FRANCES

US, 1982, 140 minutes, Colour.
Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard, Jonathan Banks, Bonnie Bartlett, Jeffrey De Munn.
Directed by Graeme Clifford.

Frances is the biography of 1930s Hollywood star Frances Farmer. Farmer had a brief career in such films as Come and Get It and South of Pago Pago. However, she had mental problems and was institutionalised, experiencing a lobotomy. She had married celebrated playwright Clifford Odets (Golden Boy) but the marriage broke up.

The film shows the life of the star, her difficult relationship with her dominant mother, her marriages, her mental collapse, her trying to have a successful career.

The strength of the film is in Jessica Lange’s performance. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1982 but the award went to Meryl Streep for Sophie’s Choice. Jessica Lange, however, was awarded the best supporting actress Oscar for her performance in Tootsie. In 1994, Jessica Lange won the best actress award for Blue Sky.

Kim Stanley is very strong as Lillian Farmer. Sam Shepard portrays Harry York, a friend, based on real characters but a composite. (Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard have worked in a number of films together and are partners in real life.)

The film was directed by Australian Graeme Clifford who worked in Hollywood but also made the epic Burke and Wills in Australia. Prior to directing he edited a number of significant films, Robert Altman’s Images, Don’t Look Now, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, FIST and The Postman Always Rings Twice which starred Jessica Lange.

In 1983 a strong telemovie was screened, Will There Really Be a Morning, based on Frances Farmer’s autobiography. This film is broad in scope, Frances Farmer’s years of growing up, the years in Hollywood, her being institutionalised, her release from the institution and her later life. Susan Blakely gives a strong performance as Frances Farmer and this time Lee Grant portrays her mother. John Heard is Clifford Odets.

1. The film as biography? Portrait of Hollywood and the 30s and 40s? A true story? The statement of basis on fact? Nature of interpretation? Audiences having information about Frances Farmer, her personality, film, career? Her reputation? Her memory? Some critics considered the film exploitive of her career, personality, her sad experiences in the asylum? Straightforward film or exploitation?

2. How effective the impact of the film if audiences know nothing of Frances Farmer? The quality of the film as biography? As the study of an actress? As a character study of a woman in the 30s and 40s, her background, career, failures? Impact of cinema and theatre in the 30s and 40s? A study of family? A study of madness and the treatment of mental illness? The blending of these strands?

3. Re-creation of the period: the 30s and 40s, the 50s? Seattle, Hollywood, New York? Seattle and the ordinary way of life? Hollywood and its glamour and wealth? New York and the atmosphere of theatre? The mental asylums and their treatments? Authentic atmosphere? The importance of the editing? The musical score?

4. An absorbing film? The range of interests? Emotional impact? Exhaustion? The stances taken about Frances Farmer, Hollywood, Clifford Odets. Frances' mother. treatment of mental patients? The importance of the disclaimer at the end concerning treatment of patients?

5. The prologue and the focus on God and Frances' theories about religious experience. the absence and death of God. the religious experience and a sense of the presence of something transcendent? The truth of her experience? The precocious essay-writing? The glimpses of Frances as, a schoolgirl during the credits? The reading of the speech, the challenge from the audience? The walkout? Her winning the prize and her mother's applause? Her embarrassment at seeing the newsreel? The presentation of the prize, the controversy. her mother's reaction on the newsreel? The indications of attitudes in Seattle in the early 30s? Ordinary way of life. work, home. school? Frances in her family - the support of her mother and her mother's applause and control? The father's absence? An appropriate indication of setting and explanation of Frances' further relationships with her parents? Their treatment of her and her rejection of them?

6. Frances and the influences on her growing up, difficulties? The background of her father's work and the newsreel about Kaminski and his candidature? Suspicions of Left-wing radicalism? The Depression and the social situation? Frances' mother and her attack on the lack of freedom of thought in Iron Curtain countries? Frances' leaving school. her skill in the theatre - acting Chekhov? Her winning the prize and the questions of whether to go to Moscow or not? Her mother's severe attitudes and Frances defying them? The support of her father? Harry York's criticism of her at the time of her winning the prize? Their growing friendship? His dating her, falling in love, support of her decision to go to Moscow?

7. The introduction of Harry, the voiceover technique and his explanation of Frances, her life. attitudes., filling in details, bridging the sequences of the films? His own interest. emotional involvement? In himself, with the Left wing workers? His falling in love with Frances, sound advice? His later work with the betting? Frances turning to him in crisis? Helping her, sharing her experiences and her success? His rescuing her from the asylum? Their being together, the night together. her leaving? His proposal? His anguish at her rejection? His seeing her on the television? The final meting and her leaving him? A credible character in himself? His devotion to Frances?

8. Jessica Lange's interpretation of Frances? Vitality and beauty, intelligence? Seemingly spoilt and wilful? Her fears, her ambitions? The ambiguities in her behaviour - attention, faraway look etc.? Her success on the stage, going to New York and not succeeding, Hollywood contract? The glimpses of her in the studios, the attempts at glamour roles and her rejection of these? Her criticisms given to the reporters? The producer and his sexual attitudes - sexist, lustful, chauvinist? The clashes? The loan out for 'Come and Get It'? The studios thwarting her ambitions? The effect on her self-image, securities? The blend of the spoilt and the talented with the frustrated? Her return to Seattle for the preview? The build-up to the preview, the glamour of the theatre, the interview in the car and her parents' responses, her having acquired a husband and his presence? The entry into the theatre, the encounter with the Mayor and his wife and her snubbing the woman who had walked out on her speech? Her frank expressions and swearing? The reaction of Seattle society? Her going to the beach and the encounter with Harry, sharing her experiences with him? The background to the marriage to Richard and his changing his name to Dwayne? The studio attitude towards the marriage? The interviews? Going out with Dwayne? Their clashing and her wanting to separate? Dwayne's bewilderment, the lack of success in his career, his gentlemanliness, dancing with Lilian, the final clash with Frances?

9. The sketch of Frances' father? A pleasant man, absent, giving his support? His puzzle as he grew older? Her attack on him and her mother? The final sequence with the old parents sitting together and Lilian waiting for Frances to return? His influence on her life?

10. Kim Stanley's Oscar-nominated performance as Lilian? Her intensity, love for her daughter, calling her 'little sister', training her, allowing her freedom of speech, spoiling her? The applause at the delivery? Her outspoken views on the newsreel? The anti-communist stances, clashing with Frances about going to Moscow? Her liking the glamour of the Hollywood star - the interview in the car with Dwayne? Enjoying Dwayne's company? Her ambitions being fulfilled? Frances' collapse and her returning home, not understanding? The legal manoeuvres for custody of her daughter? Allowing her to go into the home? Her growing ambitions for her daughter, her feeling thwarted. the use of the lawyer? The clashes at home and her decision to commit Frances to the asylum? Frances' return and the hostility? The phone call from the agent and her mother pressurising her to become a star again? The final clash and her running away? Frances' interviews with her mother and her mother controlling them? Frances finally committing herself to the asylum - leaving Lilian with the loneliness of the ending and the fierce attack by Frances on what had gone wrong?

11. Frances and her theatrical career: Harold Clurman and his fame as a director, the group theatre? The encounter with Clifford Odets? The play Golden Boy and the opportunities for her? The group, working together as an ensemble, the success of the play and its social statements? Odets inviting her into the affair? Her love for him? Dependence on him? The betrayal and Clurman having to tell her, give her the brief message from Odets about his wife's return? Her feelings of betrayal, the tantrums? The plant of the Hollywood interviewer posing as a student and her speaking her mind and his printing it? Her later snubbing him at the Hollywood party? Her return to Hollywood. the producers controlling her and thwarting ambitions? Falling in the mud and the direction of the film Flowing Gold? The party, the interviews. Louella Parsons and her harsh attitudes? The bath, the pills, the drinking? Leaving the party, speeding car, the clash with the policeman? Her being in the court. on probation? The espionage film and her arriving late, tantrums, hitting the make-up woman?

12. The arrest in the night and the humiliation, the court and her defiant attitudes, the night in the cells, asking her name? Her reaction to imprisonment and violent rejection? The newspapers and their reporting of her tantrums and behaviour?

13. Was Frances insane or was this the interpretation of family and Hollywood people? According to the understanding of the times? Her going to the custody of her mother? The institution? The important sequence of the discussion with Dr. Symington? Her knowing the jargon, her reading him, turning the tables on him and embarrassing him? The wanting to be alone? Her weariness? Harry's visit and the strategies for the escape?

14. Her freedom, her mother and her harsh attitudes and lawyer's advice, committing her daughter? The treatment and its cruelty, the echoes of the snake pit? The sequences of the shock treatment? Harry's visit, the injection, her passing the interview shrewdly - with the flashbacks about her relationships and all that they had meant to her?

15. Her re-committing herself after the clash with her mother? The experience in the asylum - the suggestions of soldiers going into the asylum for sex? The mass rape? The cruelty in the dormitory? The doctor and his showman speech about lobotomy and the performance of the lobotomy on Frances and the cinema techniques and editing for the effect on the audience?

16. The final possibility of freedom after her escape from the asylum? Being at home? The support of her mother? Going for a walk? The encounters in the town? Going to Harry but leaving him? The possibility of marriage? The sequence with the hitchhiker and the pathos of their talking, the police chasing her?

17. The transition to the 'This is Your Life' programme? The television techniques, the bland comments, her talk about recovery and the film's comment on the effect of lobotomy? The prize of the car? The encounter with Harry after his watching the programme? Walking along the street, her slowness, calmness? Her control and 'normality'? The information given about her final film and the hosting of the daytime show - along the lines of This is Your Life as presented? The pathos of the quiet end of her life compared with all its initial promise?

18. The American dream: the ordinary person? opportunities, chances? Costs, hard work? The toll of success? The insight into an American woman? The insight into the treatment of the mentally ill? The power of the film?