The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I found THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE a surprisingly unpleasant little film that feels dated in a bad way. The setting is Edinburgh, where the prim and proper Miss Brodie - played by Maggie Smith with an exemplary Scots accent - attempts to teach her female pupils about life and love in order to ready them for the world. Unfortunately, much of the running time is hampered by the interventions of an extremely sleazy art teacher, played by Robert Stephens. Scenes in which he paints one of his pupils in the nude (Pamela Franklin, the child actress from the likes of THE INNOCENTS) and then proceeds to cavort with her feel deeply dodgy when seen with modern eyes and I found his character's behaviour unforgiveable. The rest is meandering, painting portraits of all-too-cold characters, failing to make any of them likeable, Smith included, and watchable only for a few old hands (Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson) in support.

not only for beautiful performance or for the status of novel adaptation but for its profound message, for seductive atmosphere, for the drops from Tennessee Williams plays universe, for the role of reflection about choices and education , teenagers and circles of personal life. it is a profound reflection about status of teacher and the force of ideas. a film about solitude and a splendid performance by Maggie Smith. bitter, strange, touching, a film about illusions, it is a must see for many motifs. for discover a novel, for admire the good job of cast, for the atmosphere, for compare with films/books about same theme. and, sure, for discover a part from yourself. because, like each great movies, it is a kind of mirror.

Here is a film that attempts to portray that once-in-a-lifetime educator whose influence endures -- that teacher who believes in you and wants you to soar.Miss Jean Brodie, played memorably by Maggie Smith, is the consummate individual in a cookie-cutter world, placed on this earth to lead and to inspire.Her multi-disciplinary, off-script message is both elegant and elemental but has no official place on the curriculum: Discover who you are, and run with it! "That is what I am for" she tells the girls at her Scottish boarding school. "To provide you with interests...I am committed to you in my prime!" Like Prometheus, Miss Brodie offers a gift that can do ineffable good or cause destruction. It will be up to her students to learn how to handle it.Because she dares to be true to herself, Miss Brodie is a threat to her associates. The headmistress lacks her passion and allure, and covets those attributes. So does student Sandy, who possesses insight but not warmth. Both wish to banish and destroy."She died a heroine!" Miss Brodie says of a student who took her advice but paid dearly for it. "She died a fool!" says Sandy.This film excels at conjuring the loneliness of the exceptionally inspired soul. Though felled like her lover at Flanders Fields, one hopes that her message will live on..."Safety does NOT come first -- goodness, truth, and beauty come first.""Recognize your prime at whatever time it may occur, and live it to the hilt." "Please try to do as I say, and not as I do." "I am in my prime and my girls are benefiting from it." "I am a deeply emotional person. I feel many things passionately." "Remain composed, like the Mona Lisa.""I am not accustomed to being summoned immediately." "I am an influence on my girls. I am proud of it." "You must all grow up to be dedicated women." "Let your imagination soar -- Think of Joan of Arc, think of Florence Nightingale." "The day draws late. Take home the story of Mary McGregor."

Dame Maggie Smith's first Oscar-winning film, she is Miss Jean Brodie, a zealous teacher in her prime (30s) at a conservative all-girl boarding school in Edinburgh in 1930s. Whose unorthodox teaching method gathers her a group of "Brodie's gals", whom she proudly acclaims as "crème de la crème", but her battle with the old-fashioned principal (an equally excellent and Celia Johnson), her emotional entanglements with two fellow teachers, Teddy (Robert Stephens) and Gordon (Gordan Lowther), may not be the most distraught concerns, when inside her own clique of "crème de la crème", there are betrayal, questions and decrying after her blind adulation of Fascism triggers one of her girl's death. The film is adapted from Muriel Spark's novel and based on Jay Presson Allen's play, who is also the screenwriter. With indoor settings occupy most of the film narrative, the film is exactly the sort of a warm bed for many breath-stopping two-handers, Smith and Johnson's confrontation is marvellous, and the near-end showdown between Smith and Franklin is even more merciless and astonishing (Pamela Franklin is unbelievably snubbed by the Academy for her brave and searing flair in such a sophisticated role as the teenager Sandy); however Smith's quintessential poignancy has been immaculately demonstrated during the monologue scenes when she is playing slides in the classroom, it's the "crème de la crème" of her long-lasting career. Starts as a farce of the equivalent of a female version of DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989, a 7/10), but this film goes farther and digs deeper into the dark side of the humanity, the moral criterion is a moot, one could feel sympathy towards Miss Brodie's plight, but her story is not entirely guiltless. Director Ronald Neame has never acquired much fame as a director, but this one is a pure theatrical gem which hopefully has done some justice to him.