Klute

“And for an hour... for an hour, I'm the best actress in the world, and the best fuck in the world.“Well, Jane, for an hour and fifty four minutes, you really were the best actress in the world. I absolutely love this film. A film that presents itself as an absolutely erotic and stylistic detective thriller, but simultaneously a powerful picture about a woman trying to define herself in a world that constantly defines her as an object.  I honestly could just disregard the entire murder mystery plot as a secondary, because this film’s brilliance is the story of Bree Daniels’ internal conflicts. Questioning whether or not she exists as a person or whether or not she is purely a sexual product to be sold and reused, questioning if she can be really loved without being consumed. She presents herself as somebody who is self-aware of her hyper sexual tendencies. She markets male fantasies, and sells sexual desires back to men. She is in full control of what she is doing, she chooses her clientele, her meetings with these men are her stage to perform how she pleases. But it begs the question of whether or not she is free, or if she is just aware of her participation in the patriarchy. She comes off as this overly-confident and intellectually aware, but her therapy sessions reveal something completely different after meeting Klute, she reveals that she feels a sense of worthlessness, that she doesn’t deserve real love. I think its clearly obvious that she knows she is seen as an object, but throughout the film she is bargaining if its worth it to remain as one, because being an object feels safer than being loved. For any actress, playing such a nuanced character should be the hardest job in the world. She completely embodies the psyche, she perfectly understands how to play a performance within a performance when Bree is with her clients, but also understands how to play intro contradiction. Almost as if Jane is playing multiple different characters at once. Genuinely absolutely exceptional stuff from her. This is a role that requires emotional opacity without emptiness and vulnerability without over-sentiment. If another actress with less control than Fonda were to attempt this, it could have been disastrous regardless of the absolutely powerful script. Jane is an absolute gem of an actress, and at the time of filming she was in a relationship with Donald Sutherland, who claims that she taught him so much about acting. Sutherland went on to become a renowned and fantastic performer. Not to discredit his own abilities, as clearly in this film he is fantastic, but I think its food for thought to consider that she really influenced his work that would come after this.  Talking about Sutherland, it’s easy to dismiss his performance in this film due to the woman on the other side of him. It’s exceptionally difficult, especially in this era of film, to play a male character that is completely stripped of his dominance, especially in sexual scenarios. Klute’s character is emotionally blank, and almost opaque. He’s framed intentionally as this ‘good man’, or this ‘male saviour’ archetype. And I suppose its easy to not read too deeply into his character, and just blatantly assume he is a good man. But this is intentional character writing in my opinion, he serves as an allegory for the inherent power dynamic of men in society. Despite not presenting himself as a man seeking control, and perhaps not even intentionally seeking control at all, the fact is he wants Bree to stop sex work. He is still a man that wants to subtly control a woman. He exists in the same system that sees Bree as something to fix, rescue and process.  Peter Cables character is a pure symbol of the patriarchy. To him, women aren’t people. Women are just a set of stimuli. Women are a drug to him. He records them, packaging them into sound. He resents women because he desires them. But never questions his own indulgence. For the sake of the narrative, cable is a killer. But men that exist like this aren’t just killers. However, just like Cable, men who see women like this are respected individuals, married men, family men, corporate executives. Men like Peter Cables character exist in all walks of life. Are they really the villains though? Are we pointing the right fingers? Bad people, yes, no question. But the real villain is the system of misogyny that creates these men. The world is a factory that produces faulty products and blames the product rather than the machinery and its manufacturer.  On a technical level, this film is absolutely excellent. Its shot absolutely beautifully. The shadows reflect emotional isolation and urban alienation perfectly. The scenes between Klute and Bree are shot intimately, as though we are there, whereas the scenes with Bree’s clientele is shot at distance, as though we are watching a stage play. The slow pacing is so intentional, as though Pakula is peeling skin back slowly to reveal more. The score is psychologically invasive. Unresolved piano sequences, murky jazz-noir, muted orchestral elements. The script is absolutely fantastic, mystery unfolding in fragments and partial details. Mirroring Bree’s fragmented emotional state. The ending feels so ambiguous and unsolved. Most writers are terrified of leaving characters in process, and having such restraint, but this script really shows how to do that perfectly.  I absolutely love this erotic feminist thriller. And it further reiterates what I love about this app. I discovered Klute when I first downloaded the app Letterboxd by complete accident. I was messing with filters, and sorted Sylvester Stallone’s filmography by popularity (he has an uncredited role in the film) and this beautiful poster popped out to me.  Easily one of my favourite movies of all time.  Tremendous Tremendous TREMENDOUS.