limited edition cassette
wanda 001
ono/wanda (2016)
You'll gather from below that I'm a bit of a Wanda fan so when I learned about this tape I just had to get one. It was released on the Ono Wanda label in 2016 and features a host of artists most of whom I'd never heard or heard of before apart from Shreikback and Brigitte Fontaine. Made up of 100 minutes of outsider electronic-ambient, music with a mostly cinematic atmosphere. This mixtape is really good and a great addition to my tape collection.
Comes with a 4-panel, homemade J-card which has the tracklisting; plus a short explication on the film's opening shots as well as the author's ideas on what the film is a about and the message it conveys on one side, but is blank
on the other.
Also included is a J-card sized print of a still from the film of Wanda (Barbara Loden); eyes closed as if in concentration, with a set of haircurlers on her head. Includes a redeem card and code for anyone who wants to download
an MP3 version. Cassette shellcase is black on side and white on the other. Tracks are interspersed by snatches of dialogue from the film.
Wanda Is Not Here : Bandcamp link
• • • • • • • • • • •
Wanda is an independent 1970 film directed by Barbara Loden who also stars in the title role.
Loden was a Broadway Tony award-winning American stage and film actress, model, and stage/film director. She was the first woman to write, direct and star in her own feature film which won the International Critics Award at the 1970 Venice Film Festival. Loden appeared in a minor role in Elia Kazan's film Wild River as Montgomery Clift’s secretary but she was perhaps better known for her role in Splendor in the Grass (1961), in which she played Warren Beatty's sister. In 1968 she married Kazan with whom she remained till her premature death in 1980. Wanda is her only film as a director.
• • • • •
Wanda tells the story of an unhappy housewife living in a shitty Pennsylvanian coal-mining town who divorces her husband and relinquishes her rights to her children. Unable to find work, Wanda leaves the town and after a couple of misfortunate events -including one where she's robbed of the meagre amount of money she has. She eventually falls in with low-life, bank robber, Norman. A man she becomes infatuated with. Despite learning about his lifestyle, that he's on the run and his abusive way towards her, Wanda decides to stay with him.
From there on it's all downhill with Norman ending up dead after a failed bank-robbery. Wanda manages to escape only to be sexually assaulted by another man with whom she hitched a ride.The film ends with Wanda at a bar, where strangers supply her with food, alcohol, and cigarettes.
Though not exactly your average feel-good movie in any way Wanda is a film that I really like. One that I recommend to anyone who is the least bit interested in contemporary American independent cinema.
In 2012, French author Nathalie Léger published Supplément à la vie de Barbara Loden (Suite for Barbara Loden being the English title) a novel about Barbara Loden and the film Wanda. If you like the film you'll enjoy this book as well.
I first saw the film at some ciné-club in the 80s but managed to catch it again when it was re-released in the early 2000s in France. I have a DVD copy which has quite a fair amount of extras including an excerpt from a television show where Loden, John Lennon and Yoko Ono are the guests. I also managed to pick up a small french-movie poster of the film and a small booklet-sized press kit (see above) that accompanied the 2003 re-release.
The 12-page booklet includes the synopsis, cast and tech crew credits, an interview on the film with french actress, Isabelle Huppert, and Barbara Loden's filmography.
No comments:
Post a Comment