The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

3/2/2025

This film always reminds me of a teacher we had at primary school who thought the best way of obtaining discipline from us unruly eight year olds was to stamp her foot and look at her watch. All that actually achieved was for us to make more paper aeroplanes from the torn pages of our “Modern Comprehensive Artithmetic”. Had she adopted the more engaging and thought-provoking style of this titular Edinburgh lady, then she might have got farther (or is that further?). Anyway, an outwardly rather puritanical woman, Muriel Spark’s “Miss Brodie” (Maggie Smith) conforms to the conservative curriculum of the “Marcia Blaine” school for girls and to the doctrine of it’s spinsterly headmistress “Miss Mackay” (Celia Johnson). She has her girls, her favoured pupils in whom she has great faith. There’s