Overview

A film miniature set to music by Robert Schumann. Various faces of women taken from paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, and Ingres show women as muses, ladies, heroines, and lovers. The clash of perspectives on women by artists from different eras and the depiction of women in many incarnations constitute a cinematic attempt to define the essence of femininity—an eternal theme explored by painters of all ages. The film culminates in Mona Lisa's mysterious smile, which is the director's commentary on the constant attempts to capture the ephemeral, the indefinable, and the elusive.