Welcome to my new short series called Hippie Hotties where I plan to talk about a hippie-era movie that stretched the limits of free love and sex by showing off some sexy nudes on the big screen. This era of experimentation led to some pretty far-out films, so let's take a look!
Today let's talk about Jane Fonda and her Oscar-winning performance as a high-class call girl in the 1971 thriller Klute. The critically acclaimed movie proved to the world that Jane Fonda was not just some blonde Barbarella trying to get attention by causing a ruckus at protests (more on that later). She was a real actress...and she really hot, too! She wasn't afraid to get down and dirty in her career or in politics which makes her very emblematic of the sixties spirit. So, without further adieu, let's talk about Klute.
Klute is not necessarily talked about a lot today. Even at the time, the film was basically just praised for Fonda's performance as Bree Daniels and for its inventive screenplay. That could be why it isn't held in the same regard as Pakula's other films in the seventies like All the President's Men or his later masterpiece Sophie's Choice. Either way, Alan J. Pakula wrote and directed Klute after working his way up the Hollywood ladder from a cartoon assistant to a movie producer throughout the 50s and 60s. In 1969 he directed his first feature film, The Sterile Cuckoo starring Liza Minnelli. After that, he did his next big venture: a project that was dubbed "the paranoia trilogy" and that trilogy kicked off with Klute.
Klute is a psychodrama about a detective played by Donald Sutherland who needs the help of a call girl named Bree Daniels to solve a missing person's case. He winds up tapping her phones which she did not realize and listens in on some of her phone calls with a psychiatrist. Of course, the detective and the call girl fall in love. Who could resist? The story unfolds primarily as the two figure out where the missing people went and Jane's character wants to leave hooking after she has actual feelings for a man. It's like...they want to find the missing people and she winds up finding herself. Awww, how precious.
What is hippie about this movie is our leading lady, Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda was a controversial counter-culture figure. As the daughter of a famous actor, she used her privilege and platform to protest wars and racism. She worked alongside The Black Panthers and was even arrested for her many efforts. And who could forget the iconic image that became known as Hanoi Jane? If anything, actress Jane Fonda represented on the most national level was the spirit of the sixties was about: revolution.
In order to research her role, Jane actually spent a week in New York City hanging out with high-class escorts and madams to learn from them. While she hung out with them and went with them to pick up men, Jane was disappointed that none of the men showed an interest in her. Can you believe that? She wondered if they could tell she wasn't really a call girl and that she was actually just a "privileged pretender" which were her words. This made her doubt she could actually play the role and she asked to be released from her contract. She suggested Faye Dunaway to replace her, but Pakula did not agree to any of this. Finally, Jane remembered the prostitutes she hung out within France and tried to remember their backstories in order to "accurately" portray a sex worker. Whatever you have to do, Jane!
Klute is an enjoyable movie and it feels very of its time. It does a lot of cuts and voice-overs that feel very influenced by The French New Wave and leaves the movie feeling very "the seventies do noir". Fonda is sensational and sexy, so it's no wonder she won an Oscar. She would have won an Anatomy Award, too, if we were around back then.
