Wanda

Critetion Channel's movie of the week is Wanda, from 1970, directed by Barbara Loden, and I must admit I had never heard of it. Loden was an actress and wife of Elia Kazan, and this is the only movie she ever directed. It won the Venice prize. It is also extremely depressing.

Set in the coal country of eastern Pennsylvania, Wanda (Loden) is a woman adrift. She has abandoned her husband and children, and has been laid off from her job at a garment factory (the boss tells her she's "too slow"). She just seems to wander around, as if in a daze. Today we might wonder if she had a mental illness, but back then this was just a woman being a doormat in a patriarchal society.

She eventually wanders into a bar and finds a very flustered man. Unknown to her the bartender is tied up behind the bar--this man is robbing the place. She tags along with him, has sex with him, but he shows no kindness, not even wanting to know her name. She calls him Mr. Dennis.

The film then transitions into a crime spree film, like a very low-key Badlands. Mr. Dennis (Michael Higgins) steals a car, takes the clothes out of another one, and even steals from a Goodwill box. He visits his father at some kind of religious organization, and then plans a bank robbery, all the while Wanda following along, in his thrall despite the abuse he lays on her, both physical and emotional.

Wanda is an interesting film, but not a particularly good one. It's extremely low-budget, but also crawls along at a snail's pace, with long lingering shots of people doing pretty much nothing. At some points it's like watching paint dry. I think the mystery of what is wrong with Wanda is part of the point, and allows us to conjecture, but I also felt I wanted to learn more about her, as she is simply a punching bag and has no original thoughts or actions.

Still, it was somewhat groundbreaking, as not many women directed films back then. It's more a curiosity than a classic.