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A Story of a Prostitute who is not a Pretty Woman

© David Macdonald

The year of 1971 brought the filmgoing public a harsh glimpse into the life of a prostitute in the form of the film Klute, starring Jane Fonda as Bree, a troubled call girl whose problems range from loneliness to lack of self-worth, and to the knowledge that a killer is out to get her. Klute tops the groundbreaking depiction of street life in Midnight Cowboy by being even more sexually and emotionally graphic. As well, this is one of the few movies where prostitution for a woman is not portrayed as glamourous. Fonda gives us a character who is far from noble, or admirable. In fact, Bree is crushingly lonely, often desperate and pathetic, emotionally frigid, and, out of habit and necessity, often fraudulent. The script goes to great pains to expose the viewer to the emotional and physical dangers of being a prostitute, so much so that the thriller element (yes, this will probably be found in the thriller/mystery section of the store) is barely emphasised.

The name of Klute actually belongs to a private investigator, played by Donald Sutherland, who is searching for a friend, who apparently has disappeared on a business trip. Bree is brought into the case because of Klute`s having received knowledge that the friend had paid for her services, and is possibly stalking her. Bree is clearly very suspicious of this P.I., and takes her sweet time in discussing anything of length to him. But soon, Bree gets scary phone calls and other calling cards that the killer leaves, including the body of another prostitute close to her found in the harbour. Klute then becomes her only means of protection, and eventually, they . . . well, they don't fall in love, exactly, but they develop a bond which obligates Bree to face up to the emptiness of her life.

The stuff involving the crime and the stalking are probably the least original aspects of the picture (although the material involving recordings made by the killer are chillingly well-presented), and the filmmakers know it. Unlike today's thrillers, Klute avoids a lot of action and behaves mostly like a straight-up character drama. At the beginning of the film, we witness a day in the life of Bree, controlling the direction of sexual acts toward her customers by day, living in boredom and fear by night. The contrast works, because this shows how much of Bree`s life is ultimately empty and phoney. She does not really get excited during the sexual acts with paying customers, and there is nothing to get excited over when she is off-duty. She does not seem to have any real friends (her only other contacts seem to be with a pimp and other prostitutes), and just sits around smoking up, reading books, and doing nothing special.

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