Better Stronger

Written and directed by Ed Bowes with Karen Achenbach and Charles Ruas

Shot by Tom Bowes

2 hours
1978

An intense monologue by Lana (Achenbach), a high-energy talkative actress who has returned to New York from California for a brief visit, continues through the movie.

“Better, Stronger (1978) stands in contrast to the lilting pace of Romance. It begins with an intense monologue by its main character, Lana (played by Achenbach), which continues at a fairly relentless pace throughout. It is not a seductive story like Romance, but an aggressive one that often jabs and pokes at the audience. Lana’s character is a high-energy, talkative actress who has returned to New York from California for a brief visit. She visits her family and cousins, who are a rowdy and obnoxious bunch, and storms from one scene to another. The tape ends, or refuses to resolve, in a scene where Lana disappears into a club and a producer looking for her tries unsuccessfully to follow. Bowes made Better, Stronger as an artist-in-residence at the Television Laboratory at WNET/Thirteen. The tape is distinguished by its preoccupation with and relentless poetic use of language. There are so many words in this tape that we hear and digest only a small percentage of the thoughts and ideas they convey. The tape also has a subtext concerned with the process of making television. It reveals the artifice of constructing television in several scenes-within-scenes of Lana acting her TV role on location. There is, in particular, a wonderful moment when we watch Achenbach’s expressions and movements as she watches her own actions on an offscreen monitor while waiting for her cue on an audio dub. While Better, Stronger, like Romance, would seem to have a direct plot line, Bowes has structured the action loosely with no central crisis or resolution.” —Marita Sturken, from the interview ” Television Fictions: An Interview with Ed Bowes
,” May 1986, Afterimage, Vol. 13, No. 10