|
Klute (1971)
In Alan Pakula's neo-noir stalker-thriller character
study (Note: Klute was the name of a small-town detective played
by Donald Sutherland) about a NYC call girl threatened during a police
investigation:
- the opening credits, with the lengthy voice-over
(taped on a recorder) of high-priced New York call girl Bree Daniel
(Oscar-winning Jane Fonda) propositioning a client - and her increasing
involvement in the investigation of the disappearance (and possible
murder) of one of her clients, Tuscarora, Pennsylvania chemical
company exec. Thomas Gruneman (Robert Milli), who had allegedly
written obscene letters to her "a girl in New York City":
(Bree: "Has anybody, uhm, talked to you about the financial
arrangements? Well, that depends, naturally, on how long you want
me for and, and what you want to do. I know you. It will be very
nice. Uhm, well, I'd like to spend the evening with you if it's,
if you'd like that. Have you ever been with a woman before? Paying
her? Do you like it? I mean, I have the feeling that that turns
you on very particularly. What turns me on is because I have a
good imagination and I like pleasing. Do you mind if I take my
sweater off? Well, I think in the confines of one's house, one
should be free of clothing and inhibitions. Oh, inhibitions are
always nice because they're so nice to overcome. Don't be afraid.
I'm not. As long as you don't, uh, hurt me more than I like to
be hurt, I will do anything you ask. You should never be ashamed
of things like that. I mean, you mustn't be. You know, there's
nothing wrong. Nothing, nothing is wrong. I think the only way
that any of us can ever be happy is to, is to let it all hang out.
You know, do it all and f--k it!...")
- Gruneman's 'homicidal' killer was suspected of sending
obscene letters (Bree had received six or seven similar obscene letters "written
by a very disturbed man"), making anonymous phone calls, stalking
and abusing prostitutes, and he was possibly involved in the suicidal
deaths of two other prostitutes; although Bree admitted to receiving
letters (and calls), she could not recognize or remember Gruneman
when shown a photograph
- the introduction of the character of Peter Cable (Charles
Cioffi), one of Gruneman's fellow executive co-workers, who hired
family friend and detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) to investigate
Gruneman's lengthy disappearance
- the telling scene in which Bree was servicing a client
- and looked boringly at her watch
- the scene of Bree's counseling with her high-priced
therapist-psychiatrist (Vivian Nathan), when she confessed that she
wanted to quit the sessions because of their cost and ineffectiveness:
("Well, I mean I've been coming here all this time, and I've
been paying you all this money, and why do I still want to trick?
Why do I still walk by a phone and want to pick up the phone and
call?...when you're a call girl you control it, that's why. Because
someone wants you, not me. I mean, there are some johns that I have
regularly that want me and that's terrific. But they want
a woman and I know I'm good. And I arrive at their hotel or their
apartment, and they're usually nervous, which is fine, because I'm
not. I know what I'm doing. And for an hour, for an hour, I'm the
best actress in the world and the best f--k in the world...because
it's 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, uh, you just lead them by the ring in their
nose in the direction that they think they want to go in. And you
get a lot of money out of them in as short a period of time as possible.
And uh, and you control it and you call the shots, and I always feel
just great afterwards... I don't think there's anything wrong with
it, uh - morally. I didn't enjoy it physically. I-I came to enjoy
it because it made me feel good. It made me feel like I wasn't alone.
It made me feel, uh, that I had some control over myself, that I
had some control over my life. That I, uh, that I could determine
things for myself")
- in a tense concluding scene, psychopathic sick killer
Peter Cable's playing of an audiotape for Bree of his murder of a
second prostitute, Arlyn Page (Dorothy Tristan). He was heard calmly
promising the hooker: ("Why don't you lie down on the bed and
make yourself comfortable... Nothing's going to happen... Just put
your head down. You have such lovely long blonde hair. Turn your
head"); screams were heard as he strangled and killed her, while
Bree bowed her head and silently cried
- the conclusion: Cable clearly admitted that he was
the abusive client of the two dead prostitutes - both of whom he
had killed to cover his own tracks; Cable had then framed Gruneman
(who was also probably killed) as the author of the obscene letters,
before his disappearance; by comparing typewriters, the obscene letters
were traced to Cable
- in the suspenseful ending, after playing the tape
and turning off the recording, the killer's sudden attack of Bree,
who was saved by private detective John Klute when Cable was smashed
through a window
- the final scene, of Bree moving out of her NYC apartment
and returning to Pennsylvania with detective Klute, with whom she
had become romantically involved, and her expression of fears to
her therapist (in voice-over) that settled domestic life with him
in Tuscarora, with a man so different than she was, might not work:
("I know enough about myself to know that whatever lies in store
for me it's not gonna be setting up housekeeping with somebody in
Tuscarora, and darning socks and doing all that... I'd go out of
my mind..."); when she received a phone call from her female
therapist, Bree further explained: ("Well, I'm leaving town
right now and I don't expect to be back..."); the film ended
as she departed her empty apartment, with her continued voice-over
to her therapist, casting doubt on her future life with Klute as
a couple: ("I have no idea what's gonna happen. I just, I can't
stay in this city, you know? Maybe I'll come back. You'll probably
see me next week")
|
Call-Girl Bree Daniels Impatient with One of Her Clients
Bree With Psychiatrist
Cable's Playing of Distressing Audiotape for Bree
Death of Cable - Smashed Through Window
Klute With Bree Before Moving Out of Her Apartment
Final Scene: Bree On Phone With Therapist ("Maybe
I'll come back")
|