Mona Lisa Revealed: Secrets of the Painting

It may be the most famous painting in the world, but the Mona Lisa still has secrets to be revealed. Happily, an instrument exists to help uncover the mysteries lying behind La Gioconda's enigmatic smile: the multispectral camera, invented by French photographer Pascal Cotte. After Cotte scanned da Vinci's masterpiece with his 240-megapixel camera, he discovered 25 unknown facts. Among them: the original portrait sported eyebrows and eyelashes (not discernable to the naked eye today); the unusual position of the subject's hands is explained by the fact that she's holding a blanket or shawl; and the famous smile was initially more emphatically rendered than it appears now. Interviewed experts, often quoting from contemporary sources, verify or question Cotte's findings, while a virtual computer reconstruction of the painting suggests how it might have looked in the 16th century. Mona Lisa Revealed is an interesting documentary, but one marred by a heavily-accented English overdubbing of Cotte's French dialogue, as well as the absurd decision to have it “narrated” by the Mona Lisa herself, who gives an account of the painting's travels in a giggly girlish tone. DVD extras include a bonus featurette offering a thumbnail sketch countdown of Cotte's 25 discoveries, along with the story behind a 26th—a tiny spot of paint perhaps tied to the Mona Lisa's theft from the Louvre in 1911 (it was recovered in 1913). A strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)