WANDA

USA | 1970 | COLOR | DCP | 102’ | ENGLISH

Breaking decisively away from the stereotypical portrayal of the American heartland, Barbara Loden, in the only film she ever directed, crafts a definitive and utterly autonomous odyssey, rooted in her radical sensibility, whilst also taking on the leading role. The legendary ‘Wanda’, a woman trapped in the economic and emotional destitution of industrial Pennsylvania, wanders aimlessly, swept along by the decisions of the men she encounters. With a raw, realistic aesthetic reminiscent of cinéma vérité, Laden captures the silent despair and marginalization without a pedantic trace of melodrama. A stark film about the invisible victimization of the American dream where survival is anything but heroic, equating to a perpetual, exhausting inactivity. Thodoris Karamanolis

Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The Film Foundation and GUCCI.

DIRECTOR: Barbara Loden
SCREENWRITER: Barbara Loden
DoP: Nicholas Proferes 
MUSIC: Dave Mullaney
EDITOR: Nicholas Proferes 
PRINCIPAL CAST: Barbara Loden, Michael Higgins

BARBARA LODEN (1932-1980)
American actress and director. For several years she worked as a fashion model and dancer. She was married to Elia Kazan and she acted in two films of his. This is her only film as a director (for which she also wrote the screenplay and played the lead role), and it was enough to prompt the influential critic Richard Brody to describe her as the ‘female counterpart of John Cassavetes’.

FILMOGRAPHY
1970 Wanda