movies (subject to tumblr's inconsistent search engine. for more complete results, try the archive): badlands, blow out, bring me the head of alfredo garcia, cadavres exquis, charley varrick, chinatown, dog day afternoon, il conformista, klute, le cercle rouge, marathon man, mean streets, night moves, point blank, prime cut, save the tiger, serpico, sisters, straight time, the day of the jackal, the don is dead, the driver, the friends of eddie coyle, the getaway, the harder they come, the hot rock, the killing of a chinese bookie, the last of sheila, the long goodbye, the mackintosh man, the onion field, the organization, the parallax view, the spook who sat by the door, the sting, the taking of pelham one two three, the yakuza, three days of the condor, villain, wanda
An early example of American cinema vérité filmmaking, much of the movie is a quiet tour of the seedy motels and dive bars of rust-belt Pennsylvania; there is a bank-robbery climax that’s more gurgle than bang, but mostly it’s staring into the vacant face of Barbara Loden’s Wanda, wondering how someone could be so completely indifferent. However, Loden—who wrote, directed and starred in the film—hasn’t created a character that is apathetic by choice, but instead she’s a woman who has internalized the anonymity and worthlessness that she sees reflected back onto her by society. You’ve never been so compelled by a character that wasn’t there.
Actress/director Barbara Loden with husband Elia Kazan
Loden’s film won the International Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival. After her critical success, Kazan is quoted as having said: “When I first met her, she had little choice but to depend on her sexual appeal. But after Wanda she no longer needed to be that way, no longer wore clothes that dramatized her lure, no longer came on as a frail, uncertain woman who depended on men who had the power… I realized I was losing her, but I was also losing interest in her struggle… She was careless about managing the house, let it fall apart, and I am an old-fashioned man.”*
*Elia Kazan, A Life (Knopf, 1988)
After granting her husband a divorce and relinquishing custody of her kids, Wanda roams through town, stopping at store window to admire the clothing on a mannequin, a mannequin whose face is more expressive than her own.
Wanda (1970)
