A Gem Called Wanda, Rescued

What’s an arthouse film? Not unlike the cult film, it can draw in a certain type of cinephile that searches for an experience unlike the one you get from a blockbuster crowd pleaser. The arthouse film is typically independently made and is often experimental: sometimes cerebral, sometimes gut wrenching, sometimes both at once. Best Video — home to many of these films on VHS and DVD — is looking to share such experiences with others on Arthouse Sundays, a new monthly series that debuted this past weekend with the 1970 film Wanda. Wanda is a singular piece of cinema that, to this reporter, almost defies comparison. Written and directed by as well as starring Barbara Loden, the film is a combination character study, docudrama, and escape from urban wastelands where one woman aimlessly wanders from couch to bed to public bathroom to bar, being judged at every turn yet never really finding a way out.