Word: mona
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Even at the beginning of the 20th century - before mass reproductions, package tours to France and The Da Vinci Code - Mona Lisa was different from other pictures. The woman with the enigmatic smile got so many love letters that her portrait was the only artwork at the Louvre to have its own mailbox. A heartbroken suitor once shot himself to death in front...
...surprise that somebody finally eloped with her? On the morning of Aug. 21, 1911, Mona Lisa - arguably the world's most famous picture - was stolen from the Louvre. Who took her, how and why, is all part of the story told in two new books this spring. Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti (Knopf; 239 pages) sticks closely to the case and relates it luxuriously. In places it reads like a prose poem with narrative gallop. The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (Little, Brown...
What we know is this: In the early morning hours of a Monday morning, before the Louvre was opened for visitors, Mona Lisa was stolen by a thief who acted quickly when no guards were around. The theft didn't even come to light until the next day. (Guards who noticed that the painting was missing assumed it had been removed to be photographed.) Once museum officials realized the truth, the Louvre was shut down. Police arrived to question the staff, re-enact the crime and dust for fingerprints, a new crime-fighting technique in those days. The French border...
...local fishermen and their families as themselves, a technique she often uses in her work, which blends documentary and fiction. One of her most celebrated films, “Sans toit ni loi” (“Vagabond”), tells the story of a young wandering girl, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire), as she marches toward her inevitable death. In preparation for the film, Varda became a vagabond herself, wandering and meeting people who would not only inspire characters in the film, but would also play themselves, speaking lines written by Varda. This is an unusual method for filmmakers?...
...Year cover art would eventually become the cover image itself in 2005 to commemorate John Paul II's death. It was not a posed shot. John Paul was visiting seminarians when someone made a joke and, recalled Giansanti, "that expression that he has, almost like a Mona Lisa smile, came across his face just as the light was striking him perfectly. It is the most beautiful photo I ever shot of him." A couple of weeks after John Paul's death, Giansanti's work was on the cover of TIME again with the new pope, Benedict XVI. (See Giansanti...