Jane Fonda netted a well-deserved Oscar for her multi-dimensional call-girl performance in 1971's textured "Klute."
I've always been a huge fan of director Alan J. Pakula. However, I've probably spent a little too much time watching, and re-watching, "All the President's Men" and "The Parallax View," so I missed his acclaimed 1971 film, "Klute," which netted Jane Fonda a Best Actress Oscar that year. It's a decidedly low-key detective story with Donald Sutherland playing the title character, private detective John Klute, attempting to track down a missing husband who once dallied with Jane's call girl/wannabe actress Bree Daniels. To say that Fonda dove into this part is a great understatement - she's exuberant as the sexy doll whose recorded voice tantalizes her johns. Thanks to ace cinematographer Gordon Willis ("The Godfather," "Annie Hall," and many more), this is a film that perfectly matches Pakula's unorthodox framing with Willis' (pictured here) mesmerizing lighting and non-lighting - an unbeatable team. If you've been weaned on the overly violent thrillers of the last thirty years, this is not your cup of tea - but if you like mood and texture in your films, "Klute" is your hot toddy. Showing his true range, Sutherland did this after playing Oddball in "Kelly's Heroes," about as far away from his John Klute as you can get. Fonda is just a force of nature that makes every scene interesting. There isn't a wasted frame in her performance. Joining the cast is Charles Cioffi as the man who employs Klute to find the husband. Cioffi, a top character actor, played the San Francisco police lieutenant who grills Malcolm McDowell's H.G. Welles in "Time After Time." Stay safe.
Assistant Professor of Film & Media at Texas Tech University
4 年Ooh you have a gift for food metaphors, Steve! I love the Klute title sequence - the way that recording machine is placed in a black abyss, a moving suggestion for how the Nixon-era US was becoming immersed in an ethical abyss governed by always-listening mechanical ears.
Producer Operation Kathleen
4 年My father worked with Pakula on Parallax View. Warren Beatty's best film.