JESSICA LANGE
I remember Laurnce Fishburne on Oparh talking about prepping for his Ike Turner saying ‘getting into character is easy: it’s getting out that’s hard’. I think this was a very true statement for Jessica Lange regarding FRANCES. In Ms. Lange’s later work after FRANCES you can still see flickers of Frances Farmer wash over her. Like in “Country”, “Sweet Dreams”, “The Music Box” and in also “Tootsie”. Those signature dark hazes, flashes of harrowing torment that were Jessica’s carefully designed dead gaze. Those looks were residual darkness leftovers from FRANCES. Jessica Lange did extensive research of newsreels, old films, visiting old friends of Ms. Farmer, reading everything written on Frances Farmer. Jessica Lange puts everything into this performance and it seems it may have been a hard one to shake – taking possession of her.
She was definitely a young actress possessed. It’s like she summons the spirit of Frances Farmer – but Frances didn’t want to leave after the camera stopped rolling. It’s a daring portrayal. Stunning achievement in a tribute life of a woman who challenged Hollywood, outside forces and most damaging all of, her controlling mother (played by the always nuanced and terrific Kim Stanley). Jessica attacks scenes with buried rage and fighting frustration combined with intense vulnerability. Never playing into obvious insanity with ‘general crazy’, but with logic and reason and always on the brink. She always titters just on the edge, ever moment, especially in the silent moments. Yes, Frances drank and used drugs and was probably bipolar and would have been surely medicated to death today. But Jessica Lange never played into these end results. She never closed herself off like so many other actresses would have done playing mentally ill characters. It’s a way to distance the pain from an actor – Jessica seems to welcome the intense hurt and suffering the real woman must have felt. Her silence moments are cries for help and begging… pleas for understanding. It’s a truly independent performance, a maverick rendering, like the character herself. Clifford Odets tells character Frances backstage of her GOLDEN BOY, " I don’t want you to act desperate. I want you to be desperate…If you don’t know the difference than my play is not going to work”. Jessica shows us by a deep understanding, "you walk by that woman every day and you never see her" Jessica every scene she's ultra aware of the position she is in – the time – women’s place in Hollywood in the 30’s and in the world – Her fight is a fight woman are still screaming for.
She was definitely a young actress possessed. It’s like she summons the spirit of Frances Farmer – but Frances didn’t want to leave after the camera stopped rolling. It’s a daring portrayal. Stunning achievement in a tribute life of a woman who challenged Hollywood, outside forces and most damaging all of, her controlling mother (played by the always nuanced and terrific Kim Stanley). Jessica attacks scenes with buried rage and fighting frustration combined with intense vulnerability. Never playing into obvious insanity with ‘general crazy’, but with logic and reason and always on the brink. She always titters just on the edge, ever moment, especially in the silent moments. Yes, Frances drank and used drugs and was probably bipolar and would have been surely medicated to death today. But Jessica Lange never played into these end results. She never closed herself off like so many other actresses would have done playing mentally ill characters. It’s a way to distance the pain from an actor – Jessica seems to welcome the intense hurt and suffering the real woman must have felt. Her silence moments are cries for help and begging… pleas for understanding. It’s a truly independent performance, a maverick rendering, like the character herself. Clifford Odets tells character Frances backstage of her GOLDEN BOY, " I don’t want you to act desperate. I want you to be desperate…If you don’t know the difference than my play is not going to work”. Jessica shows us by a deep understanding, "you walk by that woman every day and you never see her" Jessica every scene she's ultra aware of the position she is in – the time – women’s place in Hollywood in the 30’s and in the world – Her fight is a fight woman are still screaming for.
Vincent Canby wrote, “ It’s a magnificent performance by Jessica Lange in the title role. Here is a performance so unfaltering, so tough, so intelligent and so humane that it seems as if Miss Lange is just now, at long last, making her motion picture debut. Miss Lange is consistently splendid. She's as fine as the stubborn, sharp-minded teenage girl as she is as the grotesquely misunderstood and frightened woman. One particular highlight: an encounter with a psychiatrist that is so brilliantly over-drawn it could be her own hallucination. It is both funny and heart-breaking.”
Jessica Lange has made 'crazy', reasonable and understandable throughout her career – later in BLUE SKY. She has really cornered the market on the mysteries and instabilities of sensitive women on the verge. To be a independent, free thinking female in this world ran by men. FRANCES is a character that is not sure what she wants or where she is going. She's outraged. Not insane - just outraged. Actors need strong objectives and super objectives. This is a tragic tale with an unkind ending and no one really to blame for her suffering or madness. She suffers and dies alone. Jessica makes ‘certain… uncertainly’ making mental illness something to examine and look at without quick generalization. She seemed to be haunted by the ghost of Frances Framer – she lets us into the deepest parts of the despair. Jessica makes us search along with her and ultimate care for this woman whose biggest enemy was something unknown. She takes a huge risk and lets it play out for us without judgment. Hopeless and fragile and still walking in her mothers shadow – Jessica seems to know more than we do about our nature – a women’s plight and the what’s happening underneath it all than any other actor, male or female in film. Frances world is complex and filled with characters that selfishly want something from her and it’s scary to watch. It’s a true signature performance. Jessica Lange seems possessed to deliver something remarkable, something to think about for the long haul, her silences and blank stares have more in them than many of the best plays. Intuition has never hurt so well on screen. Frances telling off her therapist and calling attention to his little beads of sweat of his upper lip – we fight and are in that crazy world right along with Jessica. It’s not a perfect movie – at times choppy and structure drifts and sometimes repeats itself but Lange’s performance keeps it all-brilliant, stirring and finally unsettling.
Jessica Lange performance, unfortunately hit the screen the same year as Meryl’s Sophie. In other year and she would have won the OSCAR. Everyone knows that TOOTSIE supporting Actress was some kind of consolation for this incredible performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment