Portrayals and tributes[edit]
- In 1980, French singer Mylène Jeanne Gautier changed her name to "Mylène Farmer" while studying to be an actress, as a tribute to Farmer.[44]
- Jessica Lange played Farmer in the 1982 film, Frances,[3] for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress;[45] Kim Stanley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Farmer's domineering mother.[46] In his review of the film for the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, critic Roger Ebert stated:
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/
(When they tell you to)[51]
- In his 1991 novel, God's Peculiar Care, Patrick Roscoe imagined a group of misfits obsessed by Farmer's tragic life.[52][53]
- The Tracey Thorn-penned song "Ugly Little Dreams," featured on Everything but the Girl's 1985 album Love Not Money was inspired by Frances Farmer.[34][54] The song features the lyrics:
It's a battlefield Frances You fight or concede Victory to the enemy Who call your strength insanity
What chance for such girls How can we compete? In a world that likes its women
Stupid and sweet[55]
- 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.
- Courtney Love wore a vintage dress once owned by Frances Farmer when she married Kurt Cobain in Hawaii on February 24, 1992.[60][61] It is commonly believed that their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was named after Frances Farmer but she is purportedly named after musician Frances McKee.[62]
- 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]
作为家中最年幼的孩子，法默并未得到老小应有的宠溺和偏爱。父母在她4岁的时候决定分居，之后母亲带着法默投奔了远在洛杉矶的法默的姐姐。
6岁那年，他们又回到西雅图的父亲身边，尽管父母仍然执意分居，他们也像完好的家庭一样，住在同一个屋檐下。
或许是非同寻常的家庭环境，又或许是天性使然，法默自小就很有想法。她很聪明，中学时就开始读尼采。18岁，以一篇《上帝死了》获得学术写作奖。
发现自己的表达天分后，法默进入华盛顿大学，修习戏剧。在这里，她接触到大量的剧本，充分激发了她的表演灵感，也让她更加渴望成为百老汇的戏剧演员。
22岁那年，她却误打误撞与派拉蒙影视公司签下7年合约，成为好莱坞的一名演员。
很快，她嫁给了演员勒夫·埃克逊。
