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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.
Wanda was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by Gucci and The Film Foundation.
Original Release
01/14/1971
US Release
02/20/1971
Links
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Michael Higgins | Mr. Dennis |
Dorothy Shupenes | Wanda's Sister |
Peter Shupenes | Brother in Law |
Jerome Thier | Husband |
Marian Thier | Miss Godek |
Anthony Rotell | Tony |
M.L. Kennedy | Judge |
Gerald Grippo | Court Clerk |
Milton Gittleman | Factory Owner |
Lila Gittleman | His Wife / Factory Owners Wife |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Michael Higgins | Mr. Dennis |
Dorothy Shupenes | Wanda's Sister |
Peter Shupenes | Brother in Law |
Jerome Thier | Husband |
Marian Thier | Miss Godek |
Anthony Rotell | Tony |
M.L. Kennedy | Judge |
Gerald Grippo | Court Clerk |
Milton Gittleman | Factory Owner |
Lila Gittleman | His Wife / Factory Owners Wife |
Arnold Kanig | Traveling Salesman / Travelling Salesman |
Joe Dennis | Joe |
Charles Dosinan | Father |
Jack Ford | Mr. Anderson |
Rozamond Peck | Mrs. Anderson / Anderson Daughter |
Susan Clark | Anderson Daughter |
Linda Clark | Anderson Daughter |
Bill Longworth | Newscaster |
Frank Jourdano | Soldier |
Valerie Mamches | Girl in Roadhouse |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Harry Shuster | Producer |