La strana voglia di Jean

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.

Just watched it for the third time in as many days. Oh, Edingurgh looks gorgeous, and so does Dame Maggie. I admit to knowing very little about her, but this role alone would make me a lifetime fan.

Rather than another summary and interpretation I want to riff on a few seemingly random points ...

1) The costumes. Fabulous, fabulous period costumes. The grey of the "gehrls" ... all those pleated skirts and dropped waists! Sandy's little gingham number! The bloomers ... oh, how sweet those bloomers were (and I mean nothing perverse by that, I just thought they were cute, and I'll own up to always wondering what was under those '30s skirts). The school uniforms, the effect of the repetition on that gray, gray, gray, and those tidy peter-pan collared shirts: you could easily see why Miss Brodie fancied herself a bit of a Duce herself, she seemed to be surrounded by a uniformed army. And then ... against the greys of the girls, the greys, whites and blacks of the staff -- wonderful houndstooths and glen plaids, especially on the headmistress -- Miss Brodie, impossibly slim and hipless, in radiant plums, flame colors, paisleys and asymmetrical jackets. If only I could have a tailor like that. It worked, it absolutely works still: it doesn't look a bit garish, as so many Technicolor extravaganzas can.

2) Miss Brodie's blindness to who Sandy really is - her insensitivity to her; going on about how "ordinary morals will not apply" to the allegedly-beautiful girl (well, she's blonde anyway) while failing to look beneath the glasses of the real stunner, Sandy. Who with the slightest bit of knowledge about pre-teen girls would do that - harp on a friend's beauty and negligently add, "Oh, but you have insight, dear"? The whole set-up: Sandy's elevated to a peer-like relationship, Sandy's confided in, yet Sandy is only a mirror for Jean, not valued, not truly noticed. I believe that's the dynamic - almost like a neglected lover's - that triggers Sandy's betrayal.

3) Sandy, and her amazing transformation. My jaw actually dropped when we saw her with the painter: did they film over a period of years, I wondered? How could that little girl be THIS young woman? Going back and watching - the schoolgirl uniform, the tousled short hair, the whole expression, look in the eyes, everything. The over-sized glasses. The most convincing precocious-12-year-old performance. And then - pow, an adult! all without CGI. That was impressive.

4) The giggling and sexually curious girls. Hey, I do remember being 12, and yeah, it was like that!

5) That incredible dance scene, the 2 girls tangoing while speculating on "doing it." Fantastic blocking. And funny, and charming as hell. I especially like Sandy's aggressive cranking of the Victrola.

I personally detested the painter - the whole notion of the father of 6 tomcatting about, well, yuck - and his manhandling of the ladies is simply vile. But those were the times, I suppose. The headmistress was sublime. The overall look is artful but not overdone and all perfectly unified and beautiful. Enjoy - I certainly have!

See it for Maggie Smith who was much deserving of her Best Actress Oscar in 1969. I'd rank this performance among the best ever preserved on film. Her character is unlike any you've ever seen and ranks up there with Sandy Dennis in "Up the Down Staircase" and Sidney Poitier in "To Sir, With Love" as one of the most memorable teachers on screen.

Ronald Neame does a nice job of moving the film along so the adapted play doesn't seem stagy. The focus is the wonderful adapted screenplay and the great cast.

The triumph of "Jean Brodie" is the final confrontation scene with Smith and young actress Pamela Franklin.

Don't miss it.

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.

Beautifully filmed and acted by all the performers, this is a knock-out film. Maggie Smith is incredible right down to her Morningside accent. The other players hold their own against her powerhouse performance. The Edinburgh locations are great and the film has a remarkably nostalgic quality that reflects Brodie's romanticism. A beautiful Rod McKuen score as well! A must see film. An interesting comparison can be made with Dead Poet's Society, which has a male teacher in an all male school (compared to a female teacher in an all girl's school). In Brodie, unorthodox irresponsible teaching is condemned while in Dead Poet's Society it is valorized. In both the teaching methods bring about the death of a student and the school's reaction is similar. The film makers, however, come down on opposite sides in their attitudes toward the teachers