Frances

Frances Farmer wins an essay competition at school; the piece is about God being dead and it causes an outcry in the town. Her mother sees it as a problem. Frances goes into the theatre, then to Hollywood, and rises quickly. But she will not accept the studio order: she refuses the parts she is given, does not go to publicity events and will not do as she is told. A drinking problem begins. She is arrested one night. The court sends her to an institution. Her mother becomes her guardian. The following years pass in institutions and what is called treatment grows steadily harsher. Graeme Clifford directs. Jessica Lange plays Frances and Kim Stanley her mother; Sam Shepard is in the cast. Jessica Lange was nominated for an Oscar for the part; she won that year in the supporting category for another film. Kim Stanley was nominated for an Oscar as well. Frances Farmer was a real person; the years she spent in institutions and her mother's part in it are known from documents. Some of the medical procedures shown are historically contested; in particular the claim that a certain operation was performed has not been verified by researchers, and the film was criticised on that point. The matter it treats is the price of disobedience; the film shows the institutions and the family as parts of the same order. The character Sam Shepard plays is fictional and was added to the narrative. Its limit is accuracy; the narrative is not a documentary and some of its claims should be read with care. Who it is for: viewers who like biography centred on performance and the history of Hollywood. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, some scenes hard to bear, and the historical accuracy contested.