‘Wanda’ (1970) – Directed By Barbara Loden

This is my first entry for Find Your Seen as far as movie curation goes. First up is Wanda, a 1970 feature directed and penned by Barbara Loden. Though best known as the wife of director Elia Kazan, Loden received critical acclaim for Wanda. Each film I enter on this website will be updated once more information comes in, so here goes!

During the interviews for The Secrets We Keep, actress Amy Seimetz talked about how Wanda influenced her own storytelling process (she listed the film as her #1 on her Criterion Top 10). The reason why she said she was going “to rush” was because I had just several minutes with her and co-star Chris Messina:

“Oh man, you asked the wrong question at the end. I’m going to rush. (Barbara Loden is) everything to me. The first time I saw Wanda was it gave me permission to explore women I hadn’t really seen frequently in cinema. Bringing forth the idea of a fascinating character as opposed to her being a redeeming character that was worthy of watching. I take a lot from Wanda, maybe you even you could say I rip off Wanda (laughs).” – Amy Seimetz

For more information on the life of Barbara Loden, check out this fascinationg installment from the April 17, 2017 episode of You Must Remember This:

Wanda is available on Blu-ray via The Criterion Collection or you can check it out on The Criterion Channel. 

Have you seen Wanda? If so, please comment and share your thoughts on the film!!

Speaking of female filmmakers, the Find Your Film crew spotlighted Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, a documentary directed by Pamela B. Green: