Frances (film)

Frances is a 1982 American

Frances was released theatrically on December 3, 1982, by Universal Pictures. Lange's performance was unanimously praised and has been cited by many (including her) as her best performance. At the 55th Academy Awards, it received two nominations for Lange and Stanley as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

The script was based upon William Arnold's Shadowland, a fictional biography of Farmer, and many of his fictional elements were incorporated into the final film. The biography has since been allegedly discredited, with Arnold having stated in court that he fabricated the story of Farmer's transorbital lobotomy and other aspects of the book. Writer Jeffrey Kauffmann published an extensive online essay, "Shedding Light on Shadowland", that debunks much of Arnold's book, including the account of the lobotomy.^[4][5]

Shadowland Revisited: The Story of a Book and Its Aftermath, provides an extensive interview with Arnold who goes over most of his allegations in the book and he stands by his theory that Farmer was lobotomized, among other aspects of Farmer's life that Kauffmann attempts to dispel.

Born in

After leaving Hollywood for

The film was developed by the team who had made The Elephant Man, writers Eric Bergren and Christopher De Vore, and producer Jonathan Sanger and Mel Brooks. Brooks was keen for David Lynch, who had directed The Elephant Man, to direct. However, Lynch had signed an agreement with Universal. Sanger then suggested Graeme Clifford, who was well established as an editor, notably having made several films with Robert Altman. "He's very bright and completely in love with the story", said Brooks.^[6]

The script was based upon William Arnold's Shadowland, a fictional biography of Farmer. In pre-production, the producers reneged on their option to use the book as source material. Arnold filed an unsuccessful copyright infringement lawsuit but many of his fictional elements were incorporated into the final film.^[7]

On the commentary of the DVD release, director Clifford stated, "We didn't want to nickel and dime people to death with facts." Mel Brooks was executive producer of the film, but as with The Elephant Man, Brooks intentionally received no credit for his participation as his name had been attributed to parodies or crude comedies.

The filmmakers struggled to gain finance until EMI Films stepped in.^[8]

Lange found the nude scene of Farmer's arrest with policemen breaking into the Knickerbocker Hotel frustrating and demanding; there was a problem with the bathroom door which stuck each time the actors playing cops on the other side tried to get it open. The entire scene, lasting no more than three minutes of film time, took four days to shoot. Lange was "disgusted" and felt "used, abused, and manipulated", as was Frances herself.^[9]

Many actresses were considered candidates for the role of Frances Farmer including Anne Archer, Susan Blakely, Blythe Danner, Susan Dey, Patty Duke, Mia Farrow, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Liza Minnelli, Susan Sarandon, Cybill Shepherd, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Natalie Wood and Tuesday Weld.^{[citation needed]} Faye Dunaway turned it down.^[10]

"This is a role every actress waits all her life for", said Hawn.^[3]

Jessica Lange had wanted to play the role since reading Farmer's memoirs in the late 1970s. She tried to interest Bob Rafelson and Bob Fosse to make the film but neither was interested. Then she says Clifford called her directly offering the role. (Clifford had edited Lange in The Postman Always Rings Twice.)^[11]

"She was very high-strung and had overpowering elements in her personality of self-destruction, but she was a real warrior", said Lange. "It was misguided heroics."^[12]

"I began to identify with Frances Farmer's anger", said Lange. "She would release it no matter what the consequences were."^[3]

Susan Blakely went on to portray Farmer in the 1983 CBS television film Will There Really Be a Morning?^[13]

The original music score was composed by John Barry. According to Barry, his idea of carrying the main theme using a harmonica was initially disliked by producers until they heard it fully orchestrated. Along with some popular songs from the period, a notable piece of music was from Mozart's Piano Sonata No.11, K331, and the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony also featured.

The film originally ran for three hours and was cut down. This meant reduction of the amount of screen time dedicated to Frances and her parents, and Frances and her love interest. Clifford would subsequently claim he felt the film was too short.^[8]

Frances holds a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews with the consensus: "This sordid biopic emphasizes the indignities visited upon Frances Farmer to the detriment of fleshing her out as a person, but Jessica Lange's towering performance invests the tragic figure with a humanity that the script lacks."^[14]

Roger Ebert rated the film 3+1⁄2 stars out of 4 and praised Lange's performance, writing: "Jessica Lange plays Frances Farmer in a performance that is so driven, that contains so many different facets of a complex personality, that we feel she has an intuitive understanding of this tragic woman."^[15] Leonard Maltin rated the film 2+1⁄2 stars out of four. He praised Lange’s and Stanley’s performances and described the film as "well-crafted, but cold and depressing."^[16] Writing for the Guardian, Derek Malcolm stated: "Frances, though palpably overlong... is on the whole well-directed, decently set within its period, and makes the Jessica Lange of King Kong and The Postman Always Ring Twice look an actress of an entirely different class."^[17]