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Director: Graeme Clifford
Writers: Eric Bergren, Christopher De Vore
Cast: Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard
Genre: Fictionalized Biography
The story of Frances Farmer, a Hollywood actress of the 1930s and 40s. Based on a fictionalized novel that came out a couple of years earlier. The story tells of how Frances life gets turned upside down when she lashes out against what she believes is injustices. She ends up in a mental hospital where they eventual lobotomize her.
Trouble is Frances Farmer was never lobotomized and wasn't a victim of her out spoken nature. She suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and at a time when there was little understanding of the condition and the treatments were ineffective (insulin shock injections, electric shock, ice baths, heavy sedation.)
The movie is based on the book Shadowland by William Arnold. Which was original written as a true biography but came out in court after the producers of the movie were sued, that the writer of the novel highly fictionalized elements of Frances life to create drama. Most notely the story of her having an orbital lobotomy at Western State Hospital in Washington state, which has been largely discounted as fiction.
There's two other movies about Frances Farmer made around the same time, but Frances is the best known of the three.
I thought Jessica Lange made a good Francis Farmer, and I just seen Francis Farmer for the first time in a movie, she was quiet the actress! It's too bad her career was cut short. The actress who played her mom was exceptional good.
Frances (1982)
Director: Graeme Clifford
Writers: Eric Bergren, Christopher De Vore
Cast: Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard
Genre: Fictionalized Biography
The story of Frances Farmer, a Hollywood actress of the 1930s and 40s. Based on a fictionalized novel that came out a couple of years earlier. The story tells of how Frances life gets turned upside down when she lashes out against what she believes is injustices. She ends up in a mental hospital where they eventual lobotomize her.
Trouble is Frances Farmer was never lobotomized and wasn't a victim of her out spoken nature. She suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and at a time when there was little understanding of the condition and the treatments were ineffective (insulin shock injections, electric shock, ice baths, heavy sedation.)
The movie is based on the book Shadowland by William Arnold. Which was original written as a true biography but came out in court after the producers of the movie were sued, that the writer of the novel highly fictionalized elements of Frances life to create drama. Most notely the story of her having an orbital lobotomy at Western State Hospital in Washington state, which has been largely discounted as fiction.
There's two other movies about Frances Farmer made around the same time, but Frances is the best known of the three.
I thought Jessica Lange made a good Francis Farmer, and I just seen Francis Farmer for the first time in a movie, she was quiet the actress! It's too bad her career was cut short. The actress who played her mom was exceptional good.