FRANCESÂ (15)
D: Graeme Clifford
EMI/Brooksfilms (Jonathan Sanger)
USA 🇺🇸 1982
140 mins
Biopic
W: Eric Bregren, Christopher DeVore & Nicholas
Kazan
DP: Laszlo Kovacs
Ed: John Wright
Mus: John Barry
Jessica Lange (Frances Farmer), Sam
Shepard (Harry York), Kim Stanley (Lillian Farmer), Bart Burns (Ernest Farmer), Jeffrey DeMunn (Clifford Odets)
Biopic of troubled 1930's actress Frances Farmer whose
fall from grace culminated with her commital to an insane asylum.
While the story is the stuff of standard Hollywood
melodrama, Jessica Lange portrays the role with a real bitchy zest, carrying the entire film, especially during its soap opera moments. She deservedly received an Oscar nomination for the
performance, and possibly would have won had Meryl Streep's performance in Sophie's Choice (considered one of the best leading performances of all time) not been nominated the same
year.
7/10