|
Frances Farmer, a precocious Seattle
teenager, takes unpopular social and political
positions, to the mixed reactions of her parents.
Frances becomes an actress and has some strong success
in New York, but her refusal to bend her convictions and
her outspoken (but sometimes naive) political
expressiveness cause her difficulties, especially after
she accepts a Hollywood contract. Torn between new-found
success and intense feelings that she does not deserve
the riches and fame she gains from the phoniness of
Hollywood, Frances butts heads with studio executives
and with her own mother, who revels in Frances's fame
but provides Frances no emotional support. When drunken
fights and arrests derail her career, Frances is sent to
a psychiatric hospital with the acquiescence of her
mother. What follows is a nightmare of poor treatment
and psychological trauma, augmented by the increasing
determination of Frances's mother to control her
daughter's life. |
|
Even back in the early 1970s, when
Lange was waiting on tables, struggling to become a
model, she somehow knew that one day she’d play this
role. Like Farmer, Lange had deserted home for
travels, arrived in New York to study acting, and was
then plucked from obscurity by a Paramount contract that
brought her west to Hollywood and seething frustration
(the disappointing remake of "King Kong"). Or perhaps it
was Farmer’s frantic and doomed desire to be politically
useful and artistically important, two goals shared by
Lange that Hollywood did as little to serve for her as
it had for Farmer.
Plus Lange’s resemblance to Farmer
was uncanny. Producer Mel Brooks said, "It’s hard to
find a beauty with big bones. Frances and Jessica are
both girls with large frames." As a still relatively
unknown actress, she also didn’t carry a high price tag
- nor an identity that would overwhelm the part.
When Sam was asked why he favored the
script, he said, "Because it is like a Greek
tragedy." Clifford cast him because of what he called
Sam’s "enigmatic sexuality". Of his co-star, Sam
would only say at the time that she was "an intuitive
actress. Every take is different." Commenting on Frances
Farmer’s political activities, Sam remarked, "Are any
stars really sincere in their politics? It comes from
despair over the menialness of film. Being an actress
creates desperation."
|
