Frances
Directed by Graeme Clifford
Written by Eric Bergren, Christopher De Vore, and Nicholas Kazan
1982/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental
Harry York: Frances, you’re crazy.
Frances Farmer: [softly] Don’t tell anybody.
The acting is the thing in this biopic of the troubled life of actress Frances Farmer.
The story begins in Farmer’s (Jessica Lange) hometown of Seattle. Her mother (Kim Stanley) has big dreams for her. Even as a teenager, Frances lacked a filter and shocked the locals with her prize-winning “God is Dead” speech. She further scandalizes society by accepting a free trip to Russia. Her beauty and her mother take her to Hollywood. But Frances continually bucked the system with her aspirations to something serious. She heads to New York where she attracts the attention of left-leaning theaters and stars in Clifford Odets’s “Golden Boy” on Broadway.
The one constant in Farmer’s life is Seattle friend and lover Harry York (Sam Shepard) who supports her through thick and thin. A combination of mother and Frances’s alcohol and drug abuse and burgeoning mental illness make her unemployable. Eventually they send her to asylums where she is subjected to brutal conditions and treatment.
Lange is truly remarkable in this role and richly deserved her Oscar nomination as did Kim Stanley. I always find Sheherd appealing. Otherwise, this would be just lurid. The film was based on a book which the author later admitted was highly fictional. I believe the only movie I have seen with Farmer in it was Come and Get It (1936). She was excellent.
