Frances

FRANCES (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