THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE

Neither the pupils at the conservative Edinburgh school where she teaches, nor the teachers vying for her attention, can resist Miss Brodie. Nor will you be able to resist her, brought to life in a brilliant performance by a 35-year-old Maggie Smith, who earned her first Oscar for the role.

Based on Muriel Spark’s 1961 novel, the film was adapted by Jay Presson Allen, who had previously penned the stage version as well as the screenplay for Bob Fosse’s CABARET. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE feels like a cross between Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society and Lindsay Anderson’s IF…, yet Ronald Neame’s film, with its liberated heroine set against an oppressive educational system, possesses a character entirely its own - eccentric and singular.

Every sentence Miss Brodie utters and every gesture she makes radiates her unmistakable essence: a romantic, sensual dreamer and devoted educator who refuses to conform. She is also an admirer of Mussolini and General Franco – in 1932, when the story is set, the fascists impress her with their strength and decisiveness. The continuation of Miss Brodie’s peculiar lessons comes into question when one pupil catches her in a prolonged kiss with a married history teacher...

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE is, in equal measure, an old-fashioned comedy-drama and a film charged with the sexual ambiguities and boundaries typical of the late 1960s. Maggie Smith dominates almost every scene. Her range of expressions, reactions and nuances is perfectly controlled. Yet, above all, she seems to delight in the character she embodies. Golden-haired, slim and statuesque, Miss Brodie is a free spirit whom no one is likely to tame.

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Tekst: Sebastian Smoliński