Maggie Smith passed away some time this morning. Best known for her roles in the Harry Potter films and as the Dowager Countess Violent Crawley on TV series/movies Downton Abby.
For me, she will always be Jean Brodie, the charismatic, irresponsible teacher at a 1930s girls' school in Scotland. It is a bravo performance by Simth worthy of deep consideration for the title of her finest work ever.
But first, my own history with this film.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was released in 1969. This was a time when radio ads were still a powerful force in persuading audiences to attend a movie. The radio ads for Brodie were quite clever, especially for roping in a fourteen-year-old boy.
Put simply the ads for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie pitched the movie as soft core porn. Suggesting that the movie was about the efforts of Sandy, one of Miss Brodies students to seduce Jean's lover Teddy Lloyd, a teacher, artist and first-class Sap away from her. In the voice over and shrewdly edited snippets of dialogue it was strongly implied that the war for the hapless Teddy Lloyd would be conducted on a battlefield of tangled, musty sheets.
The film was being shown at the Boomer theater. A, oh let's call it rustic movie house a block from the University of Oklahoma. It specialized in art house and porn films. Both Bergman and Linda Lovelace attracted large audiences there.
Imagine my fourteen-year male frustration when it turned out that the movie bared only a passing resemblance to the description in the radio ads and even less to the racy thoughts in my head.
As the movie come down to its last five minutes, I was prepared to demand my money back and sue the production for, well something, only thing holding me back was the knowledge that this action would result in my parents founding out what I had been up to and why.
Then came the last five minutes of the movie and one the all-time great endings in the history of cinema.
But, back to the full movie.
Maggie Smith plays Jean Brodie as magnetic, irresponsible teacher anxious to indoctrinate her four favorite students into becoming Brodie girls. A girl becomes one of the chosen few by blinding following Miss. Brodies dictums on art literature and her two heroes Franco and Mussolini. At times during her portrayal Simth juts her jaw out in what has to be semi-conscious impersonation of El-Duce.
While this is going on Miss Brodie is also conducting affairs with the aforementioned Teddy Lloyd and the staid Gordon Lowther. also, a teacher at Marcia Blaine. (The way Maggie Smith pronounces Marcia Blaine is by its self-Oscar worthy)
I note this last part mainly because Gordon Lowther is played by the British actor Gordon Jackson who would become well known as the butler Mr. Hudson on the 70s TV show Upstairs Downstairs. A forerunner to Downton Abby. The idea of Mr. Hudson and the Dowager Crawley getting it on is worthy of a metafictional novel. Someone get on it.
After her lectures extolling the virtues of Franco causes the most impressable of the Brodie girls to run off to Spain to fight for Franco. It ends badly.
At this point the veil comes off Sandy's eyes. Having dumped Teddy Lloyd after realizing he is still in love with Jean Sandy decides to stop Jean Brodie because in her words Miss. Brodie "shouldn't be around impressable girls"
It's a fabulous bit of art. Everyone in is outstanding. Especially Pamela Franklin as the alternately naive and shrewd Sandy.
It's Smith, however who makes this movie glisten. Jean Brodie is both magnetic and foolish. To obsess with being in her prime (she talks about prime a great deal), her foolish thoughts on the politics of day and her overblown sense of grandeur to actually pay attention to her "Goils" (another of Smiths perfect for her character pronunciations)
It's understandable that for the next few days attention will focus on Smiths more work. Hopefully as time goes by people will drift back this film.
Maggie Smith won the best actress Oscar for this fantastic performance and for once Oscar got it right.
Yorumlar