Themes: Mental Illness, Wrongly Committed, Mothers and Daughters
Main Cast: Robert Harris, Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard, Bart Burns, Jeffrey DeMunn
Release Year: 1982
Country: US
Run Time: 140 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
As played by Jessica Lange, Frances Farmer is a rebel from the word go, winning a high school essay award by writing a piece in defense of Communism. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to idiotic publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen sans makeup. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre. But once she leaves Hollywood for New York, Frances learns to her chagrin that the Group intends to exploit her movie fame in order to draw in customers. Her desperate attempts to restart her movie career, combined with her increasing dependence on alcohol and the pressures brought to bear by her monster mother (Kim Stanley), result in a complete mental breakdown. Even while institutionalized, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be; she is forced to undergo an injurious brain operation, is treated like a mad animal, and periodically raped by the inmates. Frances is released in the custody of her mother, who persists in browbeating her tortured daughter until Frances discovers the legal means to break away. The real-life Frances spent her last years as host of a local Indianapolis TV program, dying in 1970 at age 57; the film comes to a climax when Frances is feted on the smarmy network program This is Your Life. Other actual personages depicted herein include Clifford Odets (played by Jeffrey DeMunn), Harold Clurman (Jordan Charney) and Ralph Edwards (Donald Craig). Frances' first husband Leif Erickson is fictionalized as "Jeffrey York", and played by Lange's real-life inamorata Sam Shepard. And if you listen closely, you'll hear the voice of Kevin Costner, whose minor role was whittled down to one line when he, like Frances Farmer, had the temerity to argue with the director. The unhappy life of actress Frances Farmer was also covered in Farmer's autobiography, Will There Ever Be a Morning? While the film rights for that book were sold to a TV-movie concern, the producers of the theatrical feature Frances were able to ship their production out to the public first. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Graeme Clifford's exceedingly mediocre film on the tragic life of actress Frances Farmer provided the breakthrough role for Jessica Lange, who gives one of the finest performances of the decade. Whether one accepts the filmmakers' notion that Farmer was a great actress and the tragic victim of a retrograde Hollywood, incapable of handling a very smart, troubled, and willful woman, there's seems little doubt that her nightmarishly repressive mother and a brutal, benighted mental health system share the blame for destroying her once-vibrant personality. Unfortunately, Clifford adds insult to injury in turning the actress' life into a tedious, superficial soap opera, devoid of logic or perspective. Aside from Farmer, all of the characters, including her mother, are painfully underdeveloped, none more so than Harry York (Sam Shepard), a character invented by the writers to inject some romance into a tale of nearly unrelieved misery. Yet the film's existence can be justified on the basis of Lange's virtuoso performance, a miracle of intelligence, toughness, and sensitivity in a part whose emotional and physical demands left the actress drained for months afterwards. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Jordan Charney - Harold Clurman; Allan Rich - Bebe; Christopher Pennock - Dick Steele; Sarah Cunningham - Alma Styles; Jonathan Banks - Hitchhiker; James Brodhead - Sergeant; J.J. Chaback - Lady in Hotel; Daniel Chodes - Director; Rod Colbin - Judge; Kevin Costner; Donald Craig - Ralph Edwards; Lee de Broux - Director; Anne Haney - Hairdresser; Anjelica Huston; James Karen - Judge; Darrell Larson - Spy; Gerald O'Loughlin - Doctor; Woodrow Parfrey - Dr. Parfrey; John Randolph - Judge; Jack Riley - Barnes; Lane Smith - Dr. Symington; Andrew Winner - Firechief; Biff Yeager - Cop; Keone Young - Doctor; Alexander Zale - Man in Screening Room; Jack Manning - Photographer; Sandra Seacat - Drama Teacher; David Schroeder - Lawyer; Rod Pilloud - Martoni; Nancy Foy - Autograph Girl; Larry Pines - Man on Phone; Vern Taylor - Executive; Bonnie Bartlett - Stylist; Robert Harris; Richard L. Hawkins - Bum
Credit
Charles B. Mulvehill - Art Director, Ida Random - Art Director, Elisabeth Leustig - Casting, Pat Norris - Costume Designer, William P. Scott - First Assistant Director, Ed Milkovich - First Assistant Director, Graeme Clifford - Director, John Wright - Editor, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), Richard Sylbert - Production Designer, Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer, Ivan Strasburg - Cinematographer, Mel Brooks - Producer, Jana Sue Memel - Producer, Charles B. Mulvehill - Producer, Jonathan Sanger - Producer, Emad Helmey - Set Designer, David Ronne - Sound/Sound Designer, Christopher de Vore - Screenwriter, Nicholas Kazan - Screenwriter, Eric Bergren - Screenwriter
Frances is a 1982Universaldrama film starring Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard. When it was released this film was advertised as a purportedly true account of actress Frances Farmer's life but the script was largely fictional and sensationalized. In particular, the film depicts Farmer as having been lobotomized; this never happened.[1]
The film's tagline is: "Her story is shocking, disturbing, compelling... and true."
Directed by Graeme Clifford, the story was written for the screen by Eric Bergren, Christopher De Vore and Nicholas Kazan (son of Elia Kazan, who worked with the real Frances Farmer in several plays), based upon William Arnold's Shadowland, a fictional biography of Farmer. In pre-production, the producers reneged on their option to use the book as source material. Arnold filed an unsuccessful copyright infringement lawsuit but many of his fictional elements were incorporated into the final film. On the commentary of the latest DVD release, director Clifford stated, "We didn't want to nickel and dime people to death with facts." Mel Brooks was executive producer of the film, but received no credit for his participation.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Frances Elena Farmer is a rebel from a young age, winning a high school award by writing an essay called "God Dies". Later that decade, she becomes controversial again when she wins (and accepts) an all-expenses-paid trip to the USSR. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen without makeup. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre.
But once she leaves Hollywood for New York City, Frances learns to her chagrin that the Group Theatre intends to exploit her fame in order to draw in customers. Her desperate attempts to restart her movie career, combined with her increasing dependence on alcohol and the pressures brought to bear by her mother, result in a complete nervous breakdown. While institutionalized, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be; she is forced to undergo a brain operation, is treated with cruelty, and periodically raped by the male orderlies and visiting soldiers and eventually involuntarily lobotomized.
Frances is released in the custody of her mother in 1950, who persists in browbeating her daughter until Frances discovers the legal means to break away. The film comes to a climax when Frances is feted by the network program This Is Your Life; she spent 1958 to 1964 as host of a local TV program (Frances Farmer Presents) in Indianapolis, Indiana, dying of esophageal cancer on August 1, 1970 at age 56.
