Frances
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DVD details
Actor: Bart Burns, Jessica Lange, Jonathan Banks, Kim Stanley, Sam ShepardBrand: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, 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
DVD Reviews of Frances
DVD Review: Jessica Lange's performance as Frances will haunt you
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a welcome re-release of one of the very best movies of the 1980s. The DVD itself is a visual and sonic delight, and it comes with extras that are actually worth watching.
Jessica Lange's Oscar-nominated performance alone makes this an unforgettable film - it is clear that she studied Farmer's personality and mannerisms meticulously. She is totally disarming in this role. Kim Stanley is also deserving of her Oscar nomination, and the chemistry between the two makes for some emotionally exhausting scenes.
Frances Farmer was not mentally ill, not by any definition. Yes, she drank excessively at times, and used over-the-counter amphetamines, which contributed to key incidents of "erratic behavior." More than that, though, her brutally honest opinions, sarcastic wit, abrasive language, and her strong sense of self-determination aggravated those who wanted to use and control her.
She inspired vengeance in the hearts of studio moguls at Paramount, right-wing vigilantes in Seattle, and even in her own mother, who still felt a need to control her as an adult, and to enjoy success vicariously through Frances. All of this converged to create her tragedy.
Several reviewers here have disputed details of this film. Names have been changed for some characters. Farmer's first husband, pretty boy Dick/Duane Steele, represents character actor Leif Erickson, who was still living when this film was made. The doctors and judges in Farmer's story likewise have false names, presumably due to legal caution.
Harry York, as an ongoing romantic interest, is indeed fictional, but thanks to the DVD featurette, we learn from the filmmakers that he is based on Stuart Jacobsen, a biographical resource who first met Frances while working for leftist Seattle congressman Marion Zioncheck - the Kaminski character. (Incidentally, the real-life Zioncheck also became a victim of mental health treatment. Not long after making a speech denouncing J. Edgar Hoover, he was briefly admitted to an institution in the Washington DC area for insulin shock treatments. A few weeks later, Zioncheck jumped to his death from a building in downtown Seattle.)
Some recent reviewers have disputed whether Farmer had a lobotomy. Near the end of this film we see a recreation of her appearance on This Is Your Life, where Farmer tolerates some extremely condescending comments from host Ralph Edwards. As Jessica Lange observes in the DVD extra, Frances would have cut him with her wit had she still possessed her entire mind. Instead, she rather sheepishly denies that anything was ever "wrong" with her.
One fact is certain - Dr Walter Freeman, the prime advocate of the procedure, performed lobotomies at Western State Hospital while Frances was there. There is no official record of Farmer receiving a lobotomy, but she was their most notorious inmate, not just for her acting fame, but for her incorrigible defiance in the face of every weapon in the mental health arsenal. In the 1940s, elements of the psychiatric profession were eager to prove that their expertise had value as a technocratic tool. The results of this were felt not only by dissidents in the Soviet Union, but in the US as well, for example, in the CIA's notorious MK-ULTRA mind control projects. No doubt, behavior modification specialists saw Frances as a special challenge.
The story of Frances Farmer is the tale of an unusually bright, creative individual seeking to explore life on her own terms, and the brutality of the response from those who wished to deny her that right. Jessica Lange put her heart into this role, portraying Frances as a deep, caring, complex and unique human being.
Her performance will haunt you.
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