Indeed, Nirvana's song 'Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle' lead me to this title faster than I may have otherwise found it. There is a lot of interesting, but unfortunately largely contradictory reading to be found on the net about her (I am yet to see a movie with her in it), and at this point I couldn't tell you what to believe. Her own statements in the book 'Sexual abuse in the lives of women diagnosed with serious mental illness' are shocking: she recounted her stay in the state asylum as "unbearable terror"; "I was raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats and poisoned by tainted food. I was chained in padded cells, strapped into strait-jackets and half-drowned in ice baths." These claims have been disputed, though, and William Arnold had to admit before court his claim about her lobotomy was 'fictionalized' (though at that time there wére apparently lobotomies performed by a doctor of the same name as the one in the film).
It is certainly clear though that she has had to put with a lot of hardship in her life, but the film hardly conveys an adequate story for the first sixty minutes; there are parts that work (also because the film has such a beautiful look to it - with all the wonderful settings, clothes and camera work), but on the whole the story feels like a pile-up of events. The story(telling) dóes get better and more gripping toward the end, as does Jessica Lange's acting (but that also has to do with the fact that she is simply too old to play the part of the very young Frances in the beginning of it), but because of all the aforementioned uncertainties, the horrific parts toward the end, when Frances is once again institutionalized against her will, and subsequently lobotomized and gang raped, feel somewhat compromised - it's a shame.
Even though the facts of 'Frances' are uncertain, this film is still very much worthwhile. And beyond that, it has certainly motivated me to want to dig deeper into (the truth about) her life, to go see some of her films and find out more about (mal)treatment in psychiatric institutions then and now.
A big 7 out of 10 for now.
It is certainly clear though that she has had to put with a lot of hardship in her life, but the film hardly conveys an adequate story for the first sixty minutes; there are parts that work (also because the film has such a beautiful look to it - with all the wonderful settings, clothes and camera work), but on the whole the story feels like a pile-up of events. The story(telling) dóes get better and more gripping toward the end, as does Jessica Lange's acting (but that also has to do with the fact that she is simply too old to play the part of the very young Frances in the beginning of it), but because of all the aforementioned uncertainties, the horrific parts toward the end, when Frances is once again institutionalized against her will, and subsequently lobotomized and gang raped, feel somewhat compromised - it's a shame.
Even though the facts of 'Frances' are uncertain, this film is still very much worthwhile. And beyond that, it has certainly motivated me to want to dig deeper into (the truth about) her life, to go see some of her films and find out more about (mal)treatment in psychiatric institutions then and now.
A big 7 out of 10 for now.