The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame from a screenplay written by Jay Presson Allen, adapted from her own stage play, which was in turn based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Muriel Spark. The film stars Maggie Smith in the title role as an unrestrained teacher at a girls’ school in Edinburgh.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prime_of_Miss_Jean_Brodie_(film)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGfuDRmC5qA
I think this might have region-blocking, but I’m not sure of the regions.
So Maggie Smith (RIP) was best known these days as one of those Harry Potter wizard teachers and as that old lady in Downton Abby and a bunch of roles like that. But she played many roles and won several awards before that. For this movie, she won an Oscar for Best Actress.
But I think this is one of those movies that tells you a lot about that period of time. It gets complicated bc it’s supposed to take place during the 1930s and it was filmed in the late 60s. Also, the movie is based on a play which was based on a book and apparently the movie takes more after the play than the book, which are all different from each other… And there seems to be some kind of British irony thing going on here that I have a hard time tracking.
Like, there’s this old lady who says she’s in her prime. And she acts like a free spirit but she’s literally a fascist who admires Mussolini and Franco. And her best pal is an artist who grooms and molests the middle- and high-school aged girls under her care. See, the thing about irony is that it relies on the communicating parties having a common ground of understanding that can be relied on to differentiate from the ironic statement. So I’m constantly trying to decide: they’re saying it’s a BAD thing to be a fascist or a child abuser… right? Or are they playing a straight “teacher who changed my life” story, like Dead Poets Society later did, or Goodbye Mr Chips did back in the day? Both of the morally questionable characters kind of have a comeuppance… but not really?
Anyway, if you’re a highschooler or an undergrad looking for a movie to write a term paper on, this is a great candidate.
Some screenwriters or directors can be… Weird. It can be challenging to figure if they’re just telling a story, making a point, exposing something about society, or doing the standard hero’s journey.
This seems especially true with dramatic stuff. I feel like dramatists sometimes get caught up in their own vision of drama. If you’ve ever seen “White Christmas”, Danny Kay brilliantly lampoon’s this kind of “take yourself too seriously” with the Modern Dance sequence.
Add in this is British 1960’s just adds culture gap to the generation gap.
Looks interesting though. Will check it out.