Mar 27, 2019 — Certain films find a way of creeping into your brain because they invite you to explore whole new worlds that continue well beyond their final frames. These movies force you to keep looking for answers to questions posed not just...

Jul 20, 2018 — American audiences weren’t ready for Barbara Loden’s Wanda when it premiered in 1970. A stark portrait of a working-class woman (played with raw conviction by Loden herself) who breaks free of a miserable marriage, only to find herself on the...

Mar 19, 2019 — A few weeks after Barbara Loden, the writer, director, and star of Wanda, died at age forty-eight after a long battle with cancer, Elia Kazan, her widower, was interviewed by Marguerite Duras for Cahiers du cinéma. It was 1980, and...

Mar 25, 2019 — In early 2007 the UCLA Film & Television Archive received a call from Hollywood Film and Video announcing that the lab was, sadly, closing—and clearing its vaults in two days’ time. Anything left was doomed to the dumpster. The next...

The director of Romería talks about Víctor Erice’s influence on her work, shares how Wanda made her interrogate what feminism really means in cinema, and selects favorites like Umberto D. and Walkabout.

The actor and star of The Last Showgirl talks about being profoundly inspired by Barbara Loden’s Wanda, shares her passion for the poetry of Abbas Kiarostami, and praises the style and craft of actors like Romy Schneider, Katharine Hepburn, and...

The legendary actor returns to Closet, where she shares her love for independent American gems such as Barbara Loden’s Wanda and Michael Roemer’s Nothing but a Man, talks about Roberto Rossellini’s work with Ingrid Bergman, and selects Italian cinema classics...

The legendary auteur returns to the Criterion Closet, where he selects new editions of favorite films like Down by Law and Wanda, talks about Kurosawa’s genius for recreating weather on-screen, and shouts out his former assistant director Claire Denis.

The Palme d’Or–winning Belgian duo talk about their friends Jane Campion and Cristian Mungiu, a Krzysztof Kieślowski masterpiece that has influenced their own work, and the “profound loneliness” of Barbara Loden’s Wanda.

May 14, 2026 — Channel Calendars This month on the Criterion Channel, set out on an epic journey with our Odysseys collection, or revisit the foundational Bond classics that introduced the silver screen’s most iconic superspy. A spotlight on Courtney Love’s acting career reveals...