La strana voglia di Jean

I saw this film thirty years ago and Maggie Smith's performance still rates as one of the finest on screen. The storyline is already well known. I just want to crow about her presence in the movie. This woman even managed to blush when she and Mr Lloyd were caught in a clinch by Mary MacGregor! All these years later I still recall the line she delivered so witheringly when she heard that the music teacher she had once been linked with was finally going the marry the science teacher "Do you not think that with one snap of my fingers I couldn't send Miss (beat) Lockhart back to her gaseous domain!" Rent the video and whoop with delight at the sheer brilliance of this woman.

Robert Stephens was the least convincing of the lead performers, beside his then wife he was positively wooden. I saw them together on the London Stage in Hedda Gabler and they electrified the place! This film though was all about her. Her scenes with the Head Teacher were astonishing " I didn't want to be late - or early!"

A joy!

Maggie Smith is mesmerizing. She paints the blind monstrosity of Miss Jean Brodie in the most recognizable human tones. Robin William's character in "Dead Poet Society" is as irresponsible but doesn't go near as far as this repressed masterpiece of a creature. Her romantic slant towards "Il Duce" and what he represents is at the core of the simple complexity of the character. Maggie's mannerism, now a precious trade mark, belong to Miss Brodie, totally. Her arms, her chin, the turning of her face. Pamela Franlklin is also superb. What a powerful young actress -- Where is she now? -- and Celia Johnson's performance is the icing on the cake of this feast of a movie.

Maggie Smith was already a major star in her native England and 4 years before she had earned an Oscar nomination in the supporting category for her Desdemona in "Othello" with Laurence Olivier but her Jean Brodie arrived to revolutionize everything, specially her own career. She won an Oscar and her win was considered one of the great upsets in the Academy's history. Watching The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie 48 years after its original release, told me that the Academy got it right then. Her performance is, quite simply, extraordinary. She's not playing a regular human being, no, she's playing a sort of benign monster, full of good intentions but, goodness, she's mad, mad as a hatter and from that point of view, she's truly dangerous. Maggie Smith goes for it, body and soul, Her confrontation of her superior, played magnificently by Celia Johnson, is of such power that I had to rewind immediately and see it again once, twice, three times. Superlative.

I don't know about you, but every time I see Maggie Smith on the screen it's always a good sign to stick around for the whole movie. It holds true with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. A rather slow-moving, at first, and quiet movie, it has a certain seductiveness to it that's just below the surface. As you watch the movie you can almost feel and see the emotions building up. Always at the edge and never missing a beat, Smith executes her role with absolute perfection and in doing so driving the audience insane. Pamela Franklin also comes through as a girl changes Miss Brodie's outlook on her and changes our outlook on Miss Brodie. Torn between rooting for her and hating her, and mostly you'll be doing the latter, Miss Brodie is a character with far less facets to her than one might expect. Only once again proving that trust can be misplaced and appearances can be deceiving.

This is my favourite movie ever. It's made 19 years before I was born, but I don't care. I quite started crying after I'd seen this movie... Maggie Smith may be as old as my grandfather, whatever. She's the most wonderful actress ever... Oh, for heaven's sake, if ever someone deserved an Oscar...

What more can I say? Miss Jean Brodie is a dangerous, hypocrite and narcistic woman, and yet you like her. You have to like her. When you watch the movie, you know she's a facist, and you know that what she preaches is rubbish, but you just do not caze. Miss Brodie stands for "art, beauty and truth" and you just feel she's just deceived and too progressive for her time. But, as Sandy says it in the end of the movie, she is "a dangerous woman". Yet I love her.

And I love Maggie Smith. Dear Dame Maggie, if you ever read this, you are just... so... damn... bloody... great.

Oh for heaven's sake... go and watch this movie.