The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Jean Brodie: Ah, chrysanthemums. Such serviceable flowers.

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Teddy Lloyd: My church understands human imperfection and forgives it. Why can't you?
Jean Brodie: I am not interested in human imperfection! I am interested in beauty, in art, in truth!

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Jean Brodie: [after Miss Mackay has read a supposedly incriminating letter, written by Sandy and Jenny] There's very little for me to say, Miss Mackay in the face of your extraordinary prejudice and hostility.
Miss Mackay: Miss Brodie, I am not asking you to say anything. I am asking... demanding... that you put your signature, your own signature, on a letter of resignation which I have prepared for you.
Jean Brodie: I will not resign.
Miss Mackay: If you will not resign, you will force me to dismiss you.
Jean Brodie: I will not resign and you will not dismiss me, Miss Mackay. You will not use the excuse of that pathetic, that humorous document to blackmail me! Mr. Lowther, you are a witness to this. Miss Mackay has made totally unsupported accusations against my name and yours. If she has one authentic shred of evidence, just one, let her bring it forth! Otherwise, if one more word of this outrageous calumny reaches my ears, I shall sue! I shall take Miss Mackay to the public courts and I shall sue the trustees of Marcia Blaine, if they support her. I will not stand quietly by and allow myself to be crucified by a woman whose fetid frustration has overcome her judgment! If scandal is to your taste, Miss Mackay, I shall give you a feast!
Miss Mackay: Miss Brodie!
Jean Brodie: I am a teacher! I am a teacher, first, last, always! Do you imagine that for one instant I will let that be taken from me without a fight? I have dedicated, sacrificed my life to this profession. And I will not stand by like an inky little slacker and watch you rob me of it and for what? For what reason? For jealousy! Because I have the gift of claiming girls for my own. It is true I am a strong influence on my girls. I am proud of it! I influence them to be aware of all the possibilities of life... of beauty, honor, courage. I do not, Miss Mackay, influence them to look for slime where it does not exist! I am going. When my class convenes, my pupils will find me composed and prepared to reveal to them the succession of the Stuarts. And on Sunday, I will go to Cramond to visit Mr. Lowther. We are accustomed, bachelor and spinster, to spend our Sundays together in sailing and walking the beaches and in the pursuit of music. Mr. Lowther is teaching me to play the mandolin. Good day, Miss Mackay.

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Seventy-five girls were needed for the film, and about 500 showed when auditions were held in London. Faced with such an overwhelming number, the director's assistant separated the girls into more manageable groups of twenty. The director then asked each girl to giggle, and he made his selections based on how well the girls could do so.
Director Ronald Neame never read the novel from which this film is adapted.
According to director Ronald Neame, his own grandson posed on the potty as the baby for Teddy's family portrait.
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