#50, 4/17 – Klute (1971) (vod)

Since I’m a fan of Alan Pakula (thanks, in large part to The Parallax View but I have a very soft spot for The Sterile Cuckoo), the early careers of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, and 70s American cinema, it is quite a surprise that it’s taken me this long to finally see Klute. I actually first tried to watch this movie in 1991, but only now in 2007 have I seen past the 20th minute. There are a number of silly reasons why it’s taken me so long, but most of them require much too much effort to explain. The simple version is this, though: I was cursed.

Anyway, ignoring all that, I think Klute’s a pretty well-done character study/thriller (in that order), with excellent performances throughout. Fonda’s Bree Daniel reminds me a little of Kartin Cartlidge’s later portrayal of Claire Dolan for some reason. I’m sure I could find parallels, beyond the characters’ shared profession (and the brief phone booth scene which probably is what reminded me of Kerrigan’s film in the first place), but I’m drawing a blank at the moment.

I’m also somewhat taken with some of the decisions made about the story. Namely, I was surprised not by how many characters mentioned at some point in this movie died but by how few of them died on-screen. Although there are clear storytelling reasons for why they framed the film the way they did, I’m not entirely sure screenwriters today would have put the story together in this same fashion. And it’s choices like these which fascinate me. (You know, I think I said something similar about The Exorcist but I’m too lazy to look it up.)