Onscreen she was Woman Emergent: the glamorous embodiment of a new feminine standard of intellectual and sexual liberation. Never more so than in the role of Bree Daniels in Klute. Braless, midi-skirted, sporting that iconic shag haircut, dressed in the height of post-hippie funky 70s fashion... Jane Fonda was the sex symbol redefined and seemed to point towards a new era for women in film in the 70s.
Ostensibly, anyway. I mean, Fonda's Bree Daniels is yet another movie call-girl.
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| Time is Money: Bree checking her watch in the throes of artificial passion |
Yes, even as late as 1971 Hollywood
Cinema's fascination with prostitutes and hookers-with-hearts-of-gold unquestionably has a great deal to do with their presence allowing a film to feature as much sex and nudity as possible while still maintaining a moralistic (and censor appeasing) tone.
But in Klute, Bree Daniels being a call-girl is more than just steamy window dressing. Her profession is integral to the plot, and, as realized by Fonda, Bree is light years away from the usual idealized fantasy image of a prostitute offered in movies.
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| Jane Fonda as Bree Daniels |
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| Donald Sutherland as John Klute |
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| Roy Scheider as Frank Lagourin |
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| Charles Cioffi as Peter Cable |
John Klute (Sutherland) is a small-town detective assigned to investigate the six-month disappearance of local businessman and friend, Tom Gruneman. His search takes him to
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM:
The scene that introduces us to the character of Bree Daniels.
As one in an anonymous, objectified line of applicants at a modeling agency, Bree and is dwarfed by photo blow-ups of a glamorously dehumanized model while being subjected to a blisteringly painful (to watch) "cattle-call" inspection that makes a meat-rack look humane.
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| Model from1970 issue of Harper's Bazaar |
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| Real-life model Veronica Hamel appears briefly in an uncredited role as a model in Klute. Hamel would later go on to star in the TV series, Hill Street Blues. |
This is the first of several scenes depicting Bree's pursuit of "respectable" employment (she's an aspiring model/actress) as being infinitely more humiliating and degrading than her work as a call girl. Potential employers take physical and emotional liberties (they feel free to touch her or make casually cruel personal comments) while she's forced to mask her humiliation and dejection behind nervous smiles. With this cinematic device, director Alan J. Pakula economically and with great visual panache (thanks to cinematographer Gordon Willis) establishes the essential conflict of Bree's life and sets the stage for why she regularly sees a psychiatrist.
Bree, asked by her therapist why is she still drawn to prostitution after professing a desire to quit:
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"Because its an act. That’s what's nice about it. You don’t have to feel anything, you don’t have to care about anything, you don’t have to like anybody. You just lead them by the ring in their nose in the direction that they think they want to go in...you get a lot of money out of them in as short a period of time as possible...and you control it and you call the shots."
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| Working Girl |
PERFORMANCES:
Perhaps the biggest testament to how exceptional Jane Fonda is in this, her Academy Award®- winning role, is how the persuasiveness of her performance got audiences and Academy voters alike to overlook their personal responses to Jane Fonda, the political activist, and lose themselves in the character of Bree Daniels. There aren't accolades enough for me to effectively express how much I enjoy and admire Fonda in this movie. It would have been the most pedestrian detective film imaginable without her. Whereas Klute is atmospherically rooted in the early 70s ("Goddamn hypocrite squares!"), Fonda's performance is timeless.
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| Life Imitates Art: Bree Daniels' mugshot (above), Jane Fonda's real-life 1970 mugshot (below). Fonda's by now iconic run-in with the law (you can find this image on everything from purses to T-shirts) occurred after filming on Klute had completed |
THE STUFF OF FANTASY:
My absolute favorite scene in the film is Klute's initial interrogation of Bree in her apartment. Fonda is masterful in navigating the myriad emotional shifts in her character (anger, defensiveness, manipulation, vulnerability) which contrast to dynamic effect with Sutherland's stolid calm. (Love what Fonda does with Bree's reluctant confession that she is afraid of the dark.)
In addition, this scene is a standout example of how to build suspense and generate fear by showing less, not more. Few things are more fright-inducing than those three little words, "Don't be afraid," so when Klute says this to Bree and leads her away from a skylight, tension grows unbearable as the camera pulls to a confining, low angle shot that shows us only Bree's hands on Klute's back reflected in a mirror. As he reveals to her that he thinks someone is on the roof watching them, Bree's hands, seconds-ago in a caress (and criticized earlier in the film as being "funny'), clench in tension and she emits a genuine terrified gasp that eerily echoes the sound of the orgasm she had feigned with a trick in an earlier scene. Just brilliant. Even today, this scene scares the hell out of me.
THE STUFF OF DREAMS:
I like it when filmmakers don't play their audiences for dumb. When intelligence is applied and respect given to so-called genre films (movies that fit specific narrative constructs like westerns, horror films, and police thrillers), there's a real opportunity to create something unexpected and entirely innovative.
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| John Klute's world in Tuscarora, Pennsyvania. |
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| Bree Daniels' world in New York. A dingy apartment in a brownstone overlooking a funeral parlor. In this shot, the small pot of flowers Bree carries contrasts with the lush green of the Pennsyvania scenes |
With Rosemary's Baby Roman Polanski took what could have been a routine horror film and fashioned it into a masterpiece of urban paranoia. With Klute, the late Alan J. Pakula (with the indispensable contribution of Fonda) takes an unremarkable detective story (the MacGuffin of Tom Gruneman's disappearance is dispensed with so quickly that even those who like the film would be forgiven if they fail to remember his fate) and emerges with a deeply insightful character drama that's also a solid and genuinely frightening thriller. On that last score, the contributions of cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather) and music composer Michael Small (The Stepford Wives, Night Moves) can't be oversold.
Klute is one of the best examples of what the New Hollywood of the 70s promised: a merging of art-film sensibilities with popular entertainment. And with Klute Jane Fonda, my favorite actress when I was growing up, joined Shelley Duvall in 3 Women and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, in giving one of the finest performances in an American film in the 70s.
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| "Don't be afraid..." |
Said by Bree to a trick to relax him,
by Klute to Bree to calm her,
and by the killer to Bree before...
and by the killer to Bree before...
Interesting reading! I need to see this again. I saw it on a grainy VHS about two-dozen years ago. One thing I did love was how, when Jane won the Oscar and was being heavily criticized by many people, she didn't broach the matter at all in her speech except to announce that then (Oscar night) wasn't the night to do so. I wish more stars took that route!
ReplyDelete(Poseidon3)
Hi Poseidon. Boy, they don't call cinematographer Gordon Willis "The Prince of Darkness" for nothing. His trademark shadowy photography looked absolutely murky on my old VHS copy, and I hadn't watched "Klute" for years simply because I couldn't SEE it! You really should check it out again. Not only does the film hold up remarkably well, but Fonda is really something else. As for her Oscar speech, I agree. As much as I respect public figures like Fonda using their notoriety to call attention to political issues, sometimes in silence they are the most eloquent. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteArgyle here. Thanks again for your site. I just watched "Klute" last night spurred on by your post. I've always meant to watch it. It's another of those films that came out when I was too young and sheltered to get to see, but was aware of. Crazy how films you couldn't see still made an indelible impression: the typeface, the all sequin dress, the shag haircut emphasizing her eyes. Maybe that's how "glamour" works. Anyway, "Klute" has always been on my list. It's almost a list of things I AVOID seeing, sort of saving them for some future time when I'll need something amazing to see or read. (The only other item on the list that springs to mind is to read "In Cold Blood". The movie is incredible and I've read everything else by TC but always avoid ICB, saving it in some weird way.) Anyway, I loved "Klute" and your observations about Jane Fonda are excellent. She is incredible. I did feel like the story was a little weak and I was never in the grip of suspense, but that's OK. I'm glad it wasn't overly plot bound, Bree and Klute's characters were plenty. The cinematography and locations were perfect. I did think the music was a little problematic. I also just saw the first half or so of "Panic in Needle Park" which has a similar but slightly more documentary feel for the same period and setting. Pretty incredible. The lack of music there really kept you in the story, almost wouldn't let you out of the story. "Klute" is maybe a bit more a product of the studio system; it has a bit more romance. And I don't mean any of this as a negative criticism. I have nothing but admiration for film makers of that (or any) period who were trying to push the boundaries. Fonda, Sutherland, Pakula, and Gordon Willis were. When I was in college, Jane Fonda came to lecture. This was probably 1977 and so she was also promoting "Julia" (which has lots of good things about it.) She showed the trailer for "Julia" and then said something like, "Well I'd NEVER go see THAT based on that trailer!" And then went on to give a much more nuanced and accurate description of the film. So you got the sense of someone really chafing in the (SELL IT!) Hollywood system. Thanks again for your great site. I'm sorry I tuned past "The Matchmaker" the other night; another for my list!
ReplyDeleteHi Argyle. I'm glad you finally got around to seeing "Klute" and I'm flattered that it was in some way influenced by my blog. Your observations are spot on. Especially about the way some films stick with you when you're young, even when you were too young to see them. I had that experience with "In Cold Blood" which I saw for the first time in 2005. The ads scared the hell out of me as a kid and I avoided it, but never forgot it. I loved the film and that inspired me to finally read the book. I too have read all of Capote's works, and "In Cold Blood" will well be worth the wait once you get around to it. Coincidentally, I saw "Panic in Needle Park" two weeks ago for the first time. I loved its gritty feel. How did I NOT see this when it came out? Pacino is amazing!
ReplyDeleteI like that you are able to see the pluses and minuses of s film and still process it it beyond simply "liking" it and "not liking" it. That's what I like about film...it he perfect film is rare, but there is much to be enjoyed in films that succeed in some areas and falter in others.
We have so many shared experiences...when I was in high school, Jane Fonda came to a local college to speak. No movie talk, just Tom Hayden promo. I got her to sign a photo of "Barbarella" afraid that she might balk (as she was in full feminist mode at the time), but she was a sweetheart and even laughed at herself in the image. Thanks again for your comments and sharing your movie memories. Your Jane Fonda story is terrific!