Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
(dir. Ronald Neame, 1969)
I've never seen any of the Harry Potter films (and don't want to); nor have I ever watched the period drama Downtown Abbey on TV.
But I have watched - on numerous occasions - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), starring Maggie Smith in the title role as a teacher at an Edinburgh girls' school (Marcia Blaine); a role for which she won the Oscar for best actress at the Academy Awards in 1970.
It's certainly one of my favourite films [1] - written by the American screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, based on her own stage play adaptation of Muriel Spark's 1961 novel - and I absolutely adore Smith as the dangerous and stylish Miss Brodie (so much so, that one can almost - almost - overlook the latter's political idealism).
The fact that Smith was an Essex girl - but with Scottish-Geordie roots - only increases my affection for her and allows me to imagine a faint level of kinship. And whilst I hate the idea of someone being described as a national treasure, Britain does feel just a wee bit poorer for her passing [2].
Notes
[1] For a list of my favourite films compiled and published in August 2014, click here.
[2] Smith died peacefully in a Chelsea hospital earlier today, Friday 27 September. She was 89.
Click here to watch the original trailer for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).
