Wanda – 1970
We movie lovers tend to love movie lists. The reason for this love, for me at least, is that lists tend to contain a multitude of those films that I haven’t seen yet but dearly want to see. In this, these lists hold out a promise to us. They invite us to more joys in cinema, and hopefully more of the beauty, truth, and mystery that cinema can so often bring to us.
For those who have a passion for certain film directors’ work, very few film lists hold the magnetIc power of a list entitled Favorite Films of “Awesome Director.” This list of the favoirite films by the Dardenne brothers, then, is kind of a super neodymium magnet for me. What cinema has made Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne tick, we wonder. What has made them the most consistently incisive and compassionate among modern social realist filmmakers? When I think of the Dardennes, my mind goes to my own favorites of theirs (La Promesse; Two Days, One Night; The Unknown Girl) but so many of their films are masterclass that you could just as easily come up with an alternate list of stunners.
When we look at the Dardennes’ list, we see names like Pialat, Cassavetes, Bresson, and, very heavily represented, Roberto Rossellini. Give me a film festival of these films, we want to say, because we want a taste of the stuff that inspired these special filmmakers. Then we come to a name of a director we may have never seen before. We only see Barbara Loden’s name once on the list, and it is for the 1970 film Wanda. This is in fact the only full-length film Loden directed.
What was it about Loden’s one and only film that caught the eye of the Dardennes? I was happy to catch up with the film on the Criterion Channel, as it is a film that is as harsh and clear-eyed as the brothers’ films in its vision of souls lost in mundane crimes, poverty, and dead ends. The influence reaching from 1970 into the brothers’ present filmography is unmistakable.
As with some of the Dardennes’ protagonists, Wanda’s central and title character (played by Loden herself) is first glimpsed under the weight of a bewildering social millstone. She walks for what seem like miles through a vast Pennsylvania coal field before she is able to hitch a ride. Then we learn that this odyssey is for the sad purpose of being present in court with her ex-husband, a man who is savaging her before the judge just as she enters the courtroom. In a shock that is as unvarnished as the most painful Dardennes moments, Wanda goes on to tell the judge that her children are really better off with their father anyway.
The film continues with Wanda wandering from one place to the next, seemingly without any guiding purpose or motivation to move toward better things in her life. She wanders into a bar looking for a bathroom and finds a twitchy, corrosive man robbing the place. Her course for the rest of the film is set when, instead of running for her life, she stays with the perpetrator for the coming hours and days. It is a testament to her utter aimlessness that, despite the abusive and condescending way this man treats her, she considers it worthwhile to stay by his side. The film follows Wanda as she follows this man, and she does not resist much even when it is clear she is following him into more and more dangerous crimes.
My first viewing of Wanda tells me it is harder to love than the brothers’ films, but I’m not sure if I can fault it for that. The brothers’ films are watchable and rewatchable partly because they seem to avidly seek out a sliver of hope and dreams for their forlorn faces. You may not see this hope until the end of the line in their films, but it is often there even if seen from afar.
Despite the severity, it is extremely interesting for me that this film contains an interlude in which Wanda and her crime partner wander through a religious theme park. This sequence is surprising, unusual, and comes into the film almost from out of nowhere. Though it’s tempting to grasp for any sign of hope in this film, the inclusion of this real-life theme park doesn’t really seem to bring much lightness or grace to the proceedings. We see a tour guide describing a replica of the ancient catacombs where Christians were buried and held gatherings. Try as we may to find light here, the readiest connection we can make between this and our central characters is the suggestion that death may be coming for both of them. We are also left with the impression of a park that contains cheap replicas even of things that, as in the case of early Christians who were worshiped and were buried in hidden places, should be mysterious and resonant.
Does Barbara Loden glimpse any hope for her wandering and confused protagonist? If so, it is hard to appreciate it. Should she find hope for Wanda? Should she have worked harder to help us see hope for her? It would be hard to make that case, as part of the purposeful severity of the film lies in the fact that Wanda does not land far from where she started. Many real-life women in Wanda’s social and emotional situation have done much the same.
We ask ourselves : “Who will save Wanda? Who will rescue her? Who will show her love?” In the absence of Wanda finding an answer to those questions, she will keep stumbling from coal field to bar, and from the bed of one thoughtless man to the next. We are left praying for and thinking hard about women like Wanda. Will the Wandas in our communities be left with a cheap replica of things that could be emotionally and spiritually beautiful, or will they have a chance to taste the real thing? Maybe you and I, if we come across them, will have a chance to play a part in bringing healing, direction, and a certain steadfast love. If we do, we may find ourselves following closely behind the Christ who was dreamt of in the desperate catacombs.
