Friday, June 8, 2012

Klute

Released in 1971
Directed by Alan Pakula
Starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Charles Cioffo
Co-starring Roy Scheider and Jean Stapleton
Unknown, uncredited: Veronica Hamel and Sylvester Stallone
Released Jan. 1 with box office receipts of $8 million, total domestic box office of $12.5 million compared to the Avengers which has made $552 million.
The movie received 11 awards nominations including an Acadamy award nomination for Best Writing and Best Actress nomination and win for Jane Fonda. Fonda also won 4 other awards for her Best Actress performance.
Some other movies released that year include: A Clockwork Orange, Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Dirty Harry, Diamonds are Forever, The French Connection, Carnal Knowledge, Shaft
John Klute is the title character, a small town policeman who comes to New York City to find his best friend. He naturally seeks out a hooker to help him with his search. The hooker, Bree Daniels, played by Jane Fonda is trying to get out of the business and go straight.
Roger Ebert said the movie should have been named Bree, for Jane Fonda’s character, because that character is at the center. The film examines the relationship between Klute and Bree, but Ebert also considered it an awkward thriller. He felt that Pakula was overly concerned with plot and thought the movie was too schizophrenic to scare anyone very much. Ebert said the scenes between Fonda and Sutherland are very good and says Fonda has a nervous intensity that makes you want to watch her. He says “Intelligence. I suppose that’s the word. In “Klute” you don’t have two attractive acting vacuums reciting speeches at each other. With Fonda and Sutherland, you have actors who understand and sympathize with their characters, and you have a vehicle worthy of that sort of intelligence. So the fact that the thriller stuff doesn’t always work isn’t so important.”
Roger Greenspun of the New York Times agreed in part with Ebert saying the movie should have been titled Bree. However, he does disagree saying the effect of the subjective camera and despite the sharp edges and dramatic spaces and cinema presence somewhat like Citizen Kane, the film “suggests a tepid, rather tasteless mush.” Greenspun said the acting was semi-improvisitory and that Jane Fonda was successful in this. He felt that everyone else just talked a lot. He said Sutherland, who barely talked, was given the latitude to be a romantic figure, but had all the “mysterious intensity of a youthful Calvin Coolidge.”
The movie was described by Variety as a “suspenser without much suspense” and claims that Klute was notable for presenting Jane Fonda as a much-matured actress in a role demanding that she make an emotionally-unstable professional prostitute interesting. Variety said Fonda’s performance was the only rewarding element.
From the feminist viewpoint, Bree is going from self-sufficiency to dependency on a man. She is struggling with the emotional tug of war between giving and loving and the fear of loss of self, which is a common female conflict. This film is about the duality of Bree – the loving and vulnerable Bree vs the manipulative and defensive Bree. She is torn between her need for independence and her want of love.
For Bree, the closer she gets to losing control emotionally, the closer she gets to losing her life. For her losing control is losing her life. She sees giving love as giving up her control.
References
Ebert, Roger. “Klute.” n.p. Web. 5/18/12
Giddis, Diane. “The Divided Woman: Bree Daniels in Klute.” Women of the Cinema. Eds. Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary. New York City: E.P. Dutton, 1977. 26-36. Print
Greenspun, Roger. “Klute.” The New York Times. n.p. Web. 5/18/12
The Internet Movie Database. n.p. Web. 6/5/12
The Numbers. n.p. Web. 6/5/12
Variety Staff. “Klute.” Variety. n.p. Web. 5/18/12
Written by Andy Lewis and David P. Lewis

15 comments:

  1. Questions for the panel:

    1. Bree struggles throughout the film to balance her independence with her love for Klute. By the end of the film, it is unclear whether or not she has made a clear decision to remain in the relationship. Although she leaves with Klute, her telephone conversation with the John and the voice-over in the final scene suggest that she may not stay with him. Based on her actions and her dialogue with her shrink, is Bree capable of maintaining a relationship with Klute if it meant sacrificing a piece of her independence?


    2. After the scene with the two “junkies” in what looked to be an abandoned apartment, Bree immediately runs back to her pimp and subsequently to her old ways. What does this encounter with the drug-abusing prostitute stir in Bree that sends her running away from Klute and their relationship?


    3. After Bree’s sexual encounter with Klute she retorts, “Don't feel bad about losing your virtue. I sort of knew you would. Everybody always does.” Do these comments suggest that Bree planned the entire escapade from the beginning in order to firmly assert her independence from Klute, or was she trying to cover the true emotions that swept over her in the comfort of Klute’s apartment?

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    1. 1. I believe that we will never know that answer for sure, but the possibility is unpredictable. Throughout the movie she struggles in many areas of herself, yet we never see a total closure or a release from her therapist saying that she has solved all her issues and be free and go thus into the world and make your life better. I believe she will try her best to make a mends, yet her comment on the phone suggests her admission that it will be out of her comfort zone, so don’t hold your breath or be surprised if she fails.

      2. I think she sees a life of the others, what she once had, and wants to revisit once again while being carefree, and making bad choices, living a hard life that is filled with unknowns, before making the plunge to move forth with Klute. That was another wakeup call revisited.

      3. I think she came to the apartment to play/ seduce him. She used the excuse that she was scared, and knew he would give in. I do not think she had true emotions for him at that time. I do not think her true emotions really started flowing until the scenes in the apartments started showing the openness of the space reflective of her openness to a relationship. This is when he really started putting his hands on her and shifting her around the room as well as taking care of her.

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  2. 1. good question - and probably one that could only be answered in a sequel. She tells her therapist that these feeling are new to her, so I think that she is cautious to fully give herself to Klute, since all this is new. As we discussed, she gave herself an out just in case it doesn't work. She can return to her old life and not be surprised.
    2. Perhaps fear - she sees what happens when 2 people are so totally dependant on each other and doesn't like it. Maybe going back to the pimp, who she doesn't really need, is another way for Bree to feel in control.
    3. I think that she manipulated the entire scene, but was caught by surprise when she found she actually had feelings after sex and she doesn't want Klute to know that her manipulation has somewhat backfired. So, she throws a couple of jabs at him to fend off any feelings that may stick to her.

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  3. Dianne, I appreciate your answers to Casey’s questions! They were informative and insightful, especially your answer to the second question. Thank you.

    You said (in your original post), “John Klute is the title character, a small town policeman who comes to New York City to find his best friend. He naturally seeks out a hooker to help him with his search.” I don’t think the tongue in cheek statement of “naturally seeks out a hooker” is quite right. If I recall, Klute seeks Bree Daniels at the instruction of Peter Cable as a possible lead in the murder case of Tom Gruneman. She was the only lead left on the two year old murder case because Bree had received sick, pornographic letters that were supposedly from Tom Gruneman, but were really, I think, from Peter Cable. Please let me know if I did not perceive this correctly!

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    1. no you were correct, I just thought it was strange that his first trip to NYC and he goes to Bree. Just tryin to be funny.
      I just thought the connection to Bree was tenuous at best. The letters were a year old, her encounter with the guy who beat her up was two years previous, and as one of the characters pointed out, "good call girl can have up to 700 johns in a year." It's amazing that first of all, she had only been beaten one time and that she did remember. but of course if she hadn't there wouldn't have been a movie.

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    2. I agree with you! The connection between the two was tenuous, but the movie had to start somewhere.

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  4. This was by far my LEAST favorite movie we have viewed. I don't understand the HEAVY use of music to (try) to build the suspense in the film rather than using the actor's talents. They might as well had a flashing sign in the bottom corner saying, "You should be sitting on the edge of your seat now!"

    I did enjoy the scenes with Fonda and Sutherland and the development of their relationship, but there was just way too many questions about what really happened in the film, and what we thought happened. (As seen in our disagreements in our discussion. Which I still say the murder was on the phone at the end!!!)

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    1. Yes, I am not a fan of this movie. It was so very dark and hard to make out what was going on in those scenes. I do think the music was a little out of sync with what was happening. The first scene when she went up to her apartment, and the music suggested she was going to find someone in her room, but when she arrived it was just a dark space with a light, 2 candles and something to smoke in her robe. The music changed and away we continued.
      I too thought that the killer was Tom, and on the phone, for some time, while still lingering about after all these years. My thoughts changed when the creepy man behind the large desk started showing up more. I believe the movie was so dark and mysterious that I walked out of the theater asking one gal, so, by the way….. what ever happened to Tom?

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    2. But we do, in a way, find out what happened to Tom. Peter Cable said to Bree while talking in that old man's office that he's "killed three people." Although he doesn't specifically say he killed Tom, I think it's safe to bet that Peter killed the two hookers who were found dead, and Tom. They all knew too much and he couldn't risk his reputation, so he got rid of them.
      Although this wasn't my favorite movie, I really didn't mind it. I missed that day so I watched the movie at home, and maybe because I viewed on my TV, I didn't notice any scenes that were too dark to view. The one thing that bugged me at the end of the movie was the fact that the romance and detective work was equal. I would have liked the movie to focus more on one aspect. I feel like a lot of questions are left unanswered because there just wasn't enough time to answer them all.

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  5. Question for the Panel:
    During one of the scenes, Bree tells Klute she is scared of the dark. He does what he can to make sure that space is safe from her fears. As hard as Klute tries, she is still skittish, yet she wonders around town at all hours, in dark nightclubs, chasing pimps and wasted friends for a good time, not to mention the many men. She was beaten up once, and obviously can’t remember too much about the situation with supposedly Tom. Could the director Pakula be showing Klute as a re-creation of emotional danger through the threat of Bree’s potential Killer?

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  6. It seems like the consensus on this film is that it was not a favorite because of how dark and heavy the it is. I like the contrast from the other films, though. In focusing on the leading lady throughout 20th century film, it was nice to see a departure from the "happily ever after" films. Even though Double Indemnity wasn't exactly "happily ever after," there was still a sense of closure/catharsis. I like the realistic struggle Fonda is able to portray in Klute. While it wasn't the feel-good film of the class, I liked the realistic portrayal of a woman struggling to find balance between independence and happiness. I also liked that even though she couldn't make up her mind as to which life to lead, she was in control of the relationship. I don't think we have seen much of that up to this point (with the exception of Stanwick, but I will make her the exception because of her role as femme fatale).

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  7. The darkness of the film, made it more difficult to watch. I understand that it did create suspense but almost to the fault of the film. The ending also made you think about how it might have really ended and if there would be a second movie.

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    1. I agree that the darkness of the movie was distracting because it was very hard to see what was going on, however I understand what they were trying to accomplish by making the movie so dark.

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  8. This movie felt like it was two seprate movies; one about a prostitue struggling with who she is, and one about a man trying to catch a killer, spliced together. The suspense portion of the movie was pretty awful to watch. It wasn't suspenseful or interesting. The portion of Jane Fonda struggling as her character is fascinating. When she was in the therpists office, I would forget that I was watching a movie, she was so convincing.

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    1. I agree with you that it seemed like 2 separate movies. I wish they would have chosen to go into one with a little more detail. If they had, I'm sure many of the questions that were asked would have been answered. There were suspenseful parts that really grabbed my attention, especially the time Klute hears somebody on the roof, and while Bree is at the sewing shop waiting for the therapist to call. Other than that, I agree that the most memorable parts were when we see Jane acting and expressing herself as the hooker Bree.

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