Antonio Mercero - Virtual museum

Work directed by Antonio Mercero with actors Alfonso Godá, Luis García Ortega, Walter Vidarte, and Lorenzo Ramírez, among others. Antonio Mercero also wrote the screenplay. Broadcast in 1977 by Spanish public television.

La Gioconda, another name for Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa, suddenly loses her smile. According to studies, the work is neither a reproduction nor a copy of the original, but the actual painting created by Leonardo which, for unknown reasons, has stopped smiling. The phenomenon will initially repeat itself in the copies of the painting hanging in four other museums and, later, in any reproduction of the work.

Meanwhile, news is emerging of contamination, biological warfare and social disturbances. A researcher links these phenomena to what has happened to the painting, claiming that it is reacting sadly to recent events and social changes. Human beings are found to have lost the ability to smile. The United Nations issues a global call to try and make at least one person, in any part of the world, capable of smiling. But all in vain. A sudden cataclysm destroys humanity. In the last scene we see Leonardo’s painting, surrounded by destruction, with tears running down the Mona Lisa’s face.

Actors: Alfonso Godá, Lorenzo Ramírez, Luis García Ortega, Walter Vidarte

Length: 47 minutes