TJKCB notes: 1) depression rooted in her parents' divorce (法默的晚年惨淡凄凉。重获自由后,她结了N次婚,终以分手散场。). 2) too young to handle the fame; 3) life style ruined her health - mental and physical; 4) influence of bad group 5) 有人说,脑部手术切掉了她的坏脾气,也带走了她与生俱来的灵气; 6) idealism - can't fit in - dare to be different - people pull her out and torture her。然而当时,特立独行并不符合社会主流价值。这位个性了一辈子的女星,终究还是少了些运气,没能遇到真心对她好的人。
Frances Elena Farmer was an American actress and television host. She is perhaps better known for sensationalized accounts of her life, especially her involuntary commitment to a mental hospital.Wikipedia
The movie doesn't let us off the hook by giving us someone to blame. Instead, it insists on being a bleak tragedy, and it argues that sometimes it is quite possible for everything to go wrong. Since most movies are at least optimistic enough to provide a cause for human tragedy, this one is sort of daring ... But Lange provides a strong emotional center for the film, and when it is over we're left with the feeling that Farmer never really got a chance to be who she should have been, or to do what she should have done. She had every gift she needed in life except for luck, useful friends and an instinct for survival. She might have been one of the greatest movie stars of her time.[3]
Susan Blakely portrayed Farmer in a 1983 television production of Will There Really Be a Morning?, based on Farmer's autobiography.[47]Academy Award winner Lee Grant portrayed Farmer's mother in this production.[5] John J. O'Connor, in a 1983 review for The New York Times, claimed:
In fact, Will There Really Be a Morning? sticks far closer to the facts of Miss Farmer's life than the film Frances, which is something of a scripting mess. A fictitious character, played by Sam Shepard, was invented in the film to pluck Miss Lange out of all sorts of terrible situations. The relationship between Frances and her mother was brought into focus only half way through the film even though Miss Farmer's autobiography stressed that from childhood on our relationship was strained and torn by strife - every encounter between us ended in screaming hysteria and slamming doors. And the film leaves Frances lobotomized and vegetable-like, which was not the case. She went on creating havoc for herself and others for a good many years after that.[5]
Sheila McLaughlin directed and co-wrote, with novelist Lynne Tillman, the 1984 film Committed,[4] starring McLaughlin as Frances and Lee Breuer (of the Mabou Mines theater company) as Clifford Odets.[48]
In 1984, Culture Club placed in the #32 position of the UK Single Charts for "The Medal Song," a song that featured the actress on the sleeve of its 12-inch vinyl release through Virgin Records.[49][50] The promotional video for the song featured an actress playing Farmer in a brief depiction of her life.
In 1984, Romanovsky and Phillips released I Thought You'd Be Taller, an album that includes a song about the actress, "Paint By Numbers (Song For Frances)".[51] The song concludes with the verse:
They locked away poor Frances/ Told her she was insane/ And shocked her with the treatments/ That slowly killed her brain/ But her spirit lives with me/ And that is why I sing this song/ 'Cause when a brilliant mind is put away/ My senses tell me something's wrong/
The song "Lobotomy Gets 'em Home!" by The Men They Couldn't Hang was written about the life of Farmer and is featured on both the 1989 album Silvertown and the 2005 album The Shooting.[56][57]
The Nirvana song "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle", written by fellow Washington native, Kurt Cobain, was named after Farmer and appears on the band's 1993 In Utero album.[58][59] Kurt's interest in Farmer developed after he read her biography Shadowland in high school and later empathized with the persecution she faced, comparing it to his and Courtney Love's own struggles regarding the birth of their daughter, which took place amid their addiction to heroin, the subsequent intervention of social services after an unflattering Vanity Fair article, and the resulting treatment by the media.
In 1996, Sally Clark wrote a stage play about Farmer entitled St. Frances of Hollywood.[63] A 2005 New York Times review of a production of the play stated:
By the end of "Saint Frances of Hollywood," there is no doubt that Ms. Farmer has been turned into a martyr. But her sacrifice is at the hands of Ms. Clark, who has turned the tale of an actress's downward spiral, fueled by personal demons, alcohol and amphetamines, as much as by a hypocritical system, into a one-dimensional screed.[63]
In the 2003 film Windy City Heat, where an elaborate prank is set up for an aspiring actor who thinks he is auditioning for a film, most of the production staff have fake names based on famous American politicians and artists. The studio lot manager is introduced to the protagonist as "Frances Farmer".
Patterson Hood, singer, guitarist and songwriter with the band Drive-By Truckers, included a song about Farmer, entitled "Frances Farmer", on his 2004 solo album Killers and Stars. The album's cover art features a drawing of Farmer by Toby Cole. Its liner notes describe the album as having been "recorded in dining room with creaking chair and snoring dog (Loretta), Athens, Georgia, early March 2001."[64][65]
Farmer is referenced in the 2008 musical Next to Normal during the performance of the song "Didn't I See This Movie?," and the character of "Diana" declares at one point, "I ain't no Frances Farmer" The stage production explores the topic of "pharmacological treatment of depression and bipolar disorder" and has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize.[66][67]