Frances (1982)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	133:56 (Case: 114)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:32)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Graeme Clifford
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jessica Lange Kim Stanley Sam Shepard Bart Burns Jonathan Banks Bonnie Bartlett James Brodhead Jane Jenkins Jordan Charney Rod Colbin Daniel Chodos Donald Craig Sarah Cunningham
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	John Barry

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Frances is the 1982 film based on the true story of the life of Hollywood actress Frances Farmer. Jessica Lange takes on the role of the tormented yet talented starlet from the 1930s and turns in what is probably the highpoint of her career.

    Frances Farmer was born in Seattle in 1913 and even during her high-school years showed signs of rebellion and doing things differently. Always wanting to be an actress she headed to Hollywood and signed a seven year contract with Paramount studios in 1935 and was considered one of the most promising stars of the time. But rather than have her star rise to dizzying heights, she went on to become probably one of the best-known and celebrated casualties of the Hollywood star-making machine in the 30s and 40s. She was beautiful, talented, intelligent, yet always feisty,  Unfortunately her glamorous Hollywood lifestyle was not all it seemed, and with a controlling mother, drug and alcohol problems, and immense pressure from the movie-making industry mounting upon her, Frances' life spiralled out of control and she was eventually committed to a psychiatric hospital for treatment after just six years in the film industry. She spent eleven years in hospital and never made a serious foray into the film business again.

    Jessica Lange's effort at recreating the anguish and troubled life of Frances Farmer is truly remarkable. She even bears an uncanny resemblance to the actress, and considering she plays her from the age of 16 right through to her mid forties this is even more remarkable. Tracking the early life of the rebellious teen, we see the pitfalls she encounters in the Hollywood system that she enters at quite a young age when industry heavyweights think only of making as much money as possible and give little regard to how they are exploiting their stars. As the mental state of Frances starts to decline she becomes more savage, more brutal, and at times downright scary. Once she enters the psychiatric system the story takes on a rather disturbing element that will result in you shaking your head and wondering aloud just exactly how doctors managed to get away with the things they did to people in the 1940s. The lobotomy scene is truly bewildering.

    With support from Sam Shepard as Harry York, a man who tries vainly to win the heart of Frances over the course of many years, and Kim Stanley as Frances' domineering mother, this is a film based solely on the strength of its characters. And it is of course Jessica Lange's character that carries the entire film. She was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award in 1982, but didn't win and ended up going home with the Best Supporting Actress award for Tootsie.  She embodies Frances Farmer with enough naivety, passion, and complete frailty to convince you utterly that this is exactly how life spiralled downward for one of Hollywood's potential stars.

Video

    While this could hardly be called a great transfer it is also certainly not the worst I've ever seen either.

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    Among the biggest problems is the clarity and detail of the image. This is not an overly sharp transfer, with a soft quality to the overall picture, though thankfully edge enhancement is not present. Shadow detail also suffers at times and this is probably the single biggest problem, as it is reasonably consistent across the whole running time of the film which contains several darker night time scenes. Grain is the next biggest issue, with several scenes suffering from excessive background grain. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are pretty drab and depressing - capturing the mood of the times to perfection. This is certainly not an overly vivid transfer, but the colours are mostly free from any annoying problems.

    Aside from the excessive grain other problematic compression artefacts are absent, but film-to-video artefacts are present in the form of some very light shimmer on a variety of surfaces throughout. Thankfully (and somewhat surprisingly) there are only a small number of film artefacts present and most of them are the usual small and barely noticeable variety.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles at all on this disc.

    This is a dual layered disc (RSDL formatted) with the layer break occurring at 67:32. It is of reasonable placement, quite noticeable but not overly disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track available it being a rather dull Dolby Digital 2.0 effort in English. The packaging lists the track as a mono 1.0 effort and the film's credits list it as originally be shown with a Dolby Stereo track. What we get on this disc is most definitely two channel, but if it's stereo I'd be extremely surprised. There is nothing to indicate any left/right separation, so it is best to consider this to be a mono track only. It really is an unremarkable soundtrack that sounds quite harsh, with both high and low ends sounding clipped and little fidelity across the effects and dialogue.

    At least the dialogue is clear enough to understand despite being a little grating and there are no audio sync problems.

    The score is quite haunting and moody and is credited to John Barry. There are numerous other classical pieces used throughout.

    Being only a mono soundtrack, there is no discrete surround channel or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras on this disc.

    Two versions of this film have been released in Region 1. The first disc released by Artisan was a bare-bones release. The most recent release by Anchor Bay also includes a number of quality extras.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on;

• Cast and Crew Biographies
• Cast and Crew Filmographies
• Theatrical Trailer
• Remembering Frances Featurette
• Commentary by director Graeme Clifford and documentary director David Gregory

    The Region 1 disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    An obvious victory to Region 1 here.

    Frances tells the tragic life story of 1930s Hollywood starlet Frances Farmer. While the film is a little plodding at times and really quite depressing most of the time, Jessica Lange's portrayal of the mentally disturbed, yet incredibly bright and strong-willed actress is probably the highpoint of her career.

    The video and audio are pretty lacklustre, befitting their budget status.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall