User Reviews

The spectacular 8 hour limited series "Feud" made me revisit many of Jessica Lange's movies. Her performance is of such perfection that it reminded me how extraordinary she has always been. "Frances" is a shock to the system, unflinchingly so. The beautiful, sad, Francs Farmer in all its contradictions. Jessica Lange is absolutely mesmerizing. The movie suffers from what most biopics suffer from, A chronological succession of events and in the case of Frances Farmer, from bad the worse to much, much worse. The movie will drain you but the performance will keep you alert, alive, transfixed. There is more, Kim Stanley as Frances mother. An acting giant with very few film credits to her name. That alone makes "Frances" a collector's item.

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.

This film parallels the Biography Channel's version of Frances Farmer's life and career. Neither gave a definitive answer as to the cause of this actress' problems.

Was it inability to cope with society due to her own high standards of artistic integrity? Or was it a mental flaw that grew more intense as she got older? It was James Jones (in "From Here to Eternity") that wrote: "Maybe in the days of the pioneer, you could go your own way. Pvt. Pruitt, but today you gotta play ball." That obviously implied demonstrating things like compromise, humility, condescension, flexibility, and sundry social graces.

It also implied that one can "be right" and still be very lonely.

Frances apparently chose the wrong profession, if she expected to "be right" so often. She'd have been better off on a farm or ranch, engaged in solo activities rather than the group endeavor of acting.

As it was, she seemed never to have learned to work professionally with colleagues. From her standpoint, she was indeed "right." She constantly exposed the hypocrisy, insincerity and frailty in people and "the system." Yet the price she paid was a loss of what mattered to her: a career that was nourishing and satisfying.

In '82 Jessica Lange followed up her fine Oscar-winning performance as Julie Nichols in "Tootsie" with this incredible portrayal of Farmer in "Frances." The legendary Kim Stanley was her mother and Sam Shepard rendered a perceptive performance as Farmer's close friend.

Not an easy film to sit through, the quality of acting by this trio is exemplary. As much up to date today as when first filmed. Riveting performances by all. --harry-76

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.

Whether or not the movie is entirely true, Jessica Lange gave an amazing performance. The transformation of Frances Farmer is shocking. Lange is a force on screen. Her natural beauty not only wins you over, but can scare you into believing that she is the character she is portraying. The story of Frances Farmer is sad. Sad for her and the people in her life. The overall theme of the Frances Farmer story is pride. Many times, she has the opportunity to run, but doesn't. To Farmer, she is running from nobody but herself. Knowing this, Frances is the life story of a woman trying to be her own woman. Whether or not we can say that this movie is 100% factual, we can agree that the Hollywood life can destroy you! Much like the Julia Philips story or the Dotty Parker (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle) we can agree that the issue of Women's pride and their role in Hollywood has been showcased before, but not before Frances Farmer's story.

I watched Frances because I seemed to remember that Kevin Costner had a tiny part at the start of his career and I'm a big fan. I didn't expect necessarily to see anything startling other than what it said on the tin, a film about the real life movie star from the 40's, Frances Farmer, as played by Jessica Lange. I've always admired Jessica Lange as a really good actress but she's never blown me away like some stars do. At least, not until now. Now watching this 1982 movie in 2014 (a bit late, I know), she's completely reversed my previous thoughts about her. Her performance in this picture has to be one of the most dynamic, hypnotic acting stints I've ever seen by an actress. It reminded me a bit of Faye Dunaway in Network (where she won the Oscar). Looking this movie up I saw that Jessica was beaten in 1982 by Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice, but if ever an actress was robbed of the Oscar, this performance was it. I'd urge anyone who loves acting at the highest level to watch this movie, just for Jessica Lange's performance, although there is also a very strong backup show by Kim Stanley as her mother. Very long at two and half hours, but I couldn't take my eyes off Jessica Lange's face. It's hard to detect between when she's being charming and when she might suddenly explode. Mesmerizing.

Jessica Lange was robbed of an Academy Award for her mesmerizing performance in the 1982 film, FRANCES, a relatively gripping character study/biography of the late 1930's actress Frances Farmer, who, after being ostracized from Hollywood, ended up being declared insane, institutionalized, and lobotomized, according to this screenplay. Not knowing a lot about the actress before the release of this film, I have never been sure of how factual it is (I always got the feeling that the Harry York character, played by Sam Shepherd, was fictional), but how many screen biographies are big on the facts? Sometimes facts are glossed over and/or ignored for the sake of preserving or igniting drama. Whether or not this is true is for those who knew Farmer to say. I did see an interview once with Farmer's nephew (?) who was very pleased with Lange's interpretation of Farmer and that is exactly why this film is worth seeing. Despite a meandering screenplay, turgid direction, and a feeling the movie is about 30 minutes too long, this movie is worth seeing for one reason and one reason only...the riveting performance by Jessica Lange. She is in virtually every frame of this movie and makes every single moment vivid and striking and achingly real. This film should be shown to acting classes on a daily basis...maybe the best performance by an actress in a leading role during the decade of the 1980's. Not a great film, but an amazing performance by a consummate actress that must be seen to be believed.

This is an important film, and I am compelled to write a few lines to attract other viewers to see it. Sensitive music by John Barry to set the mood, yes it is a love story really, I enjoyed seeing Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard, they work well together. What can you say about the talent of Jessica Lange? I could not take my eyes off her. Impeccable acting. She is so stunningly lovely,as was the Frances Farmer of the story, they are much alike both breathtakingly beautiful. No other actress could have played this part in 1982. A non conformist ahead of her time, today Frances would be almost normal, the Frances Farmer story is sad and infuriating,such a waste... the child pressured by her mother to be everything the mother wanted for herself, to be a Hollywood star, the ineffectual father who could have stepped in to determine a less shattering future for their daughter. How often do we see that the wrong kind of parental influence on their children can lead to disastrous results? I found Frances courageous and admirable in the face of evil and adversity. The sadness felt by the wonderfully supportive Harry York (played by Sam Shepard) toward the end of the movie brings tears to the eyes, she has forgotten how to love, but she has survived... only to die alone in 1970. Breaks my heart. True to life, caring and detailed movie. Best actress for Jessica Lange, in my view, I noticed her in King Kong and I knew she was going to make it big. Highest marks and comments from malcotoro, Toronto, Canada

Jessica Lange's performance as Frances Farmer is in my opinion her best work as an actress. The movie is heartbreaking and says so much about the industry at the time. The film showed the audience how crushing Hollywood could be to a young actress through the story of somebody who really lived and for that reason I think this film is true art

Jessica Lange and Kim Stanley give remarkable performances in "Frances," but if you are looking for anything resembling the truth about this gifted actress, this is *not* the film to see--in fact, unfortunately, no factual account of Frances' life has yet been presented on either the movie or TV screen, with the possible exception of A&E's excellent Biography episode about her.

The film completely fictionalizes and sensationalizes several aspects of Frances' life, inventing characters out of whole-cloth and completely misrepresenting her institutionalization, including spuriously alleging she was lobotomized. There is ample documentary evidence proving Frances never underwent this horrible procedure; you can read the facts in my web article "Shedding Light on Shadowland," which is linked under the miscellaneous sites section on IMDb's Frances Farmer page (or do a Google for "Shedding Light on Shadowland").

In the recent DVD release, director Graeme Clifford can be heard commenting, in what is surely the understatement of the decade, "We didn't want to be nickel and diming the audience to death with facts." The *real* story of Frances Farmer is far more fascinating than this sad exercise in Hollywood "fictionalizing."

1982 is such a competitive year for actresses, most prominently is Meryl Streep's critics- consensus "the all-time best female performance" and Oscar-crowning SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982), which shamefully I haven't watched yet. Thus unfairly other contenders didn't stand any chance to beat her for that, but I never doubt that it was a nip-and-tuck between Streep and Lange in her tour-de-force sensation FRANCES.

Frances Farmer is hardly a household name among film boffins, she was a shooting star in the Tinseltown, whose defiant nature is destined for hemming herself as a fair game to the studio persecution, and the inhuman therapeutic treatments she receives in the mental hospitals are fierce indictment of our society's callous depersonalization under the aegis of medical remedy, although whether the lobotomy operation was executed still lacks of conviction.

Farmer exhibits her rebelliousness from the very start with her religion-defying speech "god was gone" when she was simply a high-schooler, a fearless doll under the high-handedness of her control freak mother (Stanley), Lange's rendition is begging description, an almost 30 years age-range and 140-minutes running time thoroughly proffers her an once-in-a-lifetime stretch to embody herself into this anguished persona, she minutely delineates how the life-force has been mercilessly ripped off her inch by inch and a belated and vehement face-off with her mother is the most theatrical moment and is the apotheosis of a heart-wrenching vicariousness, bravo to both Lange and Stanley!

Henry York (Shepard), a fictional character as the only man who truly understands Farmer and loves her unconditionally is the narrator, this concoction is a poetic license to add some solace in Farmer's wretched life and a considerable move for its audiences' sake, but meanwhile it barely serves a slush albeit Shepard and Lange work wonder together, the make-believe default also makes no room to expound why those two lovers could not be together, an over- romanticized tone may counteract the despondency of the film but it is also an untimely reminder of how close itself could be as brave as its leading lady Jessica Lange!

Jessica Lange gives the performance of a lifetime as iconoclastic actress Frances Farmer, whose rejection of the star system led to her mental collapse and ostracism from her fame-hungry mother Lillian (Kim Stanley). Lange's command of the role makes you feel like there's a knife in your stomach. It's that intense. As for the question of what's accurate and what's not, that's not really important. The point is that Lange gets into this role to the max. "Frances" isn't the sort of movie that you can just watch; you have to feel like it's happening to you, or you might not get the full experience. All in all, a great movie. Also starring Sam Shepard and Jeffrey DeMunn.

'Frances' is a highly touching reconstruction of the life of fifties actress Frances Farmer, from Seattle. Jessica Lange did a miraculous job in playing Frances, with paranoia in her rolling eyes, which -I must admit- makes her look like a madwoman indeed. The movie shows how someone can be completely destroyed by misunderstandings, enlarged by a ridiculous amount of media attention. The most beautiful part is that, where Frances returns to Seattle, now a star. The people who used to scorn her, are now kissing her butt to gain her sympathy. She stands still in the middle of the hallway, and with all eyes on her she starts to scream they are hypocrites. After that, she is of course again considered crazy, like before. Even when she only wants to be left alone, she is haunted and harassed by those who feel called upon 'helping her'. This, combined with a rather sensitive and unstable character, makes her paranoid and finally leads to her destruction.

I first heard about Frances Farmer through an interview with Kurt Cobain, who admired her courage and was experiencing the same as she had. Courtney got married in one of her dresses and even though their baby wasn't named after her but after a male Frances, they both thought of her later. Cobain also wrote a song about her, 'Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle', which appeared on the second Nirvana studio album 'In Utero'.

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.

Thought I had seen this movie before, but remembered it in black & white. Had seen it on a black and white TV. Saw it again the other night and am fascinated how much Jessica Lange, looked like Frances Farmer. Thought a lot of the movie after I watched it. Haunts me.

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...

In 1931 Seattle, sixteen year old Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) wins a national essay competition with an anti-God speech. It attracts the attention of political activist Harry York (Sam Shepard). She turns to acting. She gains success but chafes at the studio system. She leaves Hollywood for Broadway but that is no better. She returns to Hollywood to make B-movies. She falls into alcoholism. Her disturbed behavior gets her arrested. The court puts her under the control of her mother (Kim Stanley). She is forced into mental hospitalization where she's abused. There is a lot of over-dramatic fictionalization. It detracts from realism but it also allows Lange to do some amazing acting. She's given a really wild juicy role and eats it right up.

What is so compelling about this story is Jessica Lange's performance and the vulnerability she displays. It is the story of a strong rebellious woman way ahead of the socially acceptable parameters of her generation. For that she suffers innumerable injustices. This film will emotionally drained you. Lange's performance is gut wrenching. It is a love story at it's core. "Harry" truly loved her and when he sees the altered Frances post lobotomy and realizes that the woman he loves is a mere shell of her former self his pain is palatable. This movie left me emotionally drained and it was truly worth it. Simply wonderful.

I'll stand by my original review, as I walked out of a theater in NYC when I was 21-years old, after watching this film in 1982. I recall as if yesterday, my sister asked, "What did you think?" I was actually angry..since I'd practically memorized the books,"Shadowlands" as well as Frances Farmer's own 'autobiography' (which has since been largely-credited to have been written by her partner, Jean Ratcliffe). I replied, "Frances Farmer spent her whole career, fighting against the phoniness of Hollywood--and this film is an insult to her memory-- since hardly ANY of this ever happened!" Jessica Lange doubtlessly gives a stunning performance. But WHY ALL THE LIES? The completely made-up character played by Sam Shepard, "Harry York," was created out of whole-cloth. The whole POINT of Frances Farmer's "real life" was that she had no one on her side! Why did they add this "romantic interest," who keeps popping up, out of nowhere, whenever Frances needs a friend? It's ludicrous and completely taints this essentially false film. As if the Frances Farmer story, itself, wasn't dramatic enough?! The script, in fact, is remarkably poor (one of the credited writers is the son of Elia Kazan, too). They add all these false notes that never happened--yet they leave out actual moments from Farmer's life (such as how she picked up an inkwell and threw it at the judge of her trial) which WOULD have added drama to the story. There are some glaringly shoddy performances, too (a completely-overacted performance by the guy who plays the fictionalized version of Frances' actual husband, Leif Ericson, "Dick Steele"--he's allowed to sail straight over the top, making a meal out of the scenery in his only real scene). And, sorry, but I think Kim Stanley's ham-bone performance as Mother Lillian is pretty false, too (though, full-disclosure: I don't really like her in anything). The direction by first-time director, Australian Graeme Clifford, is sloppy and strikes false notes at nearly every turn.

But back to Jessica Lange: In certain shots, it is uncanny how she physically resembles Frances Farmer. She's often said that she felt as if Farmer actually "inhabited" her while making this film. I only wish she'd had the clout when making this film to rail against bad writing like Frances Farmer did, against the writers of a third-rate scripts like this...to get the quality bio-pic Farmer deserves.

Jessica Lange is one of today's best actresses. In this movie one of her earlier works, she plays an actress of the 30's who turns to alcoholsim and gets wrongly and unjustly thrown into an institution by her overbearing bitch mother. The scene where Jessica finally throws her mom aside you just want to say 'Yes, about time!" but before long Jessica is in another worse asylum and your heart goes out even more for her. This is a good movie but somewhat disturbing. Recommended.