Frances
by Graeme Clifford
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bart Burns, Jessica Lange, Jonathan Banks, Kim Stanley, Sam ShepardDirector: Graeme Clifford
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Frances
Movie Review: Frances, fact or fiction, is worth watching
Summary: 3 Stars
Frances Farmer was a complex woman, well ahead of her time. She battled nearly every obstacle in life, especially her self. But her sensationalized life has lead to more sensation and little substance. Jessica Lange is marvelous as Frances Farmer, but expect little else from this film. Her performance merits a watch, but please realize most of the scenes are fiction dreamed up by a writer or director.
This film is a sensationalization of a fictionalized book written about her life. Scenes that explain her and her breakdown were cut to fulfill the scripts romantic relationship, which is fictional (check out [...] for more info on the movie). Claims of her lobotomy cannot be substantiated. Her friends want to make her story known, so they have knowingly sensationalized portions of her life for "salablity" in their books. While her family was/is desperate to make themselves less culpable for most of her midlife misery, so they have also altered some aspects of Frances's life. Her story is sad enough without all the added Hollywood frills and horrors. The betrayal of her family and herself are themes that any movie could explore for hours without scratching the surface.
Fact is definitely better than any of this fiction. Read the books to attempt a well rounded approach. The redeeming aspect of the movie--and it is worth watching for her--is Jessica Lange.
I recommend it, but unless you do not mind all the fabrications, it may be difficult to see often.
Summary of Frances
Jessica Lange gives a career performance in a role she was born to play: the talented and troubled Frances Farmer. Farmer's awful trajectory travels from bright Seattle girl to 1930s Hollywood starlet to degraded (eventually lobotomized) mental patient. Lange, who has the blond, clean look of Farmer's heyday, goes into these places with the fierce abandon of a true believer. Her performance, the lush John Barry score, and the period re-creation are all worth applauding; almost everything else fails. Everyone except Farmer is grotesquely caricatured to fit the movie's thesis, which is that if you are intelligent and nonconformist, the system will resolutely destroy you. (The medical establishment is evil incarnate.) This simple conclusion seems inadequate and disrespectful of Frances Farmer's tragic problems. For a radiant glimpse of what the real Farmer had to offer, see Howard Hawks's Come and Get It, which bristles with excitement over a new discovery. --Robert HortonDrama DVD Video
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