#965: LODEN, Barbara: Wanda (1970)

LODEN, Barbara (United States)
Wanda [1970]
Spine #965
Blu-ray

With her first and only feature film — a hard-luck drama she wrote, directed, and starred in — Barbara Loden turned in a groundbreaking work of American independent cinema, bringing to life a kind of character seldom seen on-screen. Set amid a soot-choked Pennsylvania landscape, and shot in an intensely intimate vérité style, the film takes up with distant and soft-spoken Wanda (Loden), who has left her husband, lost custody of her children, and now finds herself alone, drifting between dingy bars and motels, where she falls prey to a series of callous men — including a bank robber who ropes her into his next criminal scheme. An until now difficult-to-see masterpiece that has nonetheless exerted an outsize influence on generations of artists and filmmakers, Wanda is a compassionate and wrenching portrait of a woman stranded on society's margins.

103 minutes

Color
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2019

Director/Writer

Barbara Loden was 38 when she wrote and directed Wanda.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin.

Commentary

None.

I am Wanda

An hour-long documentary by Katja Raganelli featuring an interview with director Loden filmed in 1980.

Audio recording

Of Loden speaking to students at the American Film Institute in 1971.

Segment

From a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Loden.

Short educational film

The Frontier Experience (1975) about a pioneer woman’s struggle to survive, directed by and starring Loden.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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