"The Help" & "Mona Lisa Smile"

These days it's quite cold in Moscow so I wear bright lipsticks and nail laquers to save myself from melancholia. The other way I elate myself is by watching a lot of movies. Almost every evening I wear my pink pyjamas, wrap myself in a wool blanket and sink in another world.
Besides "Gone with the Wind" that I already wrote about, I saw "the Help" and "Mona Lisa Smile".
Spoilers under the cut!

I don't think that I have much to say about "the Help". It's a last year Oscar nominee, wonderful and colorful film about problems of women and black people. As you may know, I'm a future journalist and themes that seem to be most interesting for me are problems of minorities (such as LGBT, people with other benefits, etc) and social stereotypes. This movie touched both of my favorite problems so of course I enjoyed it very much. Heroine of the film, Skeeter Phelah, has to fight for her right to become a writer when everybody believes that the only convenient role for you if you have a vagina is a housewife.
Skeeter oversee the way black maidens are treated in her friends' houses and decides to write book about their discrimination: most of people in her town believe that black people has no right to use the same bathroom because they have "different diseases"!
"The Help" is a very funny and a very serious movie, tragic and comic in the same time, maybe too much funny for my taste (but, to be honest, I'm more of a drama lover!). However, sujet in general is great. Decorations and costumes are stunning as well: action takes places in 1960s and there's a lot of beautiful dresses and hairstyles. I think I might make a separate posts dedicated  to costumes in both films.

"Mona Lisa Smile" is a modern film as well, it was released in 2003. Action takes in place in 1953- 1954 in conservative all-women college. Heroine, Katherine Ann Watson, played by Julia Roberts, is an art historian especially interested in modern art. She decides to start teaching in college but faces stagnant views not only of administration but of her students as well. The main issues in this movie are related to narrow-mindedness in all spheres of our life: in art, in social life, in work and in private life. 
Storyline that affected me the most is about one of the students, Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst). She's headmaster's daughter, close-minded and quirky. She judges the way Katherine lives (e.g. isn't very passionate about getting married) and fights with her about modern art. Of course, Betty has a replete fiance, Tommy. After wedding Betty finds out that the idea of being a housewife doesn't marvel her in a little bit. Tommy is always absent and repeating that he has to work (while in reality he has an affair). Finally she finds out abour his mistress. She can't get divorced because of family's reputation but she does inpt anyway. In the end the most conservative of all Katherine's students realises that she wants to be a lawyer and not simply a wife. Her last line (she talks to Katherine) in film is as follows: "Not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image. <...> I'll never forget you."

This film has truly touched me. From my point of view, the whole love storyline of Katherine isn't very exciting but besides that I liked everything about it. My favorite period in XIX is 50s, I think, and I was amazed by costumes — so minimalistic, so neatly combined but still so fancy and beautiful! Pencil skirts, red lips, pincurls...  Breathtaking!

Do you maybe know some other films similar to this two? The next I want to watch are "Sense and Sensibility" and "All that Jazz" but I will be very glad to hear any advices!