The 100 best novels: No 79 – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1960) | Books | The Guardian The 100 best novels The 100 best novels: No 79 – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1960) Short and bittersweet, Muriel Spark’s tale of the downfall of a Scottish schoolmistress is a masterpiece of narrative fiction Muriel Spark: sublime wit and brevity. Photograph: Frank Monaco/Rex Features Share on Messenger Close The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is probably the shortest novel on this list, a sublime miracle of wit and brevity, and a Scots classic that’s a masterclass in narrative construction and the art of “less is more”. The action centres on the romantic, fascinating, comic and ultimately tragic schoolmistress Jean Brodie who will, in the most archetypal sense, suffer for the sin of hubris, her excessive self-confidence.

At first, her ideas about beauty and goodness, her mysterious glamour and charm will dazzle and seduce her girls – “the crème de la crème” – at the Marcia Blaine School, but in the end the same gifts will cause her downfall. “Give me a girl at an impressionable age,” she boasts, “and she is mine for life.” Eventually that prediction will be fulfilled in the saddest way imaginable. It is, as Miss Brodie says, “nineteen-thirty-six. The age of chivalry is dead.” The novel’s theme, deftly laid out in a narrative that flashes backwards and forwards, to and from the 1930s, is the education of six wonderfully distinctive, heartless and romantic 10-year-old girls (Monica, Sandy, Rose, Mary, Jenny, and Eunice) and the covert classroom drama that leads to Miss Brodie’s “betrayal”, her peremptory dismissal from Marcia Blaine by her great enemy, the headmistress, Miss Mackay.

That, of course, has nothing to do with school, and everything to do with sex, and the art teacher, Teddy Lloyd, with whom Miss Brodie (defiantly in her “prime”) is hopelessly in love. It had been Miss Brodie’s plan to control and manipulate the lives of “her girls”. But finally, it is Sandy who, before she becomes Sister Helena of the Transfiguration, exacts the decisive revenge that will doom her teacher to a bitter and solitary spinsterhood. Miss Brodie will never get over it, and die quite soon. “‘Whatever possessed you?’ said Miss Brodie in a very Scottish way, as if Sandy had given away a pound of marmalade to an English duke.” My paperback edition runs to just 128 pages. The elfin spirit of Robert Louis Stevenson ( No 24 in this series ) hovers over every line, and Muriel Spark nods to this influence by having some of the girls read Kidnapped. The trailer for the film adaptation of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). A note on the text Muriel Spark occupies a special place in the Observer’s literary history.

As a young woman, she had made her way as a poet, literary editor and literary biographer in postwar London. But it was as a short-story writer that she first came to prominence at the very end of 1951, when she won the Observer short story competition for her surreal and, in places, richly poetic “The Seraph and the Zambesi”. Her novels followed soon after; by the late 1950s, she was fully established as a writer to watch. Spark’s method of composition became quite famous. She composed her fiction in a copperplate hand, usually a single draft with very few corrections, in spiral-bound school notebooks from the Edinburgh stationer and bookseller James Thin. It was in such a volume that she began to write about a middle-aged schoolteacher, drawn from her own school memories. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is so short that it was first published, in its entirety, in the New Yorker, and then reissued in volume form by Macmillan in the UK in 1961.

The character of Miss Jean Brodie became Spark’s “milch cow”, and brought her international fame, especially after the novel was made into a film starring Maggie Smith , who won an Academy (best actress) award for her performance. In real life, the character of Miss Brodie was based in part on Christina Kay, a teacher of Spark’s for two years at her Edinburgh school, James Gillespie’s School for Girls. the author would later write of her thus: “What filled our minds with wonder and made Christina Kay so memorable was the personal drama and poetry within which everything in her classroom happened.” Miss Kay was the basis for the good parts of Brodie’s character, but also some of the more bizarre. For example, Miss Kay did hang posters of Renaissance paintings on the wall, and also of Mussolini marching with Italian fascists. Another Scottish writer, Candia McWilliam, identified the novel’s lasting appeal when she wrote that it is “sublimely funny, and also very short, with much to say about sex”. She adds that it is “technically beyond praise.

The pressure it exerts upon the mind is controlled by a guiding spirit that reveals to us the moral universe while affording the refreshment of laughter and revelation.” What better definition of a classic? Three more from Muriel Spark Memento Mori (1959); The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960); The Girls of Slender Means (1961). The 10 best Screen schools | Culture | The Guardian The 10 best Screen schools The 10 best Screen schools Saturday 17 September 2011 19.01 EDT Shermer High School The Breakfast Club (1985)In the 1980s, the late director and producer John Hughes had a succession of hits about middle-class high school life, including Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Some Kind of Wonderful. The Breakfast Club, which Hughes also wrote, was set in a Saturday detention, bringing together five types from different school cliques (athlete, brain, criminal, princess, basket case).

Shermer was based on Hughes’s own high school – in Northbrook (formerly Shermerville), Illinois – and was the setting for several of his films Photograph: Rex Features Pinterest Grange Hill BBC TV (1978-2008)Bringing social realism to kids’ TV, Phil Redmond’s controversial school drama ran for 30 years, with characters such as Tucker Jenkins, Trisha Yates, Benny, Zammo, Jackie and Roland becoming staples of playground conversations. The show was known for gritty, topical issues, reaching a peak in the mid-80s with Zammo’s heroin addiction story line sparking cast hit single “Just Say No”. It was filmed originally in Kingsbury and Willesden in north-west London and, in the 80s, Anthony Minghella was script editor for several series Photograph: BBC Pinterest Rydell High Grease (1978)Home to Danny, Sandy, the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies, Rydell is the fictional setting for Randal Kleiser’s enduring musical Grease.

Like most American movie high schools, it seems entirely populated by 30-year-old students, but its blend of delinquency, lunacy and old-fashioned apple pie values have enchanted generations. Prom nights visited by American Bandstand, fun fairs, drive-ins, running tracks, car racing and no homework encapsulate the 50s American dream. And who can forget songs such as “You’re the One That I Want” and “Summer Nights”? Photograph: Public Domain Pinterest Hogwarts Harry Potter (2001-11)No academic institution has ever dominated the big screen like Hogwarts. St Trinian’s can boast seven screen outings, but Harry Potter’s Hogwarts was the setting for eight films; a bastion of wizardry and Britishness, based clearly on public school lines but phenomenally popular the world over.

Houses include Slytherin and Gryffindor; classes feature transfiguration, defence against the dark arts and muggle studies; teachers comprise Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall; it is reached by the Hogwarts Express Photograph: PA Pinterest George Washington Carver High School Election (1999)A fictional school in Omaha, Nebraska is the setting for Alexander Payne’s masterly comedy, based on Tom Perrotta’s novel of the same name. Shot in bleak greens and greys, its corridors entrap and subdue likable teacher Jim McAllister, played with aplomb by Matthew Broderick. Scheming her way to the top is Reese Witherspoon’s Tracy Flick, who sabotages opponents in the race for student body president. “Tracy Flick” has since become a disparaging term in American politics, used against Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin Photograph: sportsphoto/Allstar Pinterest Cheltenham College If... (1968)Lindsay Anderson shot most of the school scenes of If... at the very place where he was once a senior prefect, although David Sherwin, who wrote the script, attended Tonbridge.

Headmaster David Ashcroft gave Anderson permission to shoot during term time, despite other schools such as Charterhouse and Cranleigh having turned down the film on learning of its rebellious content. Malcolm McDowell played his character, Mick Travis, who battles the authority of Rowntree, the head whip, in a further two Anderson films – O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital Photograph: Public Domain Pinterest College Françoise Dolto Entre les Murs (The Class, 2008)Although the school in Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winner remains unnamed during the film, it was shot at a typical-looking lycée in the multicultural 20th arrondissement of Paris. The action is concentrated entirely within the school walls, an examination of institutions, rules and the influence of environment and education - on both children and educators.

The film, which earned France its first winner at Cannes for 21 years, is in a proud tradition of French schools in cinema, going back to the grandaddy of the entire genre, Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite Photograph: Rex Features Pinterest Appleyard College Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)Perhaps his later school film Dead Poets Society is more famous, but Australian director Peter Weir established himself as a distinctive power in 70s film-making with a hauntingly beautiful mystery. It’s set on Valentine’s Day 1900, when several members of the strict girls’ college run by Mrs Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) go missing on a trip to a local landmark, never to be found. The film’s theme tune, evoking a timeless spirituality, became a hit single. Martindale Hall in Mintaro, south Australia, filled in for the school and is now a boutique hotel Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar Pinterest Marcia Blaine School for Girls The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)In 1930s Edinburgh, a class of girls is assigned to Miss Brodie, who describes herself as being in her prime.

She takes a shine to four girls in particular: Sandy, Jenny, Monica and Mary McGregor. They become the Brodie set and will become “the crème de la crème”. Maggie Smith won an Oscar for her performance in Ronald Neame’s film, which also starred Celia Johnson as the stern headmistress Emmeline Mackay, with whom Miss Brodie’s unorthodox teaching methods – espousing art, love affairs and fascist leaders – did not sit well Photograph: Rex Features Pinterest Watt High School Elephant (2003)A Palme d’Or winner in 2003, Watt is the fictional setting for Gus van Sant’s clinical dramatisation of a high school massacre, probably inspired by 1999’s Columbine murders. The same director has also made “inspirational educator” movies such as Good Will Hunting, but Elephant follows two bullied students, Alex and Eric, as they shoot fellow pupils and teachers.

Van Sant’s film, set in his native Portland, was later blamed for 2005’s Red Lake Senior High school massacre in Minnesota, when its perpetrator was revealed to have watched Elephant before carrying out his attack Photograph: Public Domain Muriel Spark Muriel Spark Beautifully packaged reissue of one of Muriel Spark's best loved novels, The Girls of Slender Means 'Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions' In the May of Teck Club - a London hostel 'three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit' - the young lady residents do their best to act as if the war never happened. They practice elocution, and jostle one another over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. But behind the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations they hide some tragically painful secrets and wounds.'You girls are my vocation . . .

I am dedicated to you in my prime' 'Reading the novel as a young woman was a random gift; rereading it today is to encounter the rarest of fiction and to appreciate the early and enduring genius of Muriel Spark' Carol Shields, Guardian 'One of Spark's most evocative novels' Anne Taylor Muriel Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh. She was active in the field of creative writing since 1950, when she won a short-story writing competition in the Observer, and her many subsequent novels include Memento Mori (1959), The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Girls of Slender Means (1963) and Aiding and Abetting (2000). She also wrote plays, poems, children's books and biographies. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993, and died in 2006. Beautifully packaged reissue of Muriel Spark's best loved novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 'You girls are my vocation . . .

I am dedicated to you in my prime' Miss Jean Brodie is a schoolmistress with a difference. She is proud, cultured and romantic but her educational ideas are highly progressive and even deeply shocking. So when she decides to transform a group of 'special girls' into the crème de la crème at Marcia Blaine School they are soon known, perhaps suspiciously, as the Brodie set. Introduced to an unsettling world of adult games and curious intrigues, the Brodie Set know that they are honoured and privileged. Yet there is a price to pay - they must give Miss Brodie their undivided loyalty . . . 'The most gifted and innovative British novelist of her generation' David Lodge, The New York Times 'Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards' John Updike, New Yorker 'One of the greatest books about growing up' James Wood, Guardian Muriel Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh.

She was active in the field of creative writing since 1950, when she won a short-story writing competition in the Observer, and her many subsequent novels include Memento Mori (1959), The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Girls of Slender Means (1963) and Aiding and Abetting (2000). She also wrote plays, poems, children's books and biographies. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993, and died in 2006. Muriel Spark's classic The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie features a schoolmistress you'll never forget, in this beautifully repackaged Penguin Essentials edition. 'Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life . . .' Passionate, free-thinking and unconventional, Miss Brodie is a teacher who exerts a powerful influence over her group of 'special girls' at Marcia Blaine School.

They are the Brodie set, the crème de la crème, each famous for something - Monica for mathematics, Eunice for swimming, Rose for sex - who are initiated into a world of adult games and extracurricular activities they will never forget. But the price they pay is their undivided loyalty . . . The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a brilliantly comic novel featuring one of the most unforgettable characters in all literature. 'Muriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards' John Updike 'Spark's most celebrated novel' Independent 'There is no question about the quality and distinctiveness of her writing, with its quirky concern with human nature, and its comedy' William Boyd 'A brilliant psychological figure' Observer Muriel Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh.

She was active in the field of creative writing since 1950, when she won a short-story writing competition in the Observer, and her many subsequent novels include Memento Mori (1959), The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Girls of Slender Means (1963) and Aiding and Abetting (2000). She also wrote plays, poems, children's books and biographies. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993, and died in 2006. Muriel Spark (and others) Described as 'a metaphysical shocker' at the time of its release, Muriel Sparks' The Driver's Seat is a taut psychological thriller, published with an introduction by John Lanchester in Penguin Modern Classics. Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime.

But her search for adventure, sex and new experiences takes on a far darker significance as she heads on a journey of self-destruction. Infinity and eternity attend Lise's last terrible day in an unnamed southern city, as she meets her fate. One of six novels to be nominated for a 'Lost Man Booker Prize', The Driver's Seat was adapted into a 1974 film, Identikit, starring Elizabeth Taylor. Muriel Spark (1918 - 2006) wrote poetry, stories, and biographies as well as a remarkable series of novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Mandelbaum Gate (1965) which received the James Tait Black Prize, and The Public Image (1968) and Loitering with Intent (1981), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Spark was awarded the T.S. Eliot Award for poetry in 1992, and the David Cohen Prize for literature in 1997. If you enjoyed The Driver's Seat, you might like Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'An extraordinary tour de force, a crime story turned inside out' David Lodge 'Her spiny and treacherous masterpiece' New Yorker Muriel Spark The brevity of Muriel Spark's novels is equaled only by their brilliance. These four novels, each a miniature masterpiece, illustrate her development over four decades. Despite the seriousness of their themes, all four are fantastic comedies of manners, bristling with wit. Spark's most celebrated novel, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, tells the story of a charismatic schoolteacher's catastrophic effect on her pupils. THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS is a beautifully drawn portrait of young women living in a hostel in London in the giddy postwar days of 1945. THE DRIVER'S SEAT follows the final haunted hours of a woman descending into madness. And THE ONLY PROBLEM is a witty fable about suffering that brings the Book of Job to bear on contemporary terrorism. Characters are vividly etched in a few words; earth-shaking events are lightly touched on. Yet underneath the glittering surface there is an obsessive probing of metaphysical questions: the meaning of good and evil, the need for salvation, the search for significance.

Muriel Spark (and others) Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie includes an introduction by Candia McWilliam in Penguin Modern Classics. Romantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, unconventional ideas and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy - 'the crème de la crème' - who become the Brodie 'set', introduced to a privileged world of adult games that they will never forget. Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was adapted into a successful stage play, and later a film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Maggie Smith. Muriel Spark (1918 - 2006) wrote poetry, stories, and biographies as well as a remarkable series of novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Mandelbaum Gate (1965) which received the James Tait Black Prize, and The Public Image (1968) and Loitering with Intent (1981), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Spark was awarded the T.S.

Eliot Award for poetry in 1992, and the David Cohen Prize for literature in 1997. If you enjoyed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, you might like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'A sublimely funny book ... it is a book to be read by all ... unforgettable and universal' Candia McWilliam, author of Debatable Land The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Essay - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Spark, Muriel - eNotes.com The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Essay - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Spark, Muriel link Link The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark The following entry presents criticism on Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961). For further information on her life and works, see CLC, Volumes 2, 3, 5, 8 and 18. One of Spark's best-known and most critically acclaimed works, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) centers on morality, manipulation, and betrayal at a school for girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the 1930s.

Praised for its structural complexity, the novel juxtaposes past, present, and future events as well as fantasies as it documents the decline of the title character—the teacher Jean Brodie—and her effect on her students. As Mary Schneider has stated: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie has long been recognized as a brilliantly woven novel, complex in its narrative techniques and themes." Plot and Major Characters The primary action of the novel takes place at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the 1930s and focuses on a small group of students, known as "the Brodie set," and their schoolmistress, Miss Jean Brodie. The story begins in 1936, when the girls are sixteen, but quickly flashes back to 1930, when the girls—then in the junior level—began their two year course of study under Brodie's tutelage. Spark utilizes flashbacks and flash-forwards throughout the novel. A domineering eccentric who admires the fascism of Benito Mussolini, Brodie attempts to exert control over her students' lives and fantasies and to mold their beliefs and aesthetic tastes.

Although Brodie's affect on each of the girls varies, they remain a distinct clique at the school after they leave the junior level and move up through the senior level. Sandy Stranger and Rose Stanley are the principal figures among the girls, and it is through them that Brodie attempts to carry on a vicarious romance with Teddy Lloyd, the school's art master. Although Brodie is in love with Lloyd, she renounces him because he is married. Brodie instead carries on an affair with Gordon Lowther, the school's singing master, but refuses to marry him. At this point in the story—when the flashbacks have caught up to the time when the novel formally began, in 1936—a new girl, Joyce Emily Hammond, arrives at the school and manages to befriend Brodie. At the same time, the Headmistress, Miss Mackay, is attempting and failing to have Brodie removed. Joyce eventually disappears; it is later learned that she was killed in Spain, where her brother is fighting the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. During the summer of 1938, Brodie tours Germany, where her admiration for fascism increases.

At the same time, Sandy has an affair with Lloyd—Brodie had intended for Rose to sleep with him. Lloyd, who is Catholic, introduces Sandy to Catholicism. She later converts, becomes a nun, and writes a famous psychological treatise, "The Transfiguration of the Commonplace." After returning from Germany, Brodie tells Sandy that she encouraged Joyce to go to Spain and convinced her to switch her allegiance to the fascists. Horrified at Brodie's disregard for human life and individuality, Sandy relates the information to Miss Mackay, who forces Brodie's resignation. Brodie, who dies of cancer seven years later, spends the remainder of her life trying to figure out who betrayed her. Major Themes Major themes in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie include control and omniscience, Sandy's psychological development, and religion. The first theme centers on Brodie's attempts to influence the girl's actions and beliefs. Brodie tells the girls that they are an elite group—the "crème de la crème"—and she takes them into her confidence and tries to imbue them with her views on culture and life.

As Dorothea Walker has stated, Brodie's "determination to broaden [the girls' knowledge] with her distorted version of reality suggests both her authoritarian nature and her desire to control. Her greatest wish is really to reproduce clones of herself." Miss Brodie's admiration for fascism reinforces this theme, and Sandy, in her recollections of "the Brodie Set" and its emphasis on conformity, likens the girls to Mussolini's soldiers. This theme is also reflected in Spark's narrative style—a number of critics have compared her authorial control over the characters with Miss Brodie's totalitarian personality and fascist impulses. Margaret Moan Rowe has stated that "Spark deftly counterpoints authorial omniscience with Brodie's attempts at omniscience; all the author plans works, not so with the plans of the character in the novel." The novel's second theme shows Sandy's development from a young girl who hesitantly accepts Brodie's declarations, to a teenager who questions the limits of her loyalty to Brodie, to a cloistered nun. As a young girl Sandy is obsessed with understanding Brodie's psychology.

However, as Sandy matures, her fascination with Brodie gives way to the realization of her moral obligation to the welfare of others and compels her to put an end to Brodie's tenure at the school, thus preventing her from influencing another set of impressionable girls. Spark's characters rarely, however, act from a single motive, and the author suggests that Sandy's impulse to act against Brodie is also tinged with jealousy. The novel's third theme centers on Roman Catholicism. Brodie abhors Catholicism and tells her students that it is a religion for those who do not wish to think for themselves. In authorial commentary, Spark notes that this is an odd view for someone such as Brodie and suggests that Brodie was best suited to the Roman Catholic church, which might have refined her excesses. Sandy's conversion to Catholicism owes to her affair with Lloyd and the influence of Brodie. Commenting on Sandy's conversion and Brodie's role in it, Walker has stated that "Spark appears to be saying that out of evil may come good, in that evil might be refined and tempered into good.

To a believer like Spark, the tempering agent is Roman Catholicism." Critical Reception Most critics consider The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to be Spark's finest novel. Commentators have noted its thematic richness as well as its technical achievements, particularly Spark's handling of time through flashbacks and flash-forwards. Others have remarked on Spark's writing and narrative organization, praising it as concise and economical. Rowe has written that "Nothing is wasted in [The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie], which is so much about a waste of human energy." Although many scholars consider the novel to be primarily a character study centered on Sandy and Miss Brodie, others have argued that the novel's focus is metafictional. Gerry S. Laffin, for instance, has suggested that "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a parable, and a highly autobiographical one, of the artist as a young girl. Further, it seems that in this novel at least, Mrs.

Spark believes that any creator of fiction who claims to be a truth-teller is being absurdly, even dangerously, pretentious." More Content: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Spark, Muriel (hide) Things To Do In Edinburgh For Film Lovers - Littlemummy.comLittlemummy.com Things To Do In Edinburgh For Film Lovers Posted on November 10, 2015 by Erica It’s easy to see why Edinburgh has such a strong connection to the film industry. Not only is it home to one of the most important Film Festivals in the world, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, but also the city has featured in many famous movies. Edinburgh has many eclectic venues where film buffs can indulge themselves and numerous film locations to visit. Here are my favourite things to do in Edinburgh for film lovers; Edinburgh International Film Festival The film festival started in the same year as the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. It is the world’s longest running film festival, and has helped to define film festival events across the globe. There is no need to travel to Cannes or Venice to see the stars, watch ground-breaking new films and see emerging talent, it all happens right here.

The 70th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival will run from 15th to 26th June 2016. The Edinburgh International Film Festival Luna Cinema The Luna Cinema is the country’s leading producer of open air cinema events. Classic films shown on a big screen in a beautiful or prestigious setting. What could be more magical on a summer evening than taking the family for a picnic under the stars and enjoying a favourite movie? The Luna Cinema comes to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh every summer. Arboretum Place, Edinburgh EH3 5NZ The Luna Cinema Dominion Cinema The Dominion Cinema is a distinctive building designed in the 1930s, the interior has a mix of modern and traditional décor. The cinema shows most of the new releases and is one of the venues for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Why go to a bland multiplex when you can relax and enjoy a film with wine and snacks, reclining chairs and sofas to cuddle up on. 18 Newbattle Terrace, Edinburgh EH10 4RT The Dominion Cinema Filmhouse Cinema Filmhouse is a three-screen independent cinema showing a wide range of films from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to arty films, restored classics, and themed seasons and festivals.

It is housed in a former church at 88 Lothian Road. All three cinemas are fully accessible, and films are regularly screened with audio description and hard-of-hearing subtitles As well as three screens, the cinema has a café bar. Drinks can be taken into the cinemas – just ask for a plastic glass! Famous films set in Edinburgh Trainspotting (1996) Danny Boyle’s famous film is a gritty portrayal of Edinburgh life and features many scenes in and around the capital. The most recognisable is when the main character Renton (portrayed by a young Ewan McGregor) is seen racing along Princes Street to the sound of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, pursued by security guards from the nearby shops. In another scene Renton and Spud slither down Waterloo Place, right by the station; no film has done more to put Edinburgh on the map in the modern era. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) The film is based on Muriel Spark’s celebrated 1961 book and is inspired largely by Spark’s own time at Gillespie’s school. Maggie Smith won the best actress award in 1969.

1960s Edinburgh portrays 1930s Edinburgh seamlessly. The Marcia Blaine school is sited in the Edinburgh Academy building in Henderson Row, and you can stand in the same spot as Maggie Smith on the Grassmarket and shout: “Observe, little girls, the castle!”, shortly before heading off to Greyfriars Kirkyard. Chariots of Fire (1981) Chariots of Fire was inspired by the real life events of the 1924 Olympics and features many scenes in Edinburgh. The most spectacular shot is the sweeping shot of the city’s rooftops from Arthur’s Seat. There is also a scene when one of the main characters, Eric Liddell, tips his cap to the statue of John Knox, located in the courtyard of the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall, just off the Mound. Burke and Hare (2010) Historical Edinburgh became famous for corpse-stealing due to the notorious Burke and Hare murders in 1827 and 1828 which have resulted in a string of movies. The most recent one stars Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg.

The Greyfriars Kirkyard scene transports the audience back to Victorian times with chilling scenes of the pair sneaking into Greyfriars at night to dig up recently buried corpses to sell to the medical students at the university, before they decide this is too much like hard work and start murdering people. Although it is filmed on a set you feel as if you are there. One Day (2011) Any modern movie tour of Edinburgh could not miss out the adaptation of David Nicholls’ bestselling romantic novel. In the opening scenes graduating Edinburgh university students Dexter and Emma are seen in what looks like the quadrangle of Old College. The pair (played by Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway) then kiss in the street in Stockbridge. In the final scene, which is a flashback to the pair’s ‘morning after the night before’ moment from the opening scene, we cut to the iconic view across the city from Arthur’s Seat to end this romantic tearjerker.

Related Posts The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Analysis - eNotes.com The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Analysis link Link Miss Brodie lives life on a grander scale than the typical unmarried schoolteacher does, and she believes that her students should have the benefit of her experiences, which she considers more valuable than the lessons within their texts. Her students are told to hold their history books open when they are really hearing about Miss Brodie’s travels in Italy, her dead fiancé, or her views on art. The six girls who make up the Brodie set are selected at age ten, when they are in her junior school class. They are chosen not so much for their special abilities as for what Miss Brodie will be able to do with them—each has parents who will not question the teacher’s departures from traditional educational patterns. In addition to vicariously experiencing Miss Brodie’s youthful affair with a soldier who was killed in World War I and her travels in Europe, the members of the set are educated in other ways that Miss Brodie finds most appropriate. They accompany her to concerts, to ballet performances, and on walks through derelict sections of Edinburgh, where they see historic buildings and learn about unemployment.

The girls remain Miss Brodie’s students for two years but continue to be the “Brodie set” through all their years at Marcia Blaine. They take tea and excursions with their former teacher as they grow older, telling her what they are learning in senior school and continuing to hear of her vacations and opinions. Their behavior is shaped by Brodie’s ideas; none joins the Girl Guides or is actively a team player because Miss Brodie does not believe in conformist behavior. This contrasts strangely with the teacher’s vocal admiration for the order in Italy under Benito Mussolini and his fascists. Only Sandy picks up on and ponders this... (The entire section is 734 words.) Get Free Access Start your free trial with eNotes for complete access to this resource and thousands more. 30,000+ Study Guides Save time with thousands of teacher-approved book and topic summaries. Get Homework Help Ask real teachers questions on any subject or search 300,000+ answers. On the Go Access Plot Summary of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" Story | Education - Seattle PI Plot Summary of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" Story Education by Demand Media Mr.

Lloyd's paintings give Sandy the opportunity to betray Miss Jean Brodie. Related Articles What Is One of Percy Jackson's Character Traits? "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" fits into a long line of books and movies about a forward-thinking and eccentric teacher who has a great deal of influence on her students. The book, which was also made into a movie, tells the story of the special education that Miss Jean Brodie gives her students at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh in the 1930s and the lessons she learned in return. Set against the backdrop of fascism and the Spanish Civil War, the story is told through a series of flashbacks and flash forwards. Story Exposition The story begins in 1936 when Miss Jean Brodie's favorite students are 16, but the story quickly flashes back to 1930 when they first meet. Miss Jean Brodie believes that her students must have a classic, well-rounded education, and she uses herself as a model. In addition to teaching them about art history and literature, she also talks to them about fascism -- of which she is an admirer -- and even her own love life and personal travails.

Miss Jean Brodie singles out six of her students -- Sandy, Rose, Mary, Jenny, Monica and Eunice -- for special tutelage. Known as "The Brodie Set," these girls form a strong relationship with Miss Jean Brodie, but the reader learns right away that one of them will ultimately betray her. Rising Action Miss Brodie is quickly embroiled in a love triangle with music teacher Gordon Lowther and art teacher Teddy Lloyd. Miss Jean Brodie swears off a relationship with Mr. Lloyd because he is married and has six children. Before she does so, she shares a simple kiss with him, which Monica sees. Miss Brodie has a brief affair with Mr. Lowther, but remains fixated on Mr. Lloyd. She decides to take Sandy as her confidante and learns that Mr. Lloyd often asks the girls to sit for him as portrait subjects. Miss Brodie develops a plan with Sandy to encourage Rose to have a sexual affair with Mr. Lloyd, through which Miss Brodie can live vicariously. Story Climax The climax of the story comes in Sandy's multi-part betrayal of Miss Brodie, though the teacher never learns of it until later in life.

While Miss Brodie is traveling for the summer, Sandy enters into an affair with Mr. Lloyd herself. When Sandy leaves him, she decides to convert to Roman Catholicism and become a nun. However, before she does, she decides to help headmistress Miss Mackay, who has been looking for a way to get rid of Miss Brodie for years. Sandy tells Miss Mackay to accuse Miss Brodie of promoting fascism in the classroom, which she has done. Miss Mackay follow her advice and is successful. Story Resolution By the end of the story, the reader learns that Sandy has become a nun and has written a famous book on psychology, called "The Transfiguration of the Commonplace." When being interviewed for the book, she identifies Miss Brodie as the primary influence on her school years. Miss Brodie dies before Sandy's book comes out. It is not until she is on her death bed that she comes to the realization that Sandy is the one who betrayed her all those years earlier.

References The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Everything2.com The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by O-Swirl Thu Nov 01 2001 at 14:44:24 A classic book by Muriel Spark about a unique teacher , published in 1961 . The setting is Edinburgh , Scotland and Miss Brodie is a teacher in her " prime ," at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls . The group of girls closest to her are examined through the course of the novel. They all wear uniforms , but each wear their hats a little different in correlation with their distinct personalities. The future of each girl is suggested early in the novel, foreshadowing the interesting story to come. One girl will die in a fire at a young age, and one girl will be " famous for sex " in her not-too-distant future. One girl will betray Miss Brodie. Jean Brodie introduces the girls to new and often absurd ideas about life. While her control over the youths fades as they age, her impression never really disappears. Since I loved the book so much, I rented the film version, but was somewhat disappointed with it.

Other books by Muriel Spark include: Mon Jul 12 2010 at 20:19:55 "There was a Miss Jean Brodie in her prime." The Novel Muriel Spark 's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie first appeared in the pages of The New Yorker , and then as a book in 1961. The short novel has received extensive critical praise-- Time considers it one of the best hundred books written in English in the twentieth century —inspired a play, an Oscar-winning film, and a television series, and established the bright but deeply flawed Scottish schoolteacher as one of the most memorable characters in recent literature. The first chapter begins in 1937 , when the Brodie Set, Miss Jean's special girls, are sixteen . A new girl, a rebellious transfer student, vies to become part of their group. The death of this relatively minor character will have significant effects. Although older and no longer in her class at conservative Marcia Blaine School, the girls continue their friendship with each other and their former teacher.

The chapter then flashes back six years, to an early encounter between the girls and Miss Brodie, and then forward seven years, to events that transpire long after one of her favourites "betrays" her. The novel continues in this manner, shifting time and place. Most of the story occurs during the years the girls study at the elite private school, but we see glimpses of their lives into the 1950s . The girls of the last Brodie Set have been cultivated by their teacher since the age of eight or nine. Brodie, an eccentric romantic , teaches material outside of the regular curriculum, so that her girls have heard of " Mussolini , the Italian Renaissance painters . . . and the word ' menarche .'" She inculcates a dislike of the school "team spirit" and the Girl Guides , yet she praises the European fascists and insists on order, her idea of order. She encourages the search for truth yet lies and spins stories about her own life; she espouses vaguely Bohemian ideals of art and Progressive ideas of education but insists on conventional decorum. She insists she can make her girls hers "for life" and continually directs them, as though they were actors in her play.

One of her students, Sandy, later connects Miss Jean with the Calvinist God . The novel notes that many women like her existed in the 1930s , but few taught at traditional private schools, and this fact, more than any other, leads to scandal . Spoilers. You may want to skip ahead to the section on the film. For much of the novel, Miss Brodie finds her main opponent in the dowdy headmistress, Miss Mackay, who encourages Jean to apply at a more progressive school, and plots to remove her from Blaine. Brodie openly discusses these "plots" with her special girls. The Set includes the clever Monica Douglas, sensual Rose Stanley, athletic Eunice Gardiner, awkward Mary MacGregor, and insightful, imaginative Sandy Stranger and Jenny Gray. The transfer student, Joyce Emily Hammond, does not really penetrate the set before she meets her untimely end. Jean Brodie romanticizes her past involvement with a younger man , Hugh, who died in The Great War . At Blaine, she becomes involved with two men, the married art teacher, Teddy Lloyd, and the reliable musician, Gordon Lowther.

While still children, Sandy and Jenny compose love letters, romantic tales, and even police procedurals around their teacher. Years later, Jean will attempt to set one of these girls up as Lloyd's mistress, in her own place. Miss McKay attempts to use the rumours of sexual impropriety to eliminate Miss Brodie. She does not succeed. Only later, after the death of Joyce Emily Hammond, does a disenchanted Brodie Girl suggest that McKay use Brodie's political leanings against her. Fascism, Romanticism's darkest extension, has a hold on Brodie, and she has been imparting her naïve understanding of the movement to the girls. That same student, years later, will acknowledge that, despite her flaws, Brodie had positive as well as negative influences on her life. By then, the teacher has died, a broken woman who always wondered which of her students betrayed her. The novel does an excellent job of character: in particular, the complex personality of Miss Jean Brodie. Spark describes the world and its people with deft, thoughtful prose. She handles the fragmented time-structure effectively, often through the use of repetition. which may irk some readers.

The approach allows us to see the characters and events as their thoughts and actions resonate through time. The Film "Sandy, please try to do as I say and not as I do. Remember, you are a child, Sandy, and far from your prime." Although the novel achieved considerable popularity, many more people encountered Miss Jean Brodie in the 1969 film, itself heavily adapted from a 1968 stage version (the original starred Vanessa Redgrave ). Both feature a linear time structure, and reduce the number of Brodie girls. Instead of the middle-aged spinster who can recall an affair, in 1914 , with a younger soldier, she is perhaps thirty at the start of the film and in 1914 much younger than her ill-fated lover. The film also gives us a less complex Miss Brodie, something more of a caricature, though a memorable one. Maggie Smith won the Academy Award for best actress, and she carries the film for many viewers. Her Brodie, at once compelling and ridiculous, clearly communicates why the girls would be drawn to her, and why the Headmistress would find her dangerous.

The film does a remarkable job of bringing the Brodie Set— the actors were in their late teens and early twenties— from age twelve to seventeen. Pamela Franklin is a revelation as Sandy, transforming from a curious, pubescent child in oversized glasses to a forthright seventeen year old who has an affair with a middle-aged man—which she ends, rather coldly, when she realizes he remains far more interested in her teacher. The director cast talented (and tiny) actresses to help with the illusion of growth and development. The film also employs a number of physical effects, including carefully framed shots, and specially-constructed desks and costumes. Other strong performances mark the film. Robert Stephens manages to be both offensive and fascinating as Lloyd. Ann Way plays the Headmistress's secretary and toady , Gaunt, investing her fleeting appearances with a subtle repulsiveness. Spoilers Again The strong, largely comic performances help carry a somewhat dialogue-heavy script marked by both a slow pace and some dramatic excesses. If the writers have simplified the source, they have also heightened certain scenes for the camera and the mass audience. Rather than a minor, otherwise inconsequential character heading off to the Spanish Civil War to die, one of the key Brodie Girls does so.

The change better serves to draw the audience into the event. The screenplay also adds an ironic twist to her death . This particular change doubtless spoke to the audiences of 1969, and the American involvement in Vietnam . The film reveals nothing of the characters' futures. It finishes with the school term—and Miss Brodie's cries of, "Assassin!" (which do not appear in the original novel) as her Judas walks calmly off. Despite some excesses, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie holds up quite well, decades later, for its strong performances, excellent recreation of 1930s Edinborough , and flawed, fascinating protagonist. Directed by Ronald Neame Roses are Red The film's theme song, "Jean," written by Rod McKuen, became a major hit in 1969. Both McKuen and pop star Oliver (William Swofford) released versions. Although the music suits the tone of the film, the syrupy lyrics seem to describe an entirely different Jean or, perhaps, a much younger version of the character. The movie, wisely, features only the tune. The novel also became a short-run British television series in 1978 .

Geraldine McEwan as Jean Brodie presides over a class containing girls from the novel and other, original characters Carpe Diem Tom Schulman won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Dead Poets Society , but the claim, at least, of originality, must be challenged. The film takes the plot of the Brodie film, switches gender, glorifies the central character, and moves the setting to late 1950s Vermont . It would be difficult to miss the similarities. Both take place at elite, single-sex private schools. Both feature an unconventional teacher as protagonist , one who incurs the antagonism of an old-fashioned administrator. Both teachers are Romantics who denigrate the traditional curriculum and methodology. Each opens new worlds for the students but, arguably, leaves them without the tools to negotiate those worlds. Both experience scandal when a student dies. Both cultivate a small set of followers, one of whom betrays the instructor. The difference, of course, is that Prime examines Miss Brodie and her failings. Dead Poets Society fails to recognize any moral complexity or shortcomings in its central character. Miss Brodie has admirable characteristics, but substantial flaws that lead to tragedy .

Dead Poets presents John Keating as a hero, whose fall results entirely from the forces of repression and tradition. Robin Williams 's Keating will entertain you, and perhaps inculcate an interest in reading, which I applaud. Jean Brodie, however, appears in a work made of stronger, more thought-provoking material. Of course, both are works of fiction-- and, as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie reminds us, it can be dangerous to mistake fantasies and clever fabrications for reality. How to be Well-read in No Time: 45 Short Novels - Listmuse.com Links How to be well-read in no time: 45 short novels How to be well-read in no time: 45 short novels is a list of books that provides a varied glimpse of the written style of many of the great authors. A concise selection, the titles can be worked through over a very short period, or, alternatively, they can be sandwiched between larger classics in an even more ambitious reading program. For further reading suggestions see our Top 100 Novels of All Time . 1.

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Question: The Marcia Blane academy for girls is the setting for what famous novel, which also became a famous film?
Answer: THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE