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| Genre: | Thriller |
| Year: | 1971 |
| Rating: | R |
| Length: | 1 Hour 54 Minutes |
| Cast: | Alan J. Pakula, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi |
The first part of his "paranoia trilogy," Alan J. Pakula's 1971 thriller details the troubled life of a Manhattan prostitute stalked by one of her tricks. Investigating the disappearance of his friend Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli), rural Pennsylvania private eye John Klute (Donald Sutherland) follows a lead provided by Gruneman's associate Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi) to seek out a call girl who Gruneman knew in New York City. The call girl is Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda), an aspiring actress who turns tricks for the cash and to be free of emotional bondage. Klute follows Bree's every move, observing the city's decadence and her isolation, eventually contacting her about Gruneman. Bree claims not to know Gruneman, but she does reveal that she has received threats from a john. As Bree becomes involved in Klute's search and realizes that she is in danger, she reluctantly falls in love with Klute, despite her wish to remain unattached to any man. When she finally comes face to face with the killer, however, she is forced to re-consider her detached urban life. With Gordon Willis's cinematography providing a shadowy and claustrophobic atmosphere, Pakula adapts the conventions of 1940s film noir detective movies to examine the 1970s issue of the compromises faced by a woman trying maintain her freedom. Klute's air of stark gloom alludes to the pervasive personal conspiracies that put women at the mercy of a man's world; by the end, a crime may be solved, but the problem is not. Despite calls to boycott Fonda's movies because of her anti-Vietnam War activism, Klute's timely subject matter found a substantial audience, firmly establishing Fonda as both a serious movie star and a feminist symbol. And her outspoken views did not prevent her from winning the Best Actress Oscar for the movie. Lucia Bozzola
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