In grim, rust-belt Pennsylvania, Wanda is down and out. She works sporadically, has abandoned her husband and children, sleeps on her sister’s couch, drinks and smokes too much, and goes home with men just to have a roof over her head. One night she walks into a bar after closing and finds a nervous Mr. Dennis pacing. She takes up with him, and he proves to be a criminal. They go on the road, visit his father, and he plans a robbery. He’s rude and demanding; Wanda accepts his abuse docilely. What future does she have? —IMDb
Barbara Loden (July 8, 1932, Marion, North Carolina – September 5, 1980, New York City) was an American film and stage actress and film director.
At the time of her death at the age of 48 from breast cancer, she was married to the director Elia Kazan, by whom she had one child. She was perhaps best-known for her role in Kazan’s film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), in which she played Warren Beatty’s sister, as well as for portraying a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe in Kazan’s stage production of After the Fall, written by Monroe’s former husband, playwright Arthur Miller.
In 1970, Loden wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the independent film, Wanda. Innovative in its cinéma vérité style, it was one of the very few American films directed by a woman to be theatrically released at that time. Film critic David Thomson has written: “Wanda is full of unexpected moments and raw atmosphere, never settling for cliché in situation or character… read more
I loved it. Just watched it, but I know I will be re watching this film for the beautiful images.
I can't shake this film. Not that I'm trying to. There are emotions and images from it so indelible that they begin to create a ghostlike, pared-down imprint in my mind, emerging when I least expect it...not unlike when you stare at a light bulb and then close your eyes...somehow, the filament from the bulb remains.
everything about it looked gorgeous to me- every gesture and landscape of huge swathes of dirt, every heartbreaking yet funny piece of dialogue. the scenes unfurl in my dreams under cheap motel lights and cloudy skies.
hmmm, I liked the story behind this more than I liked the film itself: feisty blonde full o' gumption, wife of Elia Kazan, makes her own movie, Cassavetes-style: natural acting, improvised settings, lackluster sound (it's okay, it adds to the atmosphere!). love looking at rural America; it's more foreign to me than any Middle Eastern country.
Here’s where we’ll be gathering news and reviews from this year’s edition.
Many thanks to Matthew Flanagan for pointing out the fifth issue of the multi-lingual journal La Furia Umana with its rapporto confidenziale
Barbara Loden was one of the great actresses of Brodway in the sixties. In film, she appeared in supporting roles in her husband Elia Kazan’s WILD RIVER and SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS. Working with a low… read review
