soundtrack was also excellent, reflecting the time period and popular music of the 1950′s.I would LOVE to see a sequel, featuring all the same characters 10-11 years later, around 1963-64. That was such a turbulent year, and I’d love to see how these characters were affected by the political changes and climate of that time.