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Educational / Non-Theatrical Sales
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Committed

Directors - Sheila McLaughlin & Lynne Tillman
Run Time - 77 minutes
Languages - English
Format - DVD / Digital Streaming
Year - 1984
Genre - Narrative

Educational Interests- Psychology, Women’s Studies

Institutional DVD Price: $195

Committed is the powerful story of the movie star and leftist iconoclast Frances Farmer. In 1935 Farmer was an overnight Hollywood sensation; within ten years she was in a state mental hospital. From stardom, to a locked ward, to a lobotomy, this highly stylized film reconstructs a compelling and many-layered look at the life and repression of this culturally defiant woman. Unlike Hollywood’s Frances, starring Jessica Lange, Committed goes beyond the personal story to explore the political and social attitudes of the 1930s.

Digitally-restored and available on DVD for the first time, Committed is highly scripted and was shot in the style of 40s noirs. McLaughlin and Tillman construct a film narrated by Farmer (played by McLaughlin), in which she tells her side of the story, as “neither victim nor heroine.” Committed focuses on the troubled relationship between Farmer and her mother, and examines social and political norms of the time, including the burgeoning use of psychiatry to cure “undesirables” and “disturbed” women.

"Superbly shot and acted... more subtle than the sledgehammer Hollywood feature- and no less mythic."
- The Village Voice

"Packs a wallop that 'Frances' lacks." - The Independent

"Profoundly moving and thought-provoking." - City Limits