Winner of the critics prize Venice 1970. Wanda is a forgotten masterpiece.

A critical hit in Europe, that failed at the US box office, and subsequently disappeared from sight.

THE PLOT

Wanda's theme is elegantly revealed in its first few minutes: a woman who doesn't fit in her environment, doesn't fit anywhere. Wanda is the story of an unlikely parnership between a coal mining wife from Pennsylvania (played by Loden herself) who dumped by her husband, meets up with a drifter with whom she joins forces to pull a bank job….

THE DIRECTOR: BARBARA LODEN (1932 - 1980)

Barbara Loden was born 1932 the wrong side of the tracks in Marion Ohio, white trash abandoned by her father and brought up by her grandparents. She moved to New York aged 17 working as a dancer and studying acting with Paul Mann. By 25 she was cast in her first Broadway play, Compulsion, the first of many dramatic roles on the Great White Way.

She won a Tony for her stunning performance as Maggie is Arthur Miller’s After the Fall directed by Elia Kazan. Miller had based the character of Maggie on his second wife Marilyn Monroe, and Kazan cast Loden in the role because she and Marilyn had:….” both been 'floaters' and come out of almost identical childhood experiences, which had left them neurotic, often desperate, and in passion difficult to control” (Kazan 1988).

ELIA KAZAN

Her relationship with Kazan (20 years her senior) led to roles in Splendour in the Grass and Wild River and marriage to him in1967. In Kazan’s life Loden was instrumental in helping him give up theatre and writing his own screenplays. Central to which was ‘The Arrangement’ a fictionalised account of their relationship filmed in 1969 in which Loden was denied her ‘part ‘, Gwen by Kazan who awarded the role to Faye Dunnaway!

THE INSPIRATION OF THE FILM

Wanda was born out of Loden’s experience, both personal and social. Loden wanted to suggest, from the vantage point of her own experience, what it meant to be a damaged, alienated woman – not to fashion a “new woman” or a “positive heroine”. ‘Wanda’s moment of birth was Loden’s reading of a newspaper article about the trial of a young women (Wanda Goranski) found guilty of being an accomplice in a bank robbery. When the judge sentenced her to 20 years, she thanked him. Wanda was shot on 16mm reversal stock over 10 weeks using D A Pannebaker’s principal cameraman Nick Proferes, and a crew of 4. For most of the shoot Proferes and Loden did everything, with Loden often doing the cooking.

INNOVATION

Both in its camera work sound design and editing, Wanda takes up and anticipates break-throughs of New Wave and later some aspects of Cassavetes: there were no story boards no rehearsals and Loden took advantage of unexpected situations that cropped up in the shoot.

BARBARA LODEN'S ONLY FILM

Barbara Loden died in 1980 from breast cancer. She spent the last ten years of her life trying unsuccessfully to raise money for a second film. Loden never had the right message for Hollywood. I think that not only is Wanda a great movie but it throws some light on the incestuous connections that run beneath the surface of Hollywood.

+ DISCUSSION!

The film will be followed by a discussion about female film makers.