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Suite for Barbara Loden
First published in France in 2012 to critical and popular acclaim, this is the first book about the remarkable American actress and filmmaker Barbara Loden. Loden’s 1970 film Wanda is a masterpiece of early cinema vérité, an anti-Bonnie-and-Clyde road movie about a young woman, adrift in rust-belt Pennsylvania in the early 1960s, who embarks on a crime spree with a small-time crook.
How to paint a life, describe a personality? Inspired by the film, a researcher seeks to piece together a portrait of its creator. In her soul-searching homage to the former pin-up girl famously married to Hollywood giant Elia Kazan, the biographer’s evocative powers are put to the test. New insights into Loden’s sketchy biography remain scarce and the words of Marguerite Duras, Georges Perec, Jean-Luc Godard, Sylvia Plath, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett and W.G. Sebald come to the narrator’s rescue. As remembered scenes from Wanda alternate with the droll journal of a flailing research project, personal memories surface, and with them, uncomfortable insights into the inner life of a singular woman who is also, somehow, every woman.
How to paint a life, describe a personality? Inspired by the film, a researcher seeks to piece together a portrait of its creator. In her soul-searching homage to the former pin-up girl famously married to Hollywood giant Elia Kazan, the biographer’s evocative powers are put to the test. New insights into Loden’s sketchy biography remain scarce and the words of Marguerite Duras, Georges Perec, Jean-Luc Godard, Sylvia Plath, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett and W.G. Sebald come to the narrator’s rescue. As remembered scenes from Wanda alternate with the droll journal of a flailing research project, personal memories surface, and with them, uncomfortable insights into the inner life of a singular woman who is also, somehow, every woman.
121 pages, Paperback
First published January 5, 2012
59 people are currently reading
3,512 people want to read
About the author
Nathalie Léger
17 books84 followersNathalie Léger is an award-winning French author living in Paris, as well as an editor, an archivist and a curator. Supplément à la vie de Barbara Loden won the prestigious Prix du livre Inter 2012, voted for by readers across France. Other works include L’Exposition (2008), a semi-fictionalised essay about the enigmatic Countess of Castiglione, the most photographed woman in late 19th century Paris; and Les Vies Silencieuses de Samuel Beckett (2006). She curated the 2002 exhibition on Roland Barthes and the 2007 exhibition on Samuel Beckett, both at the Pompidou Centre. Since 2013 she has been the Director of the Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), a unique cultural institute dedicated to the archives of 20th and 21st century French writers.
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March 3, 2024
A Woman is pretending to be another, in a role she wrote herself, based on another (this, we find out later), playing something other than a straightforward role, playing not herself but a projection of herself on another, played by her but based on another.
Of late, I have been reading quite a few genre-bending books and this is one of the best examples of it. What is to write about a novel that is not a novel in the first place, what is it then, a commentary on a film, a biography, or something else- a new genre altogether. The beginning of things is necessarily vague, tangled, and chaotic and we see that few things emerge from such beginning, similar difficulty is being faced to write a review of the book which itself is vague and chaotic-in short dynamic, and lively. Perhaps it is a fusion of film review, novel, and a biography, in a sense we watch the movie through it, we read the book, we read about a book itself in it. We see the life of Barbara Loden, the famous American actress, is revealed to us through various facets of art. What a normal book needs- a beginning, a middle way, and an end, which is perhaps most important; but here there seems to be no beginning and end appears to be just another beginning as you immediately feel to read it again.
I wanted to link my present with the history of certain emotions experienced by other people.
source
How to describe a personality who thinks she is nothing? How to paint such a life about which you get to know nothing much? Could we start with naming a few places or things related to that life? Could we do it by dealing with pure formalities? It is sketchy biography of a personality who is trying to invent a character as close as possible to herself, using another woman’s life as template. The biographer tries to paint the personality of Barbara Loden through the inspiration of a movie that is based on some other woman wherein the filmmaker tries to paint herself. The words are hard to come by as it is not easy to frame sentences, for it may take the concentration of a saint to select the words which may convey exactly what you want to; and of course, we have limitations of language too.
The hardest things ar the words, how long it takes, taking a sip of drink, the concentration you need to work out what goes with what goes with what, how to put together a single sentence. I had no idea that shaping a sentence was so difficult, all the possible ways there are to do it, even the simplest sentence, as soon as it’s written down, all the hesitations, all the problems.
The book starts with a gradual but piercing opening about a woman against the darkness, who slowly reveals itself, the scene comes across a great opening of a probable novel only to realize later that it’s a scene from the movie Wanda. The movie is based on a newspaper story about a man and a woman who plan a bank robbery which gets failed, however, the woman thinks imprisonment could be a relief. Barbara is deeply affected by the story- what pain, what hopelessness could make a person desire to be put away? How could imprisonment be a relief?- so much that she decides to make a movie upon it. The author tries to find a balance between involvement and detachment through the book, she is not interested in joy, enthusiasm, happiness, or fulfillment but grievance, powerlessness, scorned emotions as if these very characteristics define our existence.
The author has been given a project of writing an encyclopedia entry about Barbara Loden which seems to be simple enough as there is no need to put your soul and heart in it. However, the author has been caught with the fascination of life of Loden, immerse herself in various research efforts as she believes that in order to keep it short you need to know a great deal. The disproportionate relationship between the writing of a short encyclopedia entry and the breadth of research of the author marks her endeavor.I felt like I was managing a huge building site, from which I was going to excavate a miniature model of modernity, reduced to its simplest, most complex form: a woman telling her own story through that of another woman. What comes out a biography of Loden in which the biographer struggles to paint a picture worthy of the subject, she struggles to find a narrative for the biography as she looks for different sorts of inspirations – movie, journals, stories, people connected with the subject. It is indeed a sketchy surrogate biography for archives and interviews wherein the features of biography are replaced by well-connected outbursts of narrative fragments, connected through some common thread of necessity.
What we find a struggling piece by the biographer wherein she struggles indecisiveness about what to left and what to contain, the narrative solidarity we normally associate with a biography, novelistic traits biographies are supposed to have. We see that the biographer tries to find solace through the words of Marguerite Duras, Georges Perec, Jean-Luc Godard, Sylvia Plath, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett, and W.G. Sebald, who come to her rescue, yet her approach to Loden and her appreciation of “Wanda” are entirely her own.
source
We see that the author takes on various considerable endeavors to find truths (half-truths) about Barbara Loden. She tries to contact various people connected with Loden including her family members, friends or interviewers to get views about the actress. She also travels extensively for her great project which includes her visits to the sites of the shoot of the movie- Wanda and various repositories where archives may give some idea about the life of Loden. The research leads her to the article which inspired the movie Wanda, it is about women Alma Malone and Ansley who planned a bank robbery which got failed. The character of Alma Malone inspires Loden so much that she decides to make a movie on it, what actually inspires her- is the passivity of Alma’s existence? As mentioned by Sylvia Plath in her journal: ’ For instance, I could hold my nose, close my eyes, and jump blindly into waters of some man’s insides, submerging myself until his purpose becomes my purpose, his life, my life and so on. One fine day I would float to the surface, quite drowned, and supremely happy with my newfound selfless self.’
How could he not understand the sometimes overwhelming necessity of yielding to the other’s desire to give yourself a better chance of escaping it ?
The interesting question here is that what inspires the author to take Barbara Loden as her subject of research, there could be multiple reasons for it, all of which we may not be able to know but we try to unveil the most important ones of those. We know that Wanda is essentially a feminist work that has been criticized by feminist critics on account of passivity of the existence of Wanda in front of male superiorityA woman on the run or hiding, concealing her pain and her refusal, putting an act in order to break free, so in a way the book is a slap on those feminist critics who constructs a very shallow picture of feminism. The fascination of Loden with the story of Alma must also have inspired the author to take Barbara Loden as the subject of her book. We see that Loden reportedly mentions that Wanda’s character is based on her own life and that must have fueled up the imagination of the author. The enigma of the life of Wanda would have also been one of the reasons since its darkness inside her as if it’s an unfamiliar room we are unable to see, the disquieting sense that some are there but impossible to be sure. As we see in any biography, the first-person experiences of the author also play part in this unique biography by Nathalie Léger. The snippets of her conversations with her mother about their lives, the movie Wanda also help the narrative of the book to move forward in the otherwise narrative devoid book. In a way, it is the story of the narrator through the story of Loren through the story of Wanda.
I looked at myself in the mirror, like Dürer’s angel of melancholia dubiously contemplating the tools of her paltry knowledge, or like the woman in the Hopper painting, sitting on the bed on her own in a hotel room, bent over a book in her lap, leaning over the abyss.
What Nathalie Léger brings out a very piercing account of the research itself wherein she raises the graph of biography to another level she takes on this seemingly impossible task to produce a biography without any narrative voice but it brings out the numerous possibilities there, well connected perceptive fragments through various archival anecdotes, movie scenes, her own perceptions and discussions about the subject- Barbara Loden. As we know that biography is also a mode of criticism, the author produces an original and challenging criticism which she pulls off with panache. It can be said with authority that the author manages to produce a book that could be categorized across various genres, namely- film history, biography, novel, memoir, as she achieves everything, all at once through her book.
Suite for Barbara Loden is a unique book of its own kind, an unprecedented attempt to bring out something fresh which marks the tendency of contemporary literature to defy genres or to create new ones. However, as soon as I finished the book, I felt an urge to start it again and it’s on second reading that I truly realized the beauty of the book- it’s as if all pieces of the puzzle start falling in place. The book could be cherished maximally if it is being read in a single sitting.
Well, I am me and I make it. That’s all.
source
5/5
Of late, I have been reading quite a few genre-bending books and this is one of the best examples of it. What is to write about a novel that is not a novel in the first place, what is it then, a commentary on a film, a biography, or something else- a new genre altogether. The beginning of things is necessarily vague, tangled, and chaotic and we see that few things emerge from such beginning, similar difficulty is being faced to write a review of the book which itself is vague and chaotic-in short dynamic, and lively. Perhaps it is a fusion of film review, novel, and a biography, in a sense we watch the movie through it, we read the book, we read about a book itself in it. We see the life of Barbara Loden, the famous American actress, is revealed to us through various facets of art. What a normal book needs- a beginning, a middle way, and an end, which is perhaps most important; but here there seems to be no beginning and end appears to be just another beginning as you immediately feel to read it again.
I wanted to link my present with the history of certain emotions experienced by other people.
source
How to describe a personality who thinks she is nothing? How to paint such a life about which you get to know nothing much? Could we start with naming a few places or things related to that life? Could we do it by dealing with pure formalities? It is sketchy biography of a personality who is trying to invent a character as close as possible to herself, using another woman’s life as template. The biographer tries to paint the personality of Barbara Loden through the inspiration of a movie that is based on some other woman wherein the filmmaker tries to paint herself. The words are hard to come by as it is not easy to frame sentences, for it may take the concentration of a saint to select the words which may convey exactly what you want to; and of course, we have limitations of language too.
The hardest things ar the words, how long it takes, taking a sip of drink, the concentration you need to work out what goes with what goes with what, how to put together a single sentence. I had no idea that shaping a sentence was so difficult, all the possible ways there are to do it, even the simplest sentence, as soon as it’s written down, all the hesitations, all the problems.
The book starts with a gradual but piercing opening about a woman against the darkness, who slowly reveals itself, the scene comes across a great opening of a probable novel only to realize later that it’s a scene from the movie Wanda. The movie is based on a newspaper story about a man and a woman who plan a bank robbery which gets failed, however, the woman thinks imprisonment could be a relief. Barbara is deeply affected by the story- what pain, what hopelessness could make a person desire to be put away? How could imprisonment be a relief?- so much that she decides to make a movie upon it. The author tries to find a balance between involvement and detachment through the book, she is not interested in joy, enthusiasm, happiness, or fulfillment but grievance, powerlessness, scorned emotions as if these very characteristics define our existence.
The author has been given a project of writing an encyclopedia entry about Barbara Loden which seems to be simple enough as there is no need to put your soul and heart in it. However, the author has been caught with the fascination of life of Loden, immerse herself in various research efforts as she believes that in order to keep it short you need to know a great deal. The disproportionate relationship between the writing of a short encyclopedia entry and the breadth of research of the author marks her endeavor.I felt like I was managing a huge building site, from which I was going to excavate a miniature model of modernity, reduced to its simplest, most complex form: a woman telling her own story through that of another woman. What comes out a biography of Loden in which the biographer struggles to paint a picture worthy of the subject, she struggles to find a narrative for the biography as she looks for different sorts of inspirations – movie, journals, stories, people connected with the subject. It is indeed a sketchy surrogate biography for archives and interviews wherein the features of biography are replaced by well-connected outbursts of narrative fragments, connected through some common thread of necessity.
What we find a struggling piece by the biographer wherein she struggles indecisiveness about what to left and what to contain, the narrative solidarity we normally associate with a biography, novelistic traits biographies are supposed to have. We see that the biographer tries to find solace through the words of Marguerite Duras, Georges Perec, Jean-Luc Godard, Sylvia Plath, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett, and W.G. Sebald, who come to her rescue, yet her approach to Loden and her appreciation of “Wanda” are entirely her own.
source
We see that the author takes on various considerable endeavors to find truths (half-truths) about Barbara Loden. She tries to contact various people connected with Loden including her family members, friends or interviewers to get views about the actress. She also travels extensively for her great project which includes her visits to the sites of the shoot of the movie- Wanda and various repositories where archives may give some idea about the life of Loden. The research leads her to the article which inspired the movie Wanda, it is about women Alma Malone and Ansley who planned a bank robbery which got failed. The character of Alma Malone inspires Loden so much that she decides to make a movie on it, what actually inspires her- is the passivity of Alma’s existence? As mentioned by Sylvia Plath in her journal: ’ For instance, I could hold my nose, close my eyes, and jump blindly into waters of some man’s insides, submerging myself until his purpose becomes my purpose, his life, my life and so on. One fine day I would float to the surface, quite drowned, and supremely happy with my newfound selfless self.’
How could he not understand the sometimes overwhelming necessity of yielding to the other’s desire to give yourself a better chance of escaping it ?
The interesting question here is that what inspires the author to take Barbara Loden as her subject of research, there could be multiple reasons for it, all of which we may not be able to know but we try to unveil the most important ones of those. We know that Wanda is essentially a feminist work that has been criticized by feminist critics on account of passivity of the existence of Wanda in front of male superiorityA woman on the run or hiding, concealing her pain and her refusal, putting an act in order to break free, so in a way the book is a slap on those feminist critics who constructs a very shallow picture of feminism. The fascination of Loden with the story of Alma must also have inspired the author to take Barbara Loden as the subject of her book. We see that Loden reportedly mentions that Wanda’s character is based on her own life and that must have fueled up the imagination of the author. The enigma of the life of Wanda would have also been one of the reasons since its darkness inside her as if it’s an unfamiliar room we are unable to see, the disquieting sense that some are there but impossible to be sure. As we see in any biography, the first-person experiences of the author also play part in this unique biography by Nathalie Léger. The snippets of her conversations with her mother about their lives, the movie Wanda also help the narrative of the book to move forward in the otherwise narrative devoid book. In a way, it is the story of the narrator through the story of Loren through the story of Wanda.
I looked at myself in the mirror, like Dürer’s angel of melancholia dubiously contemplating the tools of her paltry knowledge, or like the woman in the Hopper painting, sitting on the bed on her own in a hotel room, bent over a book in her lap, leaning over the abyss.
What Nathalie Léger brings out a very piercing account of the research itself wherein she raises the graph of biography to another level she takes on this seemingly impossible task to produce a biography without any narrative voice but it brings out the numerous possibilities there, well connected perceptive fragments through various archival anecdotes, movie scenes, her own perceptions and discussions about the subject- Barbara Loden. As we know that biography is also a mode of criticism, the author produces an original and challenging criticism which she pulls off with panache. It can be said with authority that the author manages to produce a book that could be categorized across various genres, namely- film history, biography, novel, memoir, as she achieves everything, all at once through her book.
Suite for Barbara Loden is a unique book of its own kind, an unprecedented attempt to bring out something fresh which marks the tendency of contemporary literature to defy genres or to create new ones. However, as soon as I finished the book, I felt an urge to start it again and it’s on second reading that I truly realized the beauty of the book- it’s as if all pieces of the puzzle start falling in place. The book could be cherished maximally if it is being read in a single sitting.
Well, I am me and I make it. That’s all.
source
5/5
Read
December 28, 2024I've read quite a few books recently that I haven't had time to review, an unusual situation for me and one that makes my reviewer self anxious.
Nonsense, says my practical self, writing a review needn't be a big deal, just a few lines about the themes of each book will do, and then all your outstanding reviews will be dealt with in no time.
Well, yes, we could do that, but it doesn't satisfy the reader part of me who lives each book intensely and needs the reviewer self to create something that reflects the experience.
Oh come on, says Practical, let's just post a description of Nathalie Léger's book: it's about a 1970 film made by actress Barbara Loden, set in Pennsylvania in 1960, in which a woman called Wanda (played by Loden) goes to jail for a crime she didn't commit.
And really, adds Practical, no one ought to say much more about a 112 page book. There has to be something left for other readers to discover.
I appreciate the neat summary, says Reviewer, but Reader says it doesn't convey the richness of Léger's book. Not only is the writing unusually visual, but the structure is unusually clever. Just as Barbara Loden's camera zones in on the Wanda character in the movie, Nathalie Léger's writer eye zones in on Loden herself as well as on Wanda and even on the real-life person who inspired the fictional Wanda, and in whom Léger finds distinct echoes of Barbara Loden herself.
That's more than enough, says Practical. Reader has to be happy now.
No, wait, says Reviewer, Reader wants to add something she finds particularly interesting. It seems this book came about because the author, Nathalie Léger, was asked to write a short entry about the film Wanda for a dictionary of film—no more than a few lines were required. But Léger couldn't manage to stick to the brief. She began to sift the layers of Loden's life to see why making the film Wanda was so important to her. She visited the location of the movie, a former mining town, familiar to Loden, a town with its own layers of tragic victims. Then she tracked down the falsely imprisoned Alma Malone, the passive victim who had inspired Loden's Wanda film. In the process of uncovering all these layers, Léger found strong parallels not only with Loden's life but with her own mother's life, a woman who lived in passive victimhood and who also, coincidently, lay beneath the layers of a different Léger book which Reader read earlier this year, La robe blanche, ostensibly about another 'passive victim', tragic artist Pippa Bacca.
Wow, says, Practical, I'm confused by all these layers and parallels. I need to go and lie down. Don't call me when you're tackling the next review—I think my skills would be suited better to dictionary entries. Basta!
Nonsense, says my practical self, writing a review needn't be a big deal, just a few lines about the themes of each book will do, and then all your outstanding reviews will be dealt with in no time.
Well, yes, we could do that, but it doesn't satisfy the reader part of me who lives each book intensely and needs the reviewer self to create something that reflects the experience.
Oh come on, says Practical, let's just post a description of Nathalie Léger's book: it's about a 1970 film made by actress Barbara Loden, set in Pennsylvania in 1960, in which a woman called Wanda (played by Loden) goes to jail for a crime she didn't commit.
And really, adds Practical, no one ought to say much more about a 112 page book. There has to be something left for other readers to discover.
I appreciate the neat summary, says Reviewer, but Reader says it doesn't convey the richness of Léger's book. Not only is the writing unusually visual, but the structure is unusually clever. Just as Barbara Loden's camera zones in on the Wanda character in the movie, Nathalie Léger's writer eye zones in on Loden herself as well as on Wanda and even on the real-life person who inspired the fictional Wanda, and in whom Léger finds distinct echoes of Barbara Loden herself.
That's more than enough, says Practical. Reader has to be happy now.
No, wait, says Reviewer, Reader wants to add something she finds particularly interesting. It seems this book came about because the author, Nathalie Léger, was asked to write a short entry about the film Wanda for a dictionary of film—no more than a few lines were required. But Léger couldn't manage to stick to the brief. She began to sift the layers of Loden's life to see why making the film Wanda was so important to her. She visited the location of the movie, a former mining town, familiar to Loden, a town with its own layers of tragic victims. Then she tracked down the falsely imprisoned Alma Malone, the passive victim who had inspired Loden's Wanda film. In the process of uncovering all these layers, Léger found strong parallels not only with Loden's life but with her own mother's life, a woman who lived in passive victimhood and who also, coincidently, lay beneath the layers of a different Léger book which Reader read earlier this year, La robe blanche, ostensibly about another 'passive victim', tragic artist Pippa Bacca.
Wow, says, Practical, I'm confused by all these layers and parallels. I need to go and lie down. Don't call me when you're tackling the next review—I think my skills would be suited better to dictionary entries. Basta!
November 2, 2016
On 21 February 1971, Barbara told the Sunday News: “I was nothing. I had no friends. No talent. I was like a shadow. I didn’t learn a thing in school. I still can’t count. I hated movies as a child, people on the screen were perfect and it made me feel inferior.’ Later on, in the Post: “I used to hide behind doors. I spent my childhood hiding behind my grandmother’s stove. I was very lonely.’ Later, still in Positive: “I’ve gone through my while life like I was autistic, convinced I was worth nothing. I didn’t know who I was. I was all over the place, I had no pride.”
And yet as Léger stated: I also discover that she liked “Journey to the End of the Night” by Céline, “Nana” by Zola, “Breathless “by Godard, Maupassant’s short stories and Andy Warhol’s films.
The author was completely unknown to me as was Barbara Loden, the subject of this book, and yet as soon as I read the blurb and saw that Loden, apart from being a stage and film actress, was also the second wife of Hollywood giant Elia Kazan, I knew that I would absolutely devour and love this book. That indeed turned out to be the case. I have a weakness for the films of the “Golden Age” of Hollywood and I have this wonderful French book of Hollywood actors and actresses, including Ava Gardener, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, etc.
I was, however, confused first of all why Léger had chosen Loden to write about. Léger admitted that for her, “Suite for Barbara Loden” began as a notice: “It seemed simple enough. All I had to do was write a short entry for a film encyclopaedia.” And that did not suffice, as after much research, it ended up like this.
Imagine Loden, born in 1932, a former pin-up girl who had known Mickey Mantle in those days, the fifties in fact, when he was the most famous baseball player in the New York Yankees team after Joe DiMaggio. There’s a very amusing episode when Léger tracks him down in the States and meets him at the Houdini Museum. She was also somewhat bemused to find that he had been reading Proust.
Loden then managed to get small parts in films, nearly making great films with actors like Burt Lancaster but then they always fell by the wayside. When Elia Kazan was faced with her on a set he had only one thing on his mind! He subsequently married Loden.
Loden was a unique individual in that she really didn’t know who she was and finally decided to direct and star in her own independent film “Wanda” in 1970, when she was thirty eight. In reality she was playing herself.
You can imagine how difficult that must have been to find financial backing. She ended up with a rather low budget. This makes me think of Clint Eastwood who was born two years before Loden and who also directed and starred in his own films. At that time it must have been hard for a woman to make an entrance in the film industry as a director and she has to be admired for that.
Loden’s film “Wanda” brought her a certain amount of fame but she was never really accepted in the film world and died of cancer in 1980. She was still married to Kazan when she died. She consulted many doctors prior to her death and one even said that her problem was brought about because she didn’t cry enough! As she lay dying, all she said was Shit, shit, shit, then she spat out some tiny stones – it’s the liver, the nurse said – and died.
What is so perfect about this book is that Léger shines in her efforts and determination to trace the rather "hidden" life of Loden. Nevertheless, there were many papers that she was unable to gain access to and it was through a novel she managed to get closer, but not that much, in the 1967 novel that Kazan published called “The Arrangements”. It proved to be very difficult but she has indeed produced the most remarkable book here, a mere 120 pages but the depth of the book is unquestionable and I won’t go into too much detail about the film “Wanda”. In a way it is based on Loden herself, a very private individual who found that she could relate to the real Alma Malone (on whom the film is based), who ended up in prison for twenty years in Marysville, Ohio. Loden tried to meet her but the governor wouldn’t allow it. There are indeed shades of Marilyn Monroe here. In the film, briefly Wanda meets Mr Dennis and they plan a bank robbery and it all goes horribly wrong.
I was so fascinated by the content of the film that I’ve ordered the DVD of “Wanda” and I cannot wait to see it.
For a definitive review of this book, do read Proustitute’s excellent review on the link below.
http://www.musicandliterature.org/rev...
So good to read another perfect book. It has made my day here in France where we have a holiday for All Saints’ Day. It couldn’t be more appropriate. I’m sitting here on my terrace overlooking the Pyrenees, it is sunny, there is a clear sky and well, it couldn’t be better.
And yet as Léger stated: I also discover that she liked “Journey to the End of the Night” by Céline, “Nana” by Zola, “Breathless “by Godard, Maupassant’s short stories and Andy Warhol’s films.
The author was completely unknown to me as was Barbara Loden, the subject of this book, and yet as soon as I read the blurb and saw that Loden, apart from being a stage and film actress, was also the second wife of Hollywood giant Elia Kazan, I knew that I would absolutely devour and love this book. That indeed turned out to be the case. I have a weakness for the films of the “Golden Age” of Hollywood and I have this wonderful French book of Hollywood actors and actresses, including Ava Gardener, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, etc.
I was, however, confused first of all why Léger had chosen Loden to write about. Léger admitted that for her, “Suite for Barbara Loden” began as a notice: “It seemed simple enough. All I had to do was write a short entry for a film encyclopaedia.” And that did not suffice, as after much research, it ended up like this.
Imagine Loden, born in 1932, a former pin-up girl who had known Mickey Mantle in those days, the fifties in fact, when he was the most famous baseball player in the New York Yankees team after Joe DiMaggio. There’s a very amusing episode when Léger tracks him down in the States and meets him at the Houdini Museum. She was also somewhat bemused to find that he had been reading Proust.
Loden then managed to get small parts in films, nearly making great films with actors like Burt Lancaster but then they always fell by the wayside. When Elia Kazan was faced with her on a set he had only one thing on his mind! He subsequently married Loden.
Loden was a unique individual in that she really didn’t know who she was and finally decided to direct and star in her own independent film “Wanda” in 1970, when she was thirty eight. In reality she was playing herself.
You can imagine how difficult that must have been to find financial backing. She ended up with a rather low budget. This makes me think of Clint Eastwood who was born two years before Loden and who also directed and starred in his own films. At that time it must have been hard for a woman to make an entrance in the film industry as a director and she has to be admired for that.
Loden’s film “Wanda” brought her a certain amount of fame but she was never really accepted in the film world and died of cancer in 1980. She was still married to Kazan when she died. She consulted many doctors prior to her death and one even said that her problem was brought about because she didn’t cry enough! As she lay dying, all she said was Shit, shit, shit, then she spat out some tiny stones – it’s the liver, the nurse said – and died.
What is so perfect about this book is that Léger shines in her efforts and determination to trace the rather "hidden" life of Loden. Nevertheless, there were many papers that she was unable to gain access to and it was through a novel she managed to get closer, but not that much, in the 1967 novel that Kazan published called “The Arrangements”. It proved to be very difficult but she has indeed produced the most remarkable book here, a mere 120 pages but the depth of the book is unquestionable and I won’t go into too much detail about the film “Wanda”. In a way it is based on Loden herself, a very private individual who found that she could relate to the real Alma Malone (on whom the film is based), who ended up in prison for twenty years in Marysville, Ohio. Loden tried to meet her but the governor wouldn’t allow it. There are indeed shades of Marilyn Monroe here. In the film, briefly Wanda meets Mr Dennis and they plan a bank robbery and it all goes horribly wrong.
I was so fascinated by the content of the film that I’ve ordered the DVD of “Wanda” and I cannot wait to see it.
For a definitive review of this book, do read Proustitute’s excellent review on the link below.
http://www.musicandliterature.org/rev...
So good to read another perfect book. It has made my day here in France where we have a holiday for All Saints’ Day. It couldn’t be more appropriate. I’m sitting here on my terrace overlooking the Pyrenees, it is sunny, there is a clear sky and well, it couldn’t be better.
June 3, 2024
Valeria Luiselli's wonderful Lost Children Archive references many works of literature, but one reference in particular struck me:
Attentive Netflix fans also splotted the book, strategically placed, in a scene of Russian Dolls this year:
It seemed simple enough. All I had to do was write a short entry for a film encyclopedia. No need to put your heart and soul into it, the editor had said on the phone.
Nathalie Léger had been asked to write this brief entry about the film Wanda, made by Barbara Loden in 1970, her only film as a director, Loden also playing the eponymous title role.
But her heart and soul couldn't resist getting involved: the result was this short but powerful novel, essay and autofiction. The book is part a detailed scene-by-scene appreciation of the film, for example the opening:
Seen from a distance, a woman, etched against the darkness. Whether it is a woman, in fact, is hard to tell, we’re so far away. Framed by mountains of rubble, a tiny white figure, barely more than a dot against the dark expanse, slowly and steadily picks its way through this huge mass of debris: a vast, towering slag heap, intersected with great mounds of excavated rock, stony depressions, muddy tracks waiting to be ploughed up by the trucks. In a wide-angle shot, we follow this minute, ethereal figure as it makes its way intently along the forbidding horizon. At times the dust absorbs and dissolves the figure as it doggedly moves on, lit up for a moment, now just a vague smudge, now almost transparent, like a backlit hole in the picture, a blind spot on the decimated landscape. Yes, it is a woman.
but also a tribute to Loden herself and her life, and the story of Léger's investigations into the largely forgotten life of Loden and the film, as well as her own personal perspectives.
The movie, as Léger discovers in her investigations, is based on a real-life story -https://www.topic.com/the-true-crime-... - which had grabbed Loden's attention. of a woman, with little purpose in her life, trapped into a bank robbery which goes horribly wrong. In simple terms the film could be described as a anti-Bonnie-and-Clyde movie in both style and substance, and indeed the dissonance goes further than what appears on the screen.
Loden was first acclaimed as an actress for her Tony award winning performance as Maggie, a rather lightly fictionalised version of Marilyn Monroe, in a production of Arthur Miller, Monroe's ex-husband's After the Fall, at film director Elia Kazan's (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) Repertory Company. Her understudy for the role was, the then unknown, Faye Dunaway.
Elia Kazan later wrote a novel The Arrangement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arr...) with significant elements from his own life, and one of the characters, Gwen Hunt, borrowing various elements (some that she regarded as violations of her privacy) from Loden's life.
But when the book was turned into a film in 1969, the part of Gwen Hunt was given not to Loden, but to Faye Dunaway, off the back of her starring role in Bonnie & Clyde.
Kazan and Loden's relationship was obviously a troubled one, as he himself later documented in his autobiography, which is at times rather belittling of Loden's talents, and Léger sees strong echoes of this in Wanda in Loden's film and performance, a film she has said was based on her own experiences, as well as on the true crime story.
There is so much more to this book - watch the film then read the book.
4.5 stars
Among these I find a small white book—the galleys of a novel by Nathalie Léger called Untitled for Barbara Loden. It looks a little out of place there , squeezed and silent, so I take it out and head back to the room.That galley, which the author herself read, was the as-then-untitled English translation of Supplément à la vie de Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger, brilliantly translated by Natasha Lehrer and Cécile Menon as Suite for Barbara Loden, and published in the UK by a new publisher Les Fugitives (http://www.lesfugitives.com/about/) founded by Manon.
..
I turn on my bedside lamp and stay up late, reading the novel by Nathalie Léger, underlining parts of sentences:
“violence, yes, but the acceptable face of violence, the kind of banal cruelty enacted within the family
"the hum of ordinary life”
“the story of a woman who has lost something important but does not know exactly what”
“a woman on the run or in hiding, concealing her pain and her refusal, putting on an act in order to break free”
I’m reading the same book in bed when the boy wakes up before sunrise the next morning. His sister and father are still asleep. I have hardly slept all night. He makes an effort to seem like he’s been awake for a long time, or like he’d never fallen asleep and we’d been having an intermittent conversation all the while. Wrenching himself up, in a loud, clear voice, he asks what I’m reading.
A French book, I whisper.
What’s it about?
Nothing, really. It’s about a woman who’s looking for something.
Looking for what?
I don’t know yet; she doesn’t know yet.
Attentive Netflix fans also splotted the book, strategically placed, in a scene of Russian Dolls this year:
It seemed simple enough. All I had to do was write a short entry for a film encyclopedia. No need to put your heart and soul into it, the editor had said on the phone.
Nathalie Léger had been asked to write this brief entry about the film Wanda, made by Barbara Loden in 1970, her only film as a director, Loden also playing the eponymous title role.
But her heart and soul couldn't resist getting involved: the result was this short but powerful novel, essay and autofiction. The book is part a detailed scene-by-scene appreciation of the film, for example the opening:
Seen from a distance, a woman, etched against the darkness. Whether it is a woman, in fact, is hard to tell, we’re so far away. Framed by mountains of rubble, a tiny white figure, barely more than a dot against the dark expanse, slowly and steadily picks its way through this huge mass of debris: a vast, towering slag heap, intersected with great mounds of excavated rock, stony depressions, muddy tracks waiting to be ploughed up by the trucks. In a wide-angle shot, we follow this minute, ethereal figure as it makes its way intently along the forbidding horizon. At times the dust absorbs and dissolves the figure as it doggedly moves on, lit up for a moment, now just a vague smudge, now almost transparent, like a backlit hole in the picture, a blind spot on the decimated landscape. Yes, it is a woman.
but also a tribute to Loden herself and her life, and the story of Léger's investigations into the largely forgotten life of Loden and the film, as well as her own personal perspectives.
The movie, as Léger discovers in her investigations, is based on a real-life story -https://www.topic.com/the-true-crime-... - which had grabbed Loden's attention. of a woman, with little purpose in her life, trapped into a bank robbery which goes horribly wrong. In simple terms the film could be described as a anti-Bonnie-and-Clyde movie in both style and substance, and indeed the dissonance goes further than what appears on the screen.
Loden was first acclaimed as an actress for her Tony award winning performance as Maggie, a rather lightly fictionalised version of Marilyn Monroe, in a production of Arthur Miller, Monroe's ex-husband's After the Fall, at film director Elia Kazan's (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) Repertory Company. Her understudy for the role was, the then unknown, Faye Dunaway.
Elia Kazan later wrote a novel The Arrangement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arr...) with significant elements from his own life, and one of the characters, Gwen Hunt, borrowing various elements (some that she regarded as violations of her privacy) from Loden's life.
But when the book was turned into a film in 1969, the part of Gwen Hunt was given not to Loden, but to Faye Dunaway, off the back of her starring role in Bonnie & Clyde.
Kazan and Loden's relationship was obviously a troubled one, as he himself later documented in his autobiography, which is at times rather belittling of Loden's talents, and Léger sees strong echoes of this in Wanda in Loden's film and performance, a film she has said was based on her own experiences, as well as on the true crime story.
There is so much more to this book - watch the film then read the book.
4.5 stars
October 28, 2021
Una de mis debilidades es un buen libro inclasificable. Léger intenta empezar un artículo sobre la actriz Barbara Loden, quien escribió y dirigió una película sobre una historia real de otra mujer a quien nombró Wanda. Tres mujeres en paralelo. Hay cine, y múltiples apariciones de personajes como Elia Kazan (director que estuvo casado con Barbara Loden), Marguerite Duras, la vida de la propia Léger. Es una caja de sorpresas, y es una belleza. Porque también me sentí conectada con estas tres mujeres, como si hubiera cosas que compartiéramos. Tiene además algo muy sintetizado, que hace que cada párrafo sea una joya. Muy hermoso.
September 1, 2017
The first time I got a copy of this book I thought, ugh, no.
The second time I got a copy of it I was confused.
What do people see in this?
How can a book about a film be interesting at all?
I decided to push through during Women in Translation month, a bit of a completist for my Dorothy Publishing Project pile.
The author embarks on a research project of Barbara Loden, we are told it is to write an encyclopedia entry but since many reviews call this autofiction I'm not sure that's true. Regardless this reads like essay-memoir-research journal. The focus is on the actress who made a film one time, and what the statement is about women, feminism, the value of a life, etc., etc. I found it to go far deeper than I expected, and it stayed with me. I finished it a week ago and marked a bunch of pages (and there aren't many to start with) and wasn't ready to wrap my head around it.
I'm going to go watch the film Barbara Loden made, Wanda, and come back to this review.
The second time I got a copy of it I was confused.
What do people see in this?
How can a book about a film be interesting at all?
I decided to push through during Women in Translation month, a bit of a completist for my Dorothy Publishing Project pile.
The author embarks on a research project of Barbara Loden, we are told it is to write an encyclopedia entry but since many reviews call this autofiction I'm not sure that's true. Regardless this reads like essay-memoir-research journal. The focus is on the actress who made a film one time, and what the statement is about women, feminism, the value of a life, etc., etc. I found it to go far deeper than I expected, and it stayed with me. I finished it a week ago and marked a bunch of pages (and there aren't many to start with) and wasn't ready to wrap my head around it.
I'm going to go watch the film Barbara Loden made, Wanda, and come back to this review.
March 11, 2015
My review of this was published in Music & Literature here: http://www.musicandliterature.org/rev...
April 21, 2022
“El 21 de febrero de 1971, Barbara Loden le contó al Sunday News: -Yo no era nada. No tenía amigos. No tenia talento. Era como una sombra. No aprendí nada en la escuela. Sigo sin saber contar. Odiaba las películas cuando era niña, la gente en la pantalla era perfecta y eso me hacía sentir inferior- . Más tarde, en el Post: -Solía esconderme detrás de las puertas. Pasé mi infancia escondiéndome detrás de la estufa de mi abuela. Estaba muy sola-. Más tarde, en Positif: -He pasado toda mi vida como si fuera autista, convencida de que no valía nada. No sabía quién era, estaba por todas partes, no tenía orgullo-."
Los que adoramos el cine, el cine a flor de piel, adoramos a Barbara Loden precisamente porque se ganó su lugar en la historia del cine habiendo dirigido una única película, una obra maestra del cine independiente americano, sin apenas recursos, poniendo el alma en ella, “Wanda”. Y no solo la dirigió, también la escribió y la protagonizó. Barbara Loden cede su rostro y todo su ser a Wanda, una película bestial sobre una mujer pasiva, dócil, que abandona a su marido e hijos y se pierde por el mundo buscando algo que realmente ni sabe lo que es, lo único que debe saber es que quiere ser ella misma.
Barbara Loden llegó a esta historia a través de un recorte de periódico sobre Alma Malone, una mujer de los Apalaches rurales que participó en el robo de un banco que salió mal. Se sintió tan impactada por la historia de Alma, (que tras ser juzgada respiró aliviada y le dió las gracias al juez), que quiso llevarla a la pantalla. Barbara Loden tenía muchas cosas en común con Alma Malone, también había sido una mujer zombie: había tenido como ella una infancia difícil, viviendo en la pobreza, y escapando de casa en cuanto pudo. Se convirtió en actriz, tuvo una relación tumltuosa con Elia Kazan, con quién se casó, y a la edad de 38 años escribió, dirigió y protagonizó una de las películas más impactantes del cine sobre una mujer a la deriva que busca desesperadamente su propia identidad.
Y ahora llegamos a Nathalie Léger, una escritora francesa que se sumergió en este proyecto a partir de un encargo. Su editor quería que escribiera un pequeño articulo para una enciclopedía cinematográfica en torno a Barbara Loden. Independientemente de la poca información que había sobre ella, con el tiempo Nathalie lo convirtió en un proyecto personal y en una novela, y con increible sensibilidad y frescura consigue no solo hablar de Wanda y de Barbara Loden, sino que nos habla de ella misma, de su madre y de otras mujeres: todas y cada una de ellas podrían ser Wanda. A Nathalie Léger le sale una novela corta pero gloriosa sobre lo que es ser una mujer perdida en un entorno que la utiliza y la desecha a su antojo. Mezcla de ensayo, biografía, autobiografía, crítica cinematográfica y de novela… las imágenes de varias mujeres se superponen, se mezclan, y surge una especie de caleidoscopio de mujeres que en algún momento han estado perdidas, vulnerables, todo esto tomando Wanda, la película, como marco principal para bucear en la vida de Barbara Loden, de Nathalie Leger , de Wanda y de Alma Malone.
Nathalie Léger ha conseguido crear aquí una obra original, inmensa, emocionante, no solo un homenaje a Barbara Loden sino a todas esas mujeres invisibles que buscan su pequeño lugar en el mundo, su identidad. Una maravilla.
“Hablando de Elia Kazan, Barbara contó a Film Magazine en julio de 1971. -Me enseñó que lo que más importaba era no permanecer en silencio. Antes nunca me atrevía a hablar, siempre permanecía callada. Y ahora, ¿qué me queda por hacer? Me dijo: tienes que ser escuchada. Todo lo que hagas debe ser escuchado-. Por eso hice Wanda. Como una manera de reafirmar mi propia existencia.”
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2021...
Los que adoramos el cine, el cine a flor de piel, adoramos a Barbara Loden precisamente porque se ganó su lugar en la historia del cine habiendo dirigido una única película, una obra maestra del cine independiente americano, sin apenas recursos, poniendo el alma en ella, “Wanda”. Y no solo la dirigió, también la escribió y la protagonizó. Barbara Loden cede su rostro y todo su ser a Wanda, una película bestial sobre una mujer pasiva, dócil, que abandona a su marido e hijos y se pierde por el mundo buscando algo que realmente ni sabe lo que es, lo único que debe saber es que quiere ser ella misma.
Barbara Loden llegó a esta historia a través de un recorte de periódico sobre Alma Malone, una mujer de los Apalaches rurales que participó en el robo de un banco que salió mal. Se sintió tan impactada por la historia de Alma, (que tras ser juzgada respiró aliviada y le dió las gracias al juez), que quiso llevarla a la pantalla. Barbara Loden tenía muchas cosas en común con Alma Malone, también había sido una mujer zombie: había tenido como ella una infancia difícil, viviendo en la pobreza, y escapando de casa en cuanto pudo. Se convirtió en actriz, tuvo una relación tumltuosa con Elia Kazan, con quién se casó, y a la edad de 38 años escribió, dirigió y protagonizó una de las películas más impactantes del cine sobre una mujer a la deriva que busca desesperadamente su propia identidad.
Y ahora llegamos a Nathalie Léger, una escritora francesa que se sumergió en este proyecto a partir de un encargo. Su editor quería que escribiera un pequeño articulo para una enciclopedía cinematográfica en torno a Barbara Loden. Independientemente de la poca información que había sobre ella, con el tiempo Nathalie lo convirtió en un proyecto personal y en una novela, y con increible sensibilidad y frescura consigue no solo hablar de Wanda y de Barbara Loden, sino que nos habla de ella misma, de su madre y de otras mujeres: todas y cada una de ellas podrían ser Wanda. A Nathalie Léger le sale una novela corta pero gloriosa sobre lo que es ser una mujer perdida en un entorno que la utiliza y la desecha a su antojo. Mezcla de ensayo, biografía, autobiografía, crítica cinematográfica y de novela… las imágenes de varias mujeres se superponen, se mezclan, y surge una especie de caleidoscopio de mujeres que en algún momento han estado perdidas, vulnerables, todo esto tomando Wanda, la película, como marco principal para bucear en la vida de Barbara Loden, de Nathalie Leger , de Wanda y de Alma Malone.
Nathalie Léger ha conseguido crear aquí una obra original, inmensa, emocionante, no solo un homenaje a Barbara Loden sino a todas esas mujeres invisibles que buscan su pequeño lugar en el mundo, su identidad. Una maravilla.
“Hablando de Elia Kazan, Barbara contó a Film Magazine en julio de 1971. -Me enseñó que lo que más importaba era no permanecer en silencio. Antes nunca me atrevía a hablar, siempre permanecía callada. Y ahora, ¿qué me queda por hacer? Me dijo: tienes que ser escuchada. Todo lo que hagas debe ser escuchado-. Por eso hice Wanda. Como una manera de reafirmar mi propia existencia.”
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2021...
October 17, 2016
Rating: 5* of five
My review of SUITE FOR BARBARA LODEN is live today at Mel Bosworth's Small Press Book Review. Another wonderful, wonderful book published by Dorothy, a Publishing Project. The sooner you acquaint yourself with this extraordinary publishing house, the happier your brains will be.
My review of SUITE FOR BARBARA LODEN is live today at Mel Bosworth's Small Press Book Review. Another wonderful, wonderful book published by Dorothy, a Publishing Project. The sooner you acquaint yourself with this extraordinary publishing house, the happier your brains will be.
June 29, 2019
This was AMAZING. A mesmerizing little gem of a book. I only wish it were longer.
August 11, 2021
Léger’s Exposition didn’t quite work for me but now I see it’s likely because I didn’t entirely connect with the figure that inspired it despite Léger’s uniquely mesmerizing writing. In Suite for Barbara Loden, I felt how all the women in it (Wanda, Barbara, the writer’s mother, Alma) and the writer pulsed together in a harmonious beat which echoed in me, the feeling of which still continues well past finishing the book.
The lives of several women interlocked in their path of surrender to others, helplessly facing adverse circumstances… After the first sentences in Suite, describing the opening scene of the film Wanda, I decided to stop reading it, watch the film first, and then return to the book. It was the right choice. The book unfolded from Léger’s initial task, seemingly simple, to write a brief biographical entry about Barbara Loden, an actress and filmmaker who faced more closed than open doors in the film industry. Since the documented sources about her life are scarce, Léger tried to understand her through the character of Wanda, played and directed by Loden (the only feature film she directed). In one of Barbara Loden's rare interviews,
Wanda was based on a real life character, Alma Malone and her real life story of a failed bank robbery that led to her imprisonment. It was only a starting point and the similar “plot” (though Wanda is not incarcerated; even worse, the destiny of life imprisonment continues…) is a less important surface beneath which there is a more essential thread, connecting Wanda and the real Wanda, and the real Barbara and the real (unnamed) mother of Léger… their “selfless self” aimlessly wondering through and gazing into a mystery of life.
Presented in Léger’s spell-binding prose in her favorite literary form that blends nonfiction with a novel, it’s undoubtedly one of the highlights of my reading year.
The lives of several women interlocked in their path of surrender to others, helplessly facing adverse circumstances… After the first sentences in Suite, describing the opening scene of the film Wanda, I decided to stop reading it, watch the film first, and then return to the book. It was the right choice. The book unfolded from Léger’s initial task, seemingly simple, to write a brief biographical entry about Barbara Loden, an actress and filmmaker who faced more closed than open doors in the film industry. Since the documented sources about her life are scarce, Léger tried to understand her through the character of Wanda, played and directed by Loden (the only feature film she directed). In one of Barbara Loden's rare interviews,
She explains that Wanda doesn’t know what she wants, but she knows what she doesn’t want; she’s trying to get out of this “ugly type of existence,” but she doesn’t know how to go about it; she’s doing her best; she can’t cope with life, all she knows is that she’s no good at anything.Wanda doesn’t speak much, but at one moment she poignantly resigns with the haunting words:
“I’m no good, I’m useless, I can’t do anything.”And here is again an interview with Barbara Loden talking about Wanda:
“I used to be a lot like that. I had no identity of my own. I just became whatever I thought people wanted me to become… I feel very close to her emotionally.”(Note the present tense in the last sentence.)
Wanda was based on a real life character, Alma Malone and her real life story of a failed bank robbery that led to her imprisonment. It was only a starting point and the similar “plot” (though Wanda is not incarcerated; even worse, the destiny of life imprisonment continues…) is a less important surface beneath which there is a more essential thread, connecting Wanda and the real Wanda, and the real Barbara and the real (unnamed) mother of Léger… their “selfless self” aimlessly wondering through and gazing into a mystery of life.
Presented in Léger’s spell-binding prose in her favorite literary form that blends nonfiction with a novel, it’s undoubtedly one of the highlights of my reading year.
August 18, 2021
I have been hearing good things about this short novella for several years, and was finally prompted to read it by a discussion that is starting this week in the 21st Century Literature group. I read Léger's The White Dress earlier in the year, and this book is part of the same loose trilogy, and both are partly about the narrator's complex relationship with her mother.
The main subject is the American actress and director Barbara Loden, whose only film as director was Wanda, made in 1970, which was loosely inspired by a real story about a woman jailed for a bank robbery that her partner died in, who thanked the judge after being sentenced to a length jail term. The film is largely about Loden herself, and this book is similarly a mixture of Loden's story and the author's own, as she is drawn to investigate Loden after being asked to write an encyclopedia article, and gets drawn into her story to the point of obsession.
I have not seen Wanda, but it is described in such detail that it barely seems necessary. I am looking forward to the discussion but I am not sure how much I will contribute, as my ideas and impressions feel unfocused.
The main subject is the American actress and director Barbara Loden, whose only film as director was Wanda, made in 1970, which was loosely inspired by a real story about a woman jailed for a bank robbery that her partner died in, who thanked the judge after being sentenced to a length jail term. The film is largely about Loden herself, and this book is similarly a mixture of Loden's story and the author's own, as she is drawn to investigate Loden after being asked to write an encyclopedia article, and gets drawn into her story to the point of obsession.
I have not seen Wanda, but it is described in such detail that it barely seems necessary. I am looking forward to the discussion but I am not sure how much I will contribute, as my ideas and impressions feel unfocused.
July 2, 2019
A brilliant essayistic novel that follows the author’s obsession with actress Barbara Loden and her film, Wanda. Loden, who said that she made the film “as a way of confirming my existence” nonetheless remains poignantly elusive, a shadow. This is the second gem published by the Dorothy Project I’ve read.
August 24, 2021
Barbara Loden on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, February 1964If a book could be likened to an ouroboros this one is it. Barbara Loden is Wanda is Alma Malone is Nathalie Léger is Léger's mother is Barbara Loden is Wanda is... How do you write about someone with little to no access to primary documents, people who knew them personally, etc.? What does it take to "definitively" capture another life in writing (an obsession sparked by the assignment to write a brief film encyclopedia entry on Loden)? And what if your subject is not sure who they are?
Just as Loden is said to have almost no distance between herself and her acting, Léger collapses the divisions between subject and writer, hopscotching elegantly amidst film scenes, anecdotes, philosophical meditations, and pure speculation at times. She identifies so completely with Loden that they become enmeshed in the text itself toward the end as she's retelling an attack scene from the movie:
... she is buried beneath this dark, shapeless body, out of sight under his bulk, he's heavy, I'm fighting for breath, he's crushing me, no more words as the sweet guy rapes her.
You can almost see the investigative crazy wall behind this gem of a book. Intersecting lines and stories so intricately connected as to bring into question the distinction between life and art, act and actor, past/present/future.
(Props to Dorothy, a publishing project, for bringing this out in the U.S. They're one of the few publishers I've seen whose entire catalog I'd love to devour.)
--------------------------------------------
A COUPLE OF WORDS I LEARNED: lissom | fuliginous
April 23, 2019
You can read my review here:
https://herheadinfilms.com/2018/09/03...
I'm speechless. It's not only the best book I've read this year, it's one of the best I've ever read. I have finally found a book that speaks completely to me and my own feelings. I'm beyond moved. I'm transformed.
https://herheadinfilms.com/2018/09/03...
I'm speechless. It's not only the best book I've read this year, it's one of the best I've ever read. I have finally found a book that speaks completely to me and my own feelings. I'm beyond moved. I'm transformed.
March 30, 2020
De tijd, die tot oktober volgepland was met lezingen en lezingenreizen, is stilgezet. Ik heb de kans gegrepen om aan mijn nieuwe boek te werken. In een schrijfperiode voed ik me op een andere manier met boeken dan gewoonlijk. Alsof ik dan in andermans werk vooral het experiment opzoek en niet overweldigd wil worden door een grote, breedvoerige vertelstem. Zo’n verhaal zou te veel plaats opeisen in mijn hoofd.
In een schrijfperiode hou ik van mondjesmaat lezen, van taal die aandacht vraagt. Op dat vlak heb ik sinds de ontdekking van het fascinerende werk van Cynan Jones in één keer ook de betrekkelijk nieuwe uitgeverij Koppernik ontdekt, die Jones sinds een jaar of vijf in vertaling brengt. Het is al vaker gebleken dat ik weer maar eens een boek van Koppernik aan mijn leesstapel had toegevoegd. Werk van Daisy Johnson en Robert Walser, bijvoorbeeld, en wat ik nu net heb uitgelezen: ‘Aanvulling op het leven van Barbara Loden’.
Schrijfster Nathalie Léger vermengt haar eigen leven op een fragmentarische en spannende manier met het mysterieuze leven van actrice Barbara Loden en de enige film die Loden ooit heeft gemaakt. Je moet af en toe doorzetten, want met de ‘spannende manier’ bedoel ik vooral dat de schrijfster het je niet gemakkelijk maakt, maar je komt in een heel eigen wereld terecht. Na het lezen van dit boek zet je een cultklassieker op je to-see-lijstje: ‘Wanda’ (https://vimeo.com/275159804)
‘Aanvulling op het leven van Barbara Loden’ is uit het Frans vertaald door Vivienne Hendrikx.
In een schrijfperiode hou ik van mondjesmaat lezen, van taal die aandacht vraagt. Op dat vlak heb ik sinds de ontdekking van het fascinerende werk van Cynan Jones in één keer ook de betrekkelijk nieuwe uitgeverij Koppernik ontdekt, die Jones sinds een jaar of vijf in vertaling brengt. Het is al vaker gebleken dat ik weer maar eens een boek van Koppernik aan mijn leesstapel had toegevoegd. Werk van Daisy Johnson en Robert Walser, bijvoorbeeld, en wat ik nu net heb uitgelezen: ‘Aanvulling op het leven van Barbara Loden’.
Schrijfster Nathalie Léger vermengt haar eigen leven op een fragmentarische en spannende manier met het mysterieuze leven van actrice Barbara Loden en de enige film die Loden ooit heeft gemaakt. Je moet af en toe doorzetten, want met de ‘spannende manier’ bedoel ik vooral dat de schrijfster het je niet gemakkelijk maakt, maar je komt in een heel eigen wereld terecht. Na het lezen van dit boek zet je een cultklassieker op je to-see-lijstje: ‘Wanda’ (https://vimeo.com/275159804)
‘Aanvulling op het leven van Barbara Loden’ is uit het Frans vertaald door Vivienne Hendrikx.
September 8, 2016
“The iconic woman of the 70’s is nothing but a woman wondering what she will do with her so-called liberty. She wonders what kind of lie she will be forced to invent in order to hide, at ease, from men, so that she will – finally – be left alone.” (Nathalie Léger)
In this eerie and enchanting novel, Nathalie Léger invites us to an intimate exploration of the life and work of Barbara Loden. With much subtlety, she reveals the delicate and insightful portrait of three women struggling to keep their balance, as they find themselves caught between their own aspirations and the ones that are forced on them, between their desires, fears and renunciations.
In Supplément à la vie… no specific reference to the age of the narrator is made. All we know about this discreet person is that she is an author commissioned to write a short text on Barbara Loden, an actress mostly remembered as the director of a unique – but nevertheless splendid – movie, Wanda. [Prior to becoming Elias Kazan’s wife, Barbara Loden was his longtime companion and she was his inspiration for the novel – and eponymous film – The Arrangement].
Our narrator falls under the spell of the many similarities between the existence of Loden, and the life of the woman after whom Wanda was written. Engrossed by their mirroring destinies, our heroin gets lost in her research, a research that leads her on, across the United States, to the path of her own mother’s past.
Nathalie Léger is blessed with a real gift for capturing telling moments, and she moves as a camera into the history and struggles of these women. Supplément à la vie de Barbara Loden is an absorbing novel that goes straight under your skin. Its heroines take possession of you. They occupy your soul like haunting silhouettes, both fragile and strong, adrift and silently stubborn, undeniably and forever beautiful.
June 22, 2017
I had never heard of Barbara Loden, but I kept coming across this title and it's hard to resist a book about a woman with a complex history whose life was cut short at 48.
A newspaper article in the 60s states that a woman assisting in a bank robbery is sentenced to 20 years in prison and thanks the judge after her sentencing. Barbara Loden is fascinated by what kind of life this woman must have had to thank the judge for a 20 year sentence, and creates her movie "Wanda" about this imagined existence. She wrote, directed and starred in the movie and won Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1970. I have not seen her film "Wanda" yet, and I feel as though you have to watch the movie to fully appreciate the book, because it is referenced so often.
Nathalie Leger becomes equally obsessed with Loden herself when asked to write a short introduction for a film encyclopedia, and the result is this book. I found the reflections on the lives of "Wanda" and Barbara Loden interesting, but there seemed to be a lot of filler in the book, especially the second half. It's disappointing that Loden's son refused to share his mother's papers with the author, because I am sure it would have been a fascinating journey.
A brief & interesting book which may have been better if it were edited to the length of a New Yorker article.
A newspaper article in the 60s states that a woman assisting in a bank robbery is sentenced to 20 years in prison and thanks the judge after her sentencing. Barbara Loden is fascinated by what kind of life this woman must have had to thank the judge for a 20 year sentence, and creates her movie "Wanda" about this imagined existence. She wrote, directed and starred in the movie and won Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1970. I have not seen her film "Wanda" yet, and I feel as though you have to watch the movie to fully appreciate the book, because it is referenced so often.
Nathalie Leger becomes equally obsessed with Loden herself when asked to write a short introduction for a film encyclopedia, and the result is this book. I found the reflections on the lives of "Wanda" and Barbara Loden interesting, but there seemed to be a lot of filler in the book, especially the second half. It's disappointing that Loden's son refused to share his mother's papers with the author, because I am sure it would have been a fascinating journey.
A brief & interesting book which may have been better if it were edited to the length of a New Yorker article.
September 14, 2022
I ate this up in one sitting, didn’t ever chew. As essential a consumption as Wanda.
May 15, 2020
"Lei è Barbara Loden, è bionda, ha i capelli lunghi con la frangia, ha il viso largo, gli zigomi alti, il naso rotondo, gli occhi verdi ma certi giorni neri- e anche: minuta, delicata, seni piccoli, gambe lunghe, stivali e minigonna, una ragazza degli anni Sessanta. Per difendersi, sorride spesso. Ha lo sguardo attento, ansioso, spesso smarrito, poi di colpo sorride, raggiante. È sincera, ma senza volerlo lascia credere spesso il contrario."
Annotazioni sulla donna che fu regista di un unico film (Wanda), sposò Elia Kazan, soffrì della stessa ferita infantile di Marilyn Monroe e viene definita da Léger "un'anima lucida e spaventata che si nasconde dentro un'altra ".
Annotazioni sulla donna che fu regista di un unico film (Wanda), sposò Elia Kazan, soffrì della stessa ferita infantile di Marilyn Monroe e viene definita da Léger "un'anima lucida e spaventata che si nasconde dentro un'altra ".
July 25, 2021
Fascinating examination of the life and work of Barbara Loden, the actress who produced, directed and starred in Wanda, a film about a depressed and alienated woman who drifts away from her family and into the hands of a loser who isn't even nice to her.
It helps to watch the film reading the book, I think. The book combines comments about the film with a discussion of Loden's life, with bits of the author's life as well.
I found it all fascinating. And the film, while slow, interesting as well.
It helps to watch the film reading the book, I think. The book combines comments about the film with a discussion of Loden's life, with bits of the author's life as well.
I found it all fascinating. And the film, while slow, interesting as well.
January 27, 2023
El libro belloooo. La autora a partir de una entrada de diccionario sobre Barbara Loden se obsesiona y escribe este libro donde le da un lugar de forma sensible y reivindicativa al hecho de que a veces las mujeres tienen que ser pasivas o sumisas para poder sobrevivir. Qué más potente que eso?
April 30, 2017
An attempt to approach Barbara Loden and her 1971 film Wanda through research, close viewing, a foreigner's road trip across the post-industrial northeast U.S., and then (perhaps most of all) through the act of writing. The result reads with a spare fluidity, across intercut vignettes of film analysis, biography, and exploratory invention, but all composed with an implicit conceptual care and depth that brings it all together seamlessly.
September 4, 2017
I binged this book. I was so transfixed and humiliated and enamoured. The author begins by saying she wants to write in the most straightforward manner possible. Half the book is her describing the actions in a 1970s film. My lord it is wonderful. You have to see for yourself why it works and what it captures about the beauty of not quite being able to commit to existing.
July 19, 2021
Taking the life and work of actress Barbara Loden as a launching point for an essay on female subjugation and hopelessness, the art of biography, the art of acting (and even Mickey Mantle and the art of hitting) and the emptiness of industrial Pennsylvania, Nathalie Leger writes a brilliant autofiction, although its reliability as a factual portrayal of Barbara Loden is questionable.
Worth a second or even a third reading.
Worth a second or even a third reading.
February 21, 2017
A stirring meditation on Barbara Loden's wonderful film Wanda. This does exactly what I had hoped Geoff Dyer's Zona (about Tarkovsky's film Stalker) would accomplish - fully embody the tone and aesthetics of the film it's examining so that even the wildest tangents feel like overlooked frames and illuminate the heart of the work.
April 4, 2021
Fascinating. Associative, meditative, blending biographical fact and memoir and fiction. An essayistic novel on the complexities of agency versus passivity in the collective female psyche. Leger's narrator (Leger herself?) is asked to write a short encyclopedia entry on Barbara Loden, a stage and movie actress, once married to Elia Kazan, and a filmmaker who directed a single movie in the 1970s called Wanda, which she wrote and starred in, and which was based on a newspaper article about a woman named Alma who thanked the judge for putting her in jail after a botched bank robbery. The narrator becomes obsessed with finding out more about Loden, which is not easy to do, and the multiplication of selves - the narrator's self seeking Loden who is seeking herself in Wanda - is compelling, as we're shown scenes from the novel, from Loden's life, from the narrators. I'd never heard of Barbara Loden before, but now am signing up for the Criterion Collection to watch Wanda.
January 9, 2025
Go watch the movie "Wanda" (free on YouTube) and then read this book. Both are incredible works of art.
March 17, 2025
This was a very interesting and often poetic take on the debatably feminist film, Wanda. I really loved reading this after viewing the film and found the author’s very open-ended reflection on this unique film both fascinating and moving. The author usefully juxtaposes the protagonist in the film with the female director of the film and sometimes compare the two women with her abused mother. I should note that Kate Zembreno covers some of the same territory in her book, Screen Tests.
July 29, 2021
This magnificent little book is the moderator's pick for August 2021 in the 21st Century Literature GR group. When announced, I found it among on my Kindle, where it has been quietly waiting since I bought it after reading Paul's review -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -- in 2019. It is the best book I've read in July and one of the best of the year. I have no idea how to classify it. It isn't really fiction but it is not exactly non-fiction. The book's style reminded me of HHhH, the first book I'd read where the author includes himself by telling about his research. Here the author includes her not only comments about her research concerning Barbara Loden and the movie Wanda, which Loden directed and starred in, but how she felt while conducting the research.
The author was asked to write a summary of the movie but found herself unable to do it. She became rather obsessed with finding out about the Barbara Loden and how she came to do the movie and to act in it. This book, using scenes from the movie, tells the reader what the author found out, and did not find out, about Barbara Loden. In that sense it is both a movie summary and a biography. But the author does even more. She tells us about her experience in researching both the movie and the director and her thoughts about some of the individuals she spoke and did not speak with. In this sense it is both autobiographical and essay.
There are no clear divisions in this book. It goes from movie to director to author with no warning, necessitating an occasional backtrack, but in this case that was in no way annoying but part of the book's genius.
The author was asked to write a summary of the movie but found herself unable to do it. She became rather obsessed with finding out about the Barbara Loden and how she came to do the movie and to act in it. This book, using scenes from the movie, tells the reader what the author found out, and did not find out, about Barbara Loden. In that sense it is both a movie summary and a biography. But the author does even more. She tells us about her experience in researching both the movie and the director and her thoughts about some of the individuals she spoke and did not speak with. In this sense it is both autobiographical and essay.
There are no clear divisions in this book. It goes from movie to director to author with no warning, necessitating an occasional backtrack, but in this case that was in no way annoying but part of the book's genius.
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