The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Buy This Item The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie  Available from Amazon  Click 'BUY IT NOW' to get price.  on 11-29-2008     Maggie Smith is so witty and commanding in this film, you might forget that the script paints Jean Brodie as an ultimately self-deluding spinster. Dame Maggie won the first of her two Oscars for playing a teacher in 1930s Edinburgh more in thrall to her romantic notions of art and beauty than the real world, a cultivator of worshipping "Brodie Girls." (She exalts the Mona Lisa and Mussolini with equal fervor.) Smith's expert playing makes many of the brogue-heavy Brodie-isms worth memorizing ("She seeks to intimidate me by the use of quarter-hours.") and raises the picture above its generally theatrical style. Real-life husband Robert Stephens plays Jean's married lover, Celia Johnson excels as the hostile headmistress, and Pamela Franklin is the deadpan whistle-blower within Miss Brodie's coven. The dippy music of Rod McKuen helps mark the movie as more of a reflection of the '60s than the '30s. <I>--Robert Horton</I> Reader Reviews I cannot improve on the reviews I have already read about The Prime of Miss Brody. This film is Maggie Smith's masterpiece and the support cast greatly complements her performance. The Edinburough setting in the 1930's also adds to the appeal of the film. Jean Brody is both the heroin and the villian of this play converted to film. We both admire and disapprove of her. Jean Brody is both aware but very ignorant of life at the same time. This causes her to be both creative and destructive toward others and to herself too. But I love her character and I regret her downfall at the conclusion by the rigidly puritanical environment she inhabits. Maggie Smith remains a treasure of both stage and screen and we need to value her as so many of us do.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Available from Amazon Price: Click 'BUY IT NOW' to get price. Updated on 11-29-2008.

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