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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
A crisp and charismatic performance by the divine Maggie Smith that officially made her a movie star, anchors the 1969 film version of a luminous and adult blending of character study and romantic melodrama called The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
The central character of this drama is one of the most fascinating characters to have a movie wrapped around her. Jean Brodie is an intelligent, articulate, and deliciously self-absorbed history teacher at an exclusive girls' school in 1930's Scotland. Miss Brodie considers her girls the "creme de la creme" and adopts certain girls each year and gives them special treatment, treatment which included assigning futures to each of the girls, whether or not the girls are really interested and how one girl named Sandy (Pamela Franklin) refuses to conform to the future Miss Brodie has concocted for her.
The story also features a romantic drama involving the endlessly fascinating Miss Brodie, who pretends to be above such nonsense as love and sex, but underneath is a bubbling cauldron of sexuality, which has garnered her attraction from the sweet but dull Gordon Lowther (Gordon Jackson), the school's music teacher and the passionate Teddy Lloyd (Robert Stephens), the art teacher and married father of six children. We are also witness to the school's headmistress (Celia Johnson) trying to figure out a way to oust Miss Brodie from the school, disturbed by Brodie's influence on her girls.
This is the film version of a play by Murial Sparks that premiered on Broadway in January of 1968 with the legendary Zoe Caldwell playing the title role. Smith inherits the role for the film and gives the performance of a lifetime. Aided by director Ronald Neame (Brief Encounter), Smith gives a delicately nuanced and rich performance where every move she makes and word she utters is carefully crafted before they happen. Smith is absolutely fascinating here, so fascinating that it's very easy to overlook some of Miss Brodie's lesser qualities, like her unabashed arrogance. Her refusal to accept being terminated at the end of the second act is pretty ballsy and hard to swallow, but that scene is also the highlight of the film. The fire bubbling through Brodie, brought brilliantly to life by Maggie Smith, is an acting class in itself.
Favorites for the Best Actress Oscar that year were Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli, but Smith blindsided both and once you witness this performance, you will understand why. Also loved Robert Stephens as the explosive Teddy Lloyd and Franklin as the wise beyond her years Sandy. Franklin was one of the hardest working and most underrated actresses of the 60's and this might be her best work. Shortly after this film was released, Smith and Stephens were actually married IRL. A high octane soap opera given its gas by the divine Maggie Smith.
A crisp and charismatic performance by the divine Maggie Smith that officially made her a movie star, anchors the 1969 film version of a luminous and adult blending of character study and romantic melodrama called The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
The central character of this drama is one of the most fascinating characters to have a movie wrapped around her. Jean Brodie is an intelligent, articulate, and deliciously self-absorbed history teacher at an exclusive girls' school in 1930's Scotland. Miss Brodie considers her girls the "creme de la creme" and adopts certain girls each year and gives them special treatment, treatment which included assigning futures to each of the girls, whether or not the girls are really interested and how one girl named Sandy (Pamela Franklin) refuses to conform to the future Miss Brodie has concocted for her.
The story also features a romantic drama involving the endlessly fascinating Miss Brodie, who pretends to be above such nonsense as love and sex, but underneath is a bubbling cauldron of sexuality, which has garnered her attraction from the sweet but dull Gordon Lowther (Gordon Jackson), the school's music teacher and the passionate Teddy Lloyd (Robert Stephens), the art teacher and married father of six children. We are also witness to the school's headmistress (Celia Johnson) trying to figure out a way to oust Miss Brodie from the school, disturbed by Brodie's influence on her girls.
This is the film version of a play by Murial Sparks that premiered on Broadway in January of 1968 with the legendary Zoe Caldwell playing the title role. Smith inherits the role for the film and gives the performance of a lifetime. Aided by director Ronald Neame (Brief Encounter), Smith gives a delicately nuanced and rich performance where every move she makes and word she utters is carefully crafted before they happen. Smith is absolutely fascinating here, so fascinating that it's very easy to overlook some of Miss Brodie's lesser qualities, like her unabashed arrogance. Her refusal to accept being terminated at the end of the second act is pretty ballsy and hard to swallow, but that scene is also the highlight of the film. The fire bubbling through Brodie, brought brilliantly to life by Maggie Smith, is an acting class in itself.
Favorites for the Best Actress Oscar that year were Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli, but Smith blindsided both and once you witness this performance, you will understand why. Also loved Robert Stephens as the explosive Teddy Lloyd and Franklin as the wise beyond her years Sandy. Franklin was one of the hardest working and most underrated actresses of the 60's and this might be her best work. Shortly after this film was released, Smith and Stephens were actually married IRL. A high octane soap opera given its gas by the divine Maggie Smith.