The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Director:

Ronald Neame

Writers:

Muriel Spark (novel)
Jay Presson Allen (play)

Release Date:

January 1969 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

In the surprising world of Jean Brodie, there were two men and four girls.

Plot:

A liberated young schoolteacher at an Edinburgh girls' school in the period between the two wars, instructs her girls on the ways of life...

Plot Keywords:

Teacher Hero | Poignant | Innocence | Tense | Quirky

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Maggie Smith	...	Jean Brodie
Robert Stephens	...	Teddy Lloyd
Pamela Franklin	...	Sandy
Gordon Jackson	...	Gordon Lowther
Celia Johnson	...	Miss Mackay
Diane Grayson	...	Jenny
Jane Carr	...	Mary McGregor
Shirley Steedman	...	Monica
Lavinia Lang	...	Emily Carstairs
Antoinette Biggerstaff	...	Helen McPhee
Margo Cunningham	...	Miss Campbell
Isla Cameron	...	Miss McKenzie
Rona Anderson	...	Miss Lockhart
Ann Way	...	Miss Gaunt
Molly Weir	...	Miss Allison Kerr

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | Canada:PG (video rating) | UK:AA (original rating) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Barnbougle Castle, Dalmeny, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Productions

Trivia:

Director Ronald Neame never read the novel from which this film is adapted.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Miss Brody presents a slide show to the class. She tells a tale of how Dante Alighieri fell in love with Beatrice Portinari when they met at the old bridge (Ponte Veccio) in Florence. Miss Brody says: "He (Dante) was a man in his middle years, she (Beatrice) was 14, that can happen, a mature man can fall in love with a young girl." This simply cannot be true as Dante was born in 1265 and Beatrice was born just a year later in 1266. Dante was not a mature man when he met her. He was 9 years old when he met Beatrice, with whom he fell in love "at first sight", even though they haven't spoken a word. They often exchanged greetings in the street, but he never really knew her well. His love for her was unrequited. He effectively set the example for the medieval concept of "courtly love".

Quotes:

Jean Brodie: [after Miss Mackay has read a supposedly incriminating letter, written by Sandy and Jenny] There's very little for me to say, Miss Mackay in the face of your extraordinary prejudice and hostility.
Miss Mackay: Miss Brodie, I am not asking you to say anything. I am asking... demanding... that you put your signature, your own signature, on a letter of resignation which I have prepared for you.
Jean Brodie: I will not resign.
Miss Mackay: If you will not resign, you will force me to dismiss you.
Jean Brodie: I will not resign and you will not dismiss me, Miss Mackay. You will not use the excuse of that pathetic, that humorous document to blackmail me! Mr. Lowther, you are a witness to this. Miss Mackay has made totally unsupported accusations against my name and yours...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 2 (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Jean

Not just a one-woman show

This movie is often billed as a 'one-woman show', a study of an extraordinary character, Miss Jean Brodie, played by an excellent actress. However, the movie is much more than that. It is a study of charisma and influence, of teachers and students, and presents a complex and fascinating coming-of-age story. This study takes place through the movie's double-focus on both Jean Brodie and her most precocious student, Sandy. Sandy is the strongest and most independent of Miss Brodie's students, and eventually she rebels and rejects her teaching completely. However, she is also truest to her teacher's expressed goals. Miss Brodie supposedly wants to teach 'her girls' to be like herself: powerful, independent individuals, free from the shackles of authority and group-think, beyond conventional sexual morality. In fact, she preys on the weakness and insecurity of her students, punishes independence and rewards slavish loyalty to her and to her personal plans and ideals. (The film's more subtle concern with fascism and authoritarianism echoes this theme: fascism elevates great individuals and praises their strength, just as it demands total obedience and slavishness from the rest.) Sandy, by recognizing and rejecting Miss Brodies's actions and plans, becomes her truest student: not only sexually adventurous, but bold, independent, and confrontational. The final scenes illustrate this beautifully. Miss Brodie has truly put "an old head" on Sandy's "young shoulders", and she truly is "hers for life"--though not in the way originally intended. In this way the movie presents a profound, sophisticated and realistic account of the way powerful individuals influence one another.