I have long been an admirer of the glamour and glitter of Hollywood. I love movies, stars and great story lines.

For me, perhaps the defining performance by any actress was Jessica Lange’s portrayal of Hollywood starlet Frances Farmer in the 1982 production of ‘Frances’. She was nominated for the best actress Oscar but did not win, she had to wait until ‘Blue Sky’ in 1992 to win best actress.

Heartbreaking and achingly sad, ‘Frances’ was Jessica Lange’s finest hour. Growing up in a bleak mid-western town, at age 12 Frances Farmer comes to notice by winning a national essay competition with the theme that God does not exist (‘God Dies’).

This brings the young Frances to national prominence. Frances’s father adores her but he is a weak-willed man dominated by his overbearing wife. She basks in Frances’s spotlight and takes the credit for her success.

Frances forms a relationship with a journalist covering her story which is consummated when she is sixteen, a role played ably and sympathetically by Jessica Lange’s real life partner Sam Shepard.

Leaving her home town, Frances arrives in New York City, with determination to make it as a serious stage actress. She soon gains critical acclaim for her stage work and falls in love with celebrated playwright and screen writer Clifford Odets.

They are planning to produce Chekov’s ‘Three Sisters’ with Frances in the leading role. This part had been promised to Frances by her lover Odets. The financial backers behind the play favour a more experienced actress and Frances does not land the role, betrayed by her lover Odets.

Frances moves to Hollywood after Odets’s deceit and ends the affair. Sick of the dumb blonde roles given her by Hollywood, she soon descends into alcoholism and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Pulled over for drink driving the judge takes pity on the once-famous actress and she pays a fine and is released. Driving over the border into Mexico, Frances experiences a complete mental breakdown after a sustained drinking bout.

She is admitted to a mental hospital where, according to the movie, she is brutally raped by two male nurses. In the movie she was given a lobotomy by her doctor, played with stark inhumanity by that fine actor Lane Smith. It was denied later that she ever had an operation but no doubt Hollywood decided it made good cinema

In the 1950s Frances would eventually rebuild her life, appearing on the American version of ‘This Is Your Life’ and the ‘Ed Sullivan Show’. She went on to appear on afternoon television but lapsed into erratic behaviour again and eventually died at the age of 56.

‘Frances’ is a film worth seeing for the amazing acting of Jessica Lange who is in almost every frame.

Main picture: Frances Farmer, believed to be a still from a film called ‘Come And Get It’.