Slideshow
KLUTE
U.S., 1971
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider
Approx. 114 min. DCP.
Small town detective Donald Sutherland, journeying to NYC to seek a friend’s murderer, finds both were clients of high-priced call girl Jane Fonda – and then things get ominous. Ruthlessly stylized photography by Gordon Willis (MANHATTAN), and a partly-improvised (and Oscar-winning) performance by Jane highlight this glossily Noir thriller.
Reviews
“Criminally underappreciated!”
– Benedict Cosgrove, Gothamist
“What is it about Jane Fonda that makes her such a fascinating actress to watch? She has a sort of nervous intensity that keeps her so firmly locked into a film character that the character actually seems distracted by things that come up in the movie. You almost have the feeling, a couple of times in KLUTE, that the Fonda character had other plans and was just leaving the room when this (whatever it is) came up.”
– Roger Ebert
“Hinges on the contradictions of autonomy and emotional commitment facing would-be independent women… For once, a genuinely psychological thriller.”
– Time Out
“[Fonda] makes all the right choices, from the mechanics of her walk and her voice inflection to the penetration of the girl’s raging psyche. It is a rare performance.”
– Jay Cocks
“A movie resolutely of its moment that still surges with third-rail electricity. The dread and unease that suffuse the film seem rooted partly in anxiety over second-wave feminism, the cresting of which nearly coincided with the release of this movie, one that centers on its heroine’s profound ambivalence about growing emotionally attached to a man.”
– The Village Voice
“One of the strongest woman characters to reach the screen.”
– Pauline Kael
“Challenges the historically male preserve of the private eye story.”
– Forster Hirsch