I've probably seen a thousand movies or so, and yet I never forget the scene in which Jean stands up to Miss Mackay when the latter gives her a choice of resigning or being dismissed. Smith's line reading, enunciation of certain words ("-- just one! --," "fetid frustration," "I am a teacher!"), and ramrod straight demeanor provide some of the best acting on film. Of all the Best Actress winners, I'd have to put this in the top five.
shareI agree. Truly one of the greatest of screen acting. Also, the final confrontation between Sandy and Jean is another favorite.
shareThere is a line Jean Brodie says when alone with her once lover, the art teacher Lloyd, when she refers to not upsetting the chemistry teacher - which comes some after we have seen the girls being shown how hydrogen explodes when lit : "You wouldn't want to offend her, she has the means to blow us all up !" This line, in a subtle, brilliant screenplay, had tears running down my cheeks.
shareThe first time i saw the film and i watched the confrontation of Jean Brodie and Miss Mackay, i was blown away.
This performance, plus Faye Dunaway's Oscar winning performance in Network, would have to be what acting is really made of.
There is not a bad line reading in this film...Maggie Smith delivers one of the most brilliant performances ever recorded by an actress on film. I remember when the Oscar nominations came out for '69, I hadn't seen this film yet, but I had seen two other nominees, Liza Minnelli for THE STERILE CUCKOO and Jane Fonda for THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? and was disappointed when I watched the Oscars and Smith won. I saw THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE about six months later and then realized why she won.
shareI always laugh when I here Mary scream (upside down) ...
"Their they WHA-ER!" "Miss.Brodie and Mr. Lloyd. They were KIS-SANG!"
Whenever two female drama students are looking for a scene to enact for class, I always suggest the final confrontation scene, from this film, for them.
I'm a college professor, and I keep in touch with former students by e-mail. I'm often asked what are any good books that I've read lately. I had seen THE PRIME when it originally came out. I just saw it on DVD; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. This time when asked what books I would recommend, I told them to rent this DVD. I felt a little guilty telling them to see a movie rather than to read a book. Nonetheless, I know they'll appreciate my advice.
None of them had heard of the movie! The final scene with Sandy and Miss Jean arguing was one of the best performances I've ever seen.
I agree that Maggie Smith gave a simply eloquent performance that was note-perfect on every single level.
However, for me, there is one single word that I always think of when I think of TPofMJB: “Assassin!! Assassin!!!!” shouted repeatedly to Sandy in the school halls, with a great reverberating effect. That, and the very chilling last lines about impressionable girls being hers for life played over the manipulative, devious-looking face of Sandy – endings DO NOT get any better than this. The word ‘effective’ simply cannot explain the power those last lines convey.
Wow!
10/10 rating
You really have it for the dramatic performance of THE PRIME.
However, for comedic performance, Mary McGregor describing having seen Miss Jean kissing that sleezy art teacher was the best. See the June 7, 2007 posting in this section. It speaks about Sandy and another girl "convincing" Mary to tell them
what she saw. It's just too funny.
I've seen a woman who looks like a grown-up version of Mary McGregor of one of the Brit-coms (It may have been "Are You Being Served?" or "Keeping Up Appearances" on PBS). I wonder if it's the same person.
It was simply a marvellous film. Who can ever forget the scene, where Sandy, in exasperation, says to Jean Brodie, "You really are a ridiculous woman!"; and Jean, to the headmistress, "If scandal is to your taste, Miss Mackay, I shall give you a feast". The principal characters gave standout performances, and Maggie Smith, quite deservedly, garnered an Oscar for Best Actress. Celia Johnson gave such a nuanced performance as the quintessential headmistress of a conservative Girls' school in the 1930s. Just outstanding. Pamela Franklin evinces so much credibility as the precocious Sandy. Always underlying the somewhat cold, detached aloofness she gives to her character there is also an affecting poignancy. I very much enjoyed her commentary on the DVD -- especially her staccato delivery of, "...grey, grey, grey" when describing the school uniform she wore at boarding school. Pamela's acting is always riveting; she has this almost esoteric ability of being able to draw the viewer right into her character. The closing scene of the film, The Third Secret, was one of the most moving I've ever experienced in watching films. One of my favourite actresses.
You can't hold a candle to Gulbenkian.
While Pamela Franklin stole the show, the woman who plays dopey but lovable
Mary McGregor is the one who I recall the best. The actress plays that role
has that character down wonderfully. One of the funniest scenes is when Mary catches Miss Jean kissing the art teacher. "THEY WARE KISSANG!"
Yep, that was good too.
You can't hold a candle to Gulbenkian.
marvellous film on so many levels, the acting brilliant and the comedic subtly, tooo funny. it goes without saying the stand out scenes being the confrontation between brodie and miss mckay and the final scene with sandy but i always get teary when brodie goes back to her class after the confrontation with the head mistress and shows the new "gels" her slides of rome. oh, and when they're having lunch outside and jenny begins to recite the lady of shalott. as the girls begin to giggle, jean takes over..."but in her web she still delights...to weave the mirror's magic sight, for often through the silent nights...a funeral, with plums and lights, and music, went to camelot; or when the moon was overhead,came two young lovers lately wed. "i am half sick of shadows", said the lady of shalott". Beautiful!!
funny lines: (when she asks one of the girls to lower the window) "six inches is perfectly adequate. any more is just vulgar!"
sandy to teddy - "yu know, it occurred to me that the brodie set has been miss brodie's faithful fascisti, marching along and i suddenly thought of her disapproval of the girl guides. why, it's simple jealousy. the guides are a rival fascisti, and she cannot bear it. how i wish i'd joined the brownies!"
teddy to sandy - "One day, I'd like to paint all you brodie girls. it'd be interesting to see what sort of group i can make of you." sandy: "we'd all look like one big brodie i suppose."
seems as though every single line in this film is a gem...too many to mention, it would be the whole script!
The posters who mentioned Mary MacGregor's line left out the funniest part of it:
She said:
They were kissing -- TOGETHER!!
Actually, that was her next line:
I saw (pause) them (pause) kissing - Together!
After Jean Brodie rather condescendingly says of the racy letter "Surely you don't believe this is the work of nine year olds?", I like how Celia Johnson snaps back "I could believe it was the work of YOUR nine year olds." She may be prudish and unimaginative, but she's definitely got Jean's number.
shareI don't think she is necessarily prudish or unimaginative. She just thinks children shouldn't be given certain information before they are ready for it. (Having been told the facts of life at six, I would certainly agree!!) Miss Mackay is absolutely right to want to get rid of Jean Brodie, though maybe not always for the right reasons!! The letter, however, is certainly insufficient evidence.
share[deleted]
No, she wasn't in either of those shows. The performance I remember most is an American television commercial where one maid, English, and a bit dumpy (guess who) says to another maid, (French and attractive) says "While I'm on vacation, you're to keep the baathroom spotless" with (I forget the product they were selling). At the end, the French maid says "It is all so fresh! I will love taking over your job!"
I also remember her in an American sitcom called Dear John which kind of sputtered along. She played the leader of a motley group of people whose marriages or relationships have ended either by divorce or breakup... I don't think they had a gay character in it, but I think they would today. They had just about every other age, gender and race in it, and it's too bad it didn't have more success.
I'm sure she's done other things, and I think she's made a fairly successful career as an English character actress, and while the picture of her you see on this site shows her with white hair, I remember her as being a redhead. She might look a little like the actress (Molly Sudgen) sp? Who played Mrs. Slocombe in Are You Being Served? but I doubt she was old enough to play that part.
Red hair wouldn't have worked at all in a movie about which another poster has observed that the only colorful thing in Prime is Miss Brodie.
Interesting titbit: in the region 1 DVD commentary, the director says that Maggie Smith never wanted to go out to the balcolny and shout that line - she wanted to stay in the classroom and say it once, quietly. However the director and producer overruled her. Watching it again for the DVD, he admitted that she was right (and I agree). It would have been even more powerful.
shareIn a film full of great lines, I liked Miss McKay saying "I'm always impressed with Miss Brodie's girls... In one way or another."
shareI too love that final scene. I saw it last night and felt sure Maggie Smith yelled ASSASSIN several times over. However, it's only twice. It's just the echo in the deserted school hallways that makes one think she has said it over and over. I made my husband sit and watch the ending with me, as it is so powerful and evocative and has stayed with me all these years. Maggie Smith definitely deserved her best actress win for this role, it was sheer magnificence.
shareLove the song-but, as for the ''manipulating, devious- looking face of Sandy'' you had better watch that scene again.
shareI love when the other teachers are spying on Miss Brodie at the window and Miss Kerr, one of the sewing mistresses, says: "She always looks so... extreme.
As the saying goes... the time to make up your mind about people is never
Really can't imagine playing Jean Brodie in this film other than the divine Miss Maggie, which I rewatched today.
So many wonderful line readings but one that I must mention is when Jean is with Teddy and after he points out that she wants Jenny in his bed to replace her, she says 'Don't be disgusting'. She gets across the repulsion so well.
All great suggestions for a favorite movie. Also when she says arrivedeci to Teddy Llyoyd, she says it with a slight smile but you can tell her heart is breaking. Fabulous. One of the greatest performances ever committed to film. In a year when the other three acting winners were to put it mildly, a joke, this and the best picture Oscar to Midnight Cowboy were two of oscars finest moments.
shareFor me the funniest line was when Miss Brodie tells her gals just before the slide show, which amounts to a homage to Mussolini, as coming to them 'at my own expense'!
The only off-putting I felt during this wonderful movie was the ending scene between Miss Brodie & 17 yr old Jenny. Jenny would be unable to articulate that much wisdom.
Maybe Jenny wouldn't, but Sandy would. It is Sandy with whom the scene takes place, not Jenny. (I do think the scene is rather awkward. I think a large part of the problem is that it's too stagy.)
shareIt's Sandy, not Jenny in that final confrontation.
sharewell Miss Brodie I don't think either of us wanted Teddy for his mind
from Sandy
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/