Frances Farmer Bashny.Net

Frankly, I do not read these terrible stories of life ...
Her life story has made an indelible impression on me. It seems that the bear that made Francis, beyond the power of one man.
But judge for yourself.





In the small town of Seattle in Washington state he was born a girl - her family belonged to the middle class: the daddy - lawyer, mother - a housewife. Francis was the third late child, designed to save the disintegrating marriage strong willed men and eccentric woman. The birth of his daughter marriage is not saved - and soon Francis joined the army of kids who see dad on the weekends. Francis was silent, clearly artistically gifted child: writing poetry, a good student, paint, read a lot. She thought she would be able to become a journalist and enrolled in the faculty of journalism - many moonlighted to support themselves and pay for their studies. But the editors did not like the style of its articles - too sharp and honest. Francis understood that in journalism it is not lucky - and moved into the theater department.



She thought that it would be very difficult - but wrong. Francis did not even know how beautiful she is and how her love chamber. It immediately drew the attention of the representatives of the studio "Paramount" and she started acting. Preparing yourself for theatrical career, she was talented in the film - in the first film could be seen of her extraordinary acting ability. She predicted a brilliant career as a star of the first magnitude, but she behaved absolutely nonstar. She married for love, modestly lived with her husband in the normal area, no makeup at home and was not seen in any more or less befitting a Hollywood starlet scandal.



In 27 years, Francis was on the verge of exhaustion: she starred in 18 films and 30 radio shows, began acting at age 22. Her marriage was on the verge of collapse (which, in fact, happened shortly), and health was completely shattered. She suffered from headaches, and sometimes do not remove the drugs. In 1942, Francis stopped the highway patrol. The breach was some trifling, but she did not want to listen to police and refused to pay the fine. In our time, the incident would not be worth a damn - but then she was taken to the police station and charged for driving under the influence.



Lawyer cause did not occur or did not want - and Francis sentenced to 180 days in jail, even without expertise on alcohol in the blood. Theatrical figures of New York trying to protect a colleague - but their petition is not particularly paying attention.

And this is where the actress starts its journey through the circles of hell ... At a time when Europe works of Freud and Jung begins to reform psychiatry, America remains a country where nothing worse than a mental hospital for the person did not have. Francis placed there and she begins to suffer from all the joys of psychiatric treatment at the time.



The man in our time would be cured in a couple of months, almost dying of daily injections of insulin (if they were treated the mentally ill). Francis condition deteriorates so that it loses the ability to read and write, is experiencing memory lapses. Miraculously, she manages to escape, she gets to his mother's house - and then comes the monstrous mother is sending medics and half-dead daughter back. Actually mother, Francis played the role of a fatal genius for girls - she with a diagnosis of "hysteria," she could not forgive her daughter that she refused the position of the stars in Hollywood. And declared it crazy - to sign a document confirming that Francis is mad. In her mind it did not fit that mentally normal person does not want to become a star.



Francis returned to the hospital - but she is now considered prone to escape. She dresses in a straitjacket, shaved bald, and cast into the camera for violent lunatics. Perhaps even in the Stalinist and Nazi camps it was better - because the man was surrounded by dangerous, but sane people who could even understand. Francis was in a room filled with fecal matter, parasites, rats - and screaming, howling, screaming dangerous madmen.

Began a course of shock therapy and hydrotherapy is now prohibited, when a person for 6-8 hours put into cold water. People in the chamber were of different ages and with different diagnoses: schizophrenic, mentally retarded children, the elderly senile - all those unhappy swarmed on standing close beds, many were handcuffed, urinated under him - was a stench in the air. Throwing food on the floor and she had to fight with fellow inmates and beefy rats. But that is not all. Near psychiatry housed barracks of soldiers - and none of them indulged in the desire to rape unanswered patients. When they learned that in psychiatry appeared Frances Farmer - animals came to the indescribable delight. One of the nurses Clinic wrote in his memoirs that the worst nightmare still haunts her, the crowd began cackling soldiers raped every day Frances Farmer.



The hospital Stilakum in those years began to implement a program of the CIA and the Pentagon for testing chemical methods to influence the consciousness. Francis had tried almost all experimental drugs, including the most risky. All went to the tragic outcome. Psychiatrist Walter Freeman for his experiments, chose this hospital because it was Frances Farmer. His method is as follows: the surgeon inserts between the eyelid and the eyeball into the brain thin, pointed tool and turning it slightly, worked on the section of the brain, "controlling" the will and emotions. It only takes a few minutes, even without leaving a scar. From 's just like the psychiatrist thought, the patient turned into a law-abiding citizen. He introduced the needle into the brain Farmer. And Francis was no more. She lived, breathed, walked, but it was only her shell. There will be no inspiration, no intelligence insight. It was no longer dangerous. It could go home. Especially her mother so requests. She suffered a stroke, and daughter, in her opinion, had to take care of it. Francis allowed to go home, she came alone on the bus, and the next day got sorter dirty laundry in the hotel, where once the governor of the state gave a reception in her honor. It is part of the people and literally burned down a few months from stomach cancer. Actress died in terrible agony. She was 56 years old ...



I wonder:

In 1982 he saw the release of "Frances" (I did not find the heart to see it), which tells the tragic fate of the actress. The main role in it sang Jessica Lange and Kim Stanley played in the picture her mother. Both actresses were nominated for "Oscar": for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

We have a song of Nirvana «Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle» (eng. Frances Farmer revenge Seattle). On top of that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were big fans of the actress, and on their wedding dress Courtney was previously owned by Farmer.

Frances Farmer mentioned in the song «Ugly Little Dreams» British duo «Everything but the Girl».

The song «Lobotomy Gets' Em Home» Group «The Men They Could not Hang» devoted to Frances Farmer stay in a psychiatric clinic.

Mylene Gautier changed his name to Farmer in homage to the actress.