Frances

How she didn't win an Academy Award for this riveting performance is beyond me. Hollywood has done Frances wrong and the same can be said for Jessica not getting her Oscar. I initially read the book, "Will there ever be a morning"? which was heartbreaking. When she was cast in the movie I figured she was the only actress that could do Frances right and play her with such emotion and fire. Jessica is on fire in so many scenes its hard to pick out the most memorable. For me it was when she was yanked out of her bathroom in the middle of the night saying you have no right, and the biting, sarcastic conversation with the police when she is arrested. The one on one chat with her psychiatrist is priceless when she tells him of the little bead of sweat above his lip along with the fact that where does he come off thinking he has more insight into her mind than she does. All true, which in effect makes it so sad. A tragic, yet important film to view for Ms. Lange's unforgettable portrayal.

Despite a lot of errors including one apparently fictional lover for Frances Farmer, the film Frances is a look at on oddball type movie star for her time. Today Frances Farmer's activities for various causes wouldn't raise a sleepy eyebrow in Hollywood. Never mind being committed to an insane asylum. She'd more at home now in the film industry than in the studio system of the day. The system is personified here by Paramount Pictures executive Allan Rich who is a cross between studio presidents Barney Balaban and Emmanuel Cohen in the day. But Jessica Lange truly becomes Frances Farmer the girl with a social conscience, truly who did not like the cheesecake image that Paramount wanted her to fill. She also learned from her experience in the Group Theater that even liberal activists could be snakes. Clifford Odets with whom she had one torrid affair with and Harold Clurman manager of the Group Theater let her down. Odets's wife never seen emerges as a villain of sorts who gets her man back. Not is she mentioned by name, but it was Luise Rainer who was still very much alive and lived to the ripe old age of 104. So in fact is Farmer's first husband Leif Ericksen never mentioned by name. He's given the fictional name of Dick Steele and he's a minor character and played by Christopher Pennock. Sam Shepard is not real, he's an amalgam of several left wing activists from the Seattle area where Frances Farmer was from. But he functions as sort of an emotional balance, someone who Farmer could turn to when she was unable to cope with all the lies and promises of show business. If there is an award for bit parts ever developed for the year 1982 it would go to Darrell Larson. He's a real bottom feeder stringer for gossip columnist Louella Parsons. He has two scenes with Lange and in the second she puts him down severely. Lange and Kim Stanley got Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Stanley who could have done Frances back in her salad days plays her mother, a rather straitlaced woman who thinks her daughter must be crazy after all she and dad Bart Burns are the Ward and June Cleaver of the 30s, how could they raise a left wing radical. Ergo, she must be crazy. And Frances was going to stay in those asylums until she learned the error of her ways. Jessica Lange fits Frances Farmer so well you forget this is a film biography and think you are peaking in on the life of Frances Farmer. As good as the film is I can't recommend too strongly that you read her autobiography Will There Ever Be A Morning? One of the most honest Hollywood stories ever written.

Jessica Lange in a preconceived tour-de-force, playing 1930s actress Frances Farmer, an unwilling celebrity who was institutionalized for--among other sins--not playing by the rules. It's a grueling movie from an entertainment standpoint (there's nothing visually stimulating going on, so all we're left with are the dramatic performances). Lange does fine work, certainly, but the writing is pedantic and the direction smooths everything out. Before we're allowed to get worked up, the filmmakers have moved on to another trauma. Biographies of popular or notorious figures can be very successful ("I Want To Live!" is a good example), but "Frances" isn't truthful enough nor thought-provoking enough to stir more than a minimum of interest. ** from ****

I hadn't really remembered who Frances Farmer was until this poignant film was made. This is a rags to riches to insanity true story of Farmer's life. Lange is supported by Kim Stanley who plays Frances' mother Lillian (both were nominated for a 1983 Academy Award!) and Sam Shepard, who plays Harry York. Frances Farmer was ahead of her time in the ways she opinionated herself and the outspokenness with which she lived her life. Treated very badly by the same studio system that made her a star and her own mother's betrayal, Frances' descent into madness and Lange's impeccable acting makes this movie a must to see and, perhaps, own.

source: Frances

Trailer—Frances

Frances

At the time Frances was released, a full-court-press of PR for Lange was underway, with Hollywood marketing departments insisting that we all loved Lange, and that she was some sort of prodigy. Many people fell for this. And Brooksfilms was being rightfully criticized ("Whose Life is It, Anyway?" American Film) for cynically noting that a few lives of interest were now in the public domain (Frances Farmer, The Elephant Man) and getting a movie out before the other productions could finish theirs. Those matters aside, Frances is not very edifying. What audience was such a miserable story intended to capture? The story-arc goes from depressing to even more emphatically depressing. Harry York is a piece of fiction. The most I can muster is a grudging respect for a movie that will show a protagonist combatting a pair of insane parents; and one extra star for some infrequent, nice compositions.

I saw this a very long time ago. Francess has got to be one of the bleakest, most difficult to watch films I've ever seen yet it's an absolutely incredibly done picture from start to finish. This is a film that is almost guaranteed to disturb-I saw it so long ago I can't really remember it scene by scene. However, what I CAN remember is how disturbed I felt when it was over. It's pretty tough to watch yet incredibly well acted and poignant. I doubt I could view this again but as far as the movie itself goes, it's intense, unpleasant in MANY scenes, overwhelming and highly charged as well as featuring topnotch acting and being incredibly welldone. As mentioned, it's difficult in many scenes, but a must see for film buffs who can handle the intensity.

That's the kind of movie I see over and over and over and it always give me the emotional density I was looking for... One of my favorite scenes is in this drama: Some time after lobotomy, Frances tells Jack that from this moment on the things will be slower... She has no more emotion, is no more that vivid girl she was. No matter if this really happen or not to the actress: the situation is pure emotion. I saw all the movies starred by Frances Farmer that was possible for me to see and it makes me like her very much. Again, the music of John Barry makes me cry. The Hollyood background have never been so perfect. Jessica Lange gives the right density to the drama of the girl... Oh, my God, how she deserved that Oscar she did'n get...