EXTRACTS FROM STUDENT ESSAYS - on Mona Lisa  (May, 2000):

1.  Nineteen eighty-six, the year in which “Mona Lisa” was produced, Margaret Thatcher was in her seventh year of office as British prime minister. With the privatisation of many state owned industries, her economic ideology resulted in cutting back on much of the country’s spending (the health service and arts subsidies were dramatically cut), as well as supporting nuclear deterrence. It is no surprise that she was also known as ‘The Iron Lady’. Full of underlying connotations of how Thatcherism was defining and influencing Britain’s culture, Jordan’s “Mona Lisa” is more than just the tale of an ex-con and a prostitute.

[by Chloe Lester]

2.  Set and produced in the 1980's 'Mona Lisa' was more than just a British gangster movie; it combines gangster story lines with a degree of social and political commentary. The film says something about the state of the nation and shows a strong movement away from verisimilitude towards stylisation, transporting real locations into expressionist milieu. The 1980's were the decade in which notions of female equality espoused in the 60's and 70's, began to become a reality, with women gaining positions of authority in politics, business and the home. Under Margaret Thatcher’s influence, the first British female Prime Minister, women believed that they could be both ego-driven and engage in power. The strong female lead in 'Mona Lisa' reflects that influence. Furthermore, because the central character turns out to be lesbian, this underscores her complete independence of men.

[By Shelley Bowyer]