Neil Jordan's 1986 hit movie 'Mona Lisa' examines the seedy underworld of 
1980's London. The central protagonist, George (played by Bob Hoskins) guides 
the audience through a world of prostitution, crime bosses and violence as an 
ex-con who returns into a very different society. The world into which George 
and the audience is projected shows women - from a variety of classes and 
racial groups - with complexity and possessing varying levels of access to power.  

The extract begins with George and his friend, Thomas (Robbie Coltrane),
traveling to see George's ex-boss, Mortwell, who is revealed as the man for whom 
George served 7 years in prison. The old fashioned Jaguar car which George 
drives is an immediate indication of him being out of touch as he clearly 
looks out of place in the more modern London.  Although the Jaguar is an 
older, classic car I feel Jordan uses it as a hyperbole, to exaggerate the 
time George has spent in prison. 

It is made apparent during the conversation between Thomas and George that 
it is George's intention to return to the seedy underworld in which he used 
to earn a living, despite Thomas' warnings that times and Mortwell 
have changed.  Strangely George is carrying a white rabbit as some kind of 
signal to his ex-employer, through which I think Jordan is suggesting that perhaps his 
film could have meanings on more than one level.  I believe that the white 
rabbit references a meta-narrative relating to the Louis Carroll Novel 'Alice 
in Wonderland', in which the central protagonist, Alice, is led into an 
alternative world by a talking white rabbit.  Here I think the rabbit is 
intended to symbolize George's transition from his previous life in prison 
into the seedy, criminal underworld.  The fairytale meta-narratives are not 
exclusive to this section of the film and later, once the extract has ended 
further seemingly unrelated fairytale factors, like a large white horse and a 
group of dwarfs, further suggest that perhaps Jordan has included hidden 
meanings or ideology in the film.

As George enters the building in search of his ex-boss and a job, the audience 
is introduced to the first female in the extract and also the first from the 
criminal world (a fiery encounter between George and his ex-wife has already 
been shown). In a smoky atmosphere the woman is shown sitting at a bar. When 
George approaches she informs him that the bar is closed but, when George 
appears undeterred, she turns to a male worker for assurance assistance?.  This 
immediately suggests that in the seemingly male exploited environment of a brothel 
(which the place is revealed to be) the females are still not in charge of 
their own business. It is almost as if the brothel produces men exploiting 
women exploiting men; it is a very male dominated environment in which 
females are shown as objects owned by the men.

In search of Mortwell, George is shown into an office and another of his 
ex-business partners. As he enters the office a computer can be heard beeping 
and, as the door is opened, a man is shown in the center of the screen tapping 
at the computer keyboard. Again this is a device used by Jordan to show George’s 
isolation from developing technology.  The camera moves around as 
George enters the room and shows the screen from behind him. The lighting is 
used to again show this isolation as the computer is shown in the light 
through the single window whilst George remains in the shady corner, 
literally 'in the dark'.

After a brief confrontation between George and an employee of Mortwell, 
'Dudley,' George is given a job as a driver and with it he is given a bleeper. 
The camera cuts to a dockland location and the home of Thomas, where George is 
staying. Thomas explains the functions and instructions for the bleeper, once 
again emphasizing the relationship (or lack of) between George and technology.  This 
also establishes the relationship between George and the viewer as his 
bewilderment is amusing and identifiable likable?.  As the camera cuts to inside the 
warehouse, in which Thomas' caravan is situated, the camera remains low to the 
floor and gives a medium close-up shot of a table covered with ornamental 
spaghetti. The living space is very dark and almost burrow like. Both men are 
very at ease in this masculine environment and in the back ground a single 
window has caged bars. This could suggest that George feels more at home in 
the secluded world of prison, the place he is used to, without the presence 
of females. As the friends move past the caravan a poster is seen of 
Mona-Lisa, an ironic touch by Jordan as the ideal face of femininity is shown 
in a masculine mechanics workshop in the manner of a pin-up.

In the next scene George attempts to make contact with his daughter after the 
unsuccessful attempt previously in the film. The scene begins with a point of 
view shot as George is parked outside a school as the pupils 
are being let out. There is a large wire fence with wooden stakes and 
barbwire between George and his daughter, showing the metaphorical barriers 
between them and the distance in their relationship.  As the camera tracks the 
daughter it seems that her environment is dominated and controlled by 
males, like George's, as a football flies towards her head and she is forced 
to duck down. The camera briefly cuts to show George in the car to make the 
situation clear (i.e. that the audience is looking through George's eyes). 
George looks as if he is contemplating confronting her but the bleeper goes off and work 
separates George from his daughter.  Being an ex-con and working in the criminal world 
are things that keep George from being a wholesome father, despite the fact that he is a 
decent man

In the next scene George looks starkly out of place at the high class hotel he is called to 
and the doorman stares at his shoes, denoting his difference in social 
class.  Once George has entered the hotel, the audience is shown the first shot 
of Simone, the central female protagonist.  She appears high up on a balcony 
in a point of view shot from George in an alluring and sexy dress.  She is 
shot high up to emphasise her power, especially over George, her driver. The 
shot is very much like a scene from a fairytale presenting a Cinderella character 
standing in a magnificent, high-class building. Simone however does appear 
out of place amidst upper-class elites because?. There is then a reverse point of view 
shot and Simone looks down at her lower class driver.

George's innocence is shown again but rather than being with technology it is 
this time due to class difference as George unwittingly pockets his change instead of 
tipping the waiter. As Simone reaches the ground floor it is as if she has 
transformed back to a lower class prostitute and appears unglamorous in a 
long, dull coat.  She is immediately approached by a disapproving hotel 
manager and asked to leave in no uncertain terms. The levels of society are mimicked 
physically as Simone joins working-class George from the higher balcony level and 
struggles to remain calm as she is escorted out of the hotel.

Once back at the car, Simone resumes her role as higher class and insults the 
ruffled George. When asked "where did they get you from?" George once again 
implies his innocence, replying 'Under a cabbage leaf". This remark again 
relates the film to a fairytale.  Simone’s knowledge of higher class customs seems to give 
her some power over him. This theme continues as the pair embark on a car journey to 
Simone's next customer.  In the scene Simone gets the majority of screen time in a series 
of close up shots.  Jordan shoots the characters separately and they do not appear in the 
same shot for the entirety of the scene. This is done to emphasize their differences, both 
in class, race and gender. 

Simone is shown as a woman between two classes.  She obviously feels that she 
is George's social peer and yet is not welcomed into the upper classes due to 
her profession. She is differently depicted from the first woman of the 
extract, featured in the bar, as she is more in control and has authority over George. The 
audience learns that she doesn't work for a pimp and therefore the roles are reversed as 
she is exploiting men to make a living, rather than the other way around.

The camera cuts then to another high class hotel and again Jordan's portrayal of class 
differences is evident as George is unable to order a drink, ignored by a waiter. The scene 
has less to do than in the previous hotel and the pace is very quick, time is accelerated 
and Simone only stays what seems to be seconds. After a shot of the classic 
Jaguar in London, the camera cuts, again to a large stately house 
but this time George has to wait outside in the car.  Music? His comment?

After a brief close-up shot of Simone, in which she instructs George to drive 
to King's Cross, the camera cuts to a point of view shot from George's 
perspective, as he again acts as a surrogate for the audience, gazing at the 
cheap, sleazy looking prostitutes and, like the audience, wondering why they 
have changed locations so drastically. The atmosphere is threatening and 
gloomy as prostitutes and pimps lining the roads shout and jeer at the 
expensive looking vehicle. The girls are colourful and exotic looking, 
perhaps like animals in a zoo, again Jordan portrays the lower class women as 
objects and sex as a business transaction, from which men make profit. In 
contrast, Simone is shown to be confident and in control at the low class King's 
Cross Road and the exclusive hotels alike. This is also in stark contrast to 
George who fails to fit in properly anywhere other than Thomas’ hanger in which 
he lives.

The final syntagma of the extract once again inforces more obvious 
abnormalities in the relationship between George and Simone. As the car pulls 
up to Simone's building the camera shows the pair in the same frame but still 
separated. Simone is sat in the back seat and on the opposite side. She 
reinforces her power over George as she attempts to give him money with which 
to buy clothes. Simone is depicted very differently to the street prostitutes 
in the previous scene. However, when George refuses the money she reacts more 
clinically: "I can claim it you know". Simone is acting like the males of the 
brothel and pimps of Kings Cross as she treats sex as a commodity. She is not 
kidding herself and is perhaps successful because of it. Her power is 
absolute as, even though George rejects the offered money, she gets her own 
way and shoves it into his pocket.

In conclusion the extract only really looks at three types of women and the 
scene in which George meets his daughter is brief and does not reveal a lot 
about their relationship or her character. The scenes in which Jordan 
contrasts Simone to her high class client and those in which she is 
contrasted against the street prostitutes are more enlightening. It seems 
that Simone is a powerful woman who seems to get her way around men and even 
uses them. She certainly has power over George but as the rest of the film 
reveals she is plagued by men in the criminal underworld and ultimately pays 
the price for isolating herself from them.
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Perhaps you could say something here also about how George’s discovery symbolises the 
irony of women in Thatcher’s Britain of the 1980’s being more powerful, yet also less 
powerful – being commodified.  Simone is taking advantage of the power offered by 
Thatcher’s rule, though this is dangerous.  Finally the irony is that women have to be 
completely separated – as symbolised by Simone’s real sexuality being lesbian?