h-christen This is another example of incomprehensible movies from the early seventies. Like "The parallax view" I reviewed.Movies are supposed to be entertaining, but these kind of movies are a pain in the head. You are trying to understand what is happening, but the director likes riddles to a very extreme extent. Most of the riddles are ill-founded by close up's, for instance, a tape running in a tape recorder, or a cigarette in an ashtray, multiple characters popping up from nowhere for no reason, as little information as possible given of characters, situations or hidden in such a way that you need to rewind multiple times. All to cover up that the story in fact is ridiculous. All has to be mysterious, but there is no suspense at all. I cannot identify with Klute because I know nothing about him. He is a wooden puppet. I do not understand the severe search for a certain Gruneman, from who we don't know anything. In fact we are fed very little information, only that a certain Gruneman has to be found. So for me this movie is a torture to sit out. One thing that makes sense for me is the transition of Bree from a call girl who can't feel anything, to a person that has feelings for Klute but even that feels fabricated.Why are so many scenes pitch-dark?Read no further, if you haven't seen it yet, because I will give a summary of the movie.SPOILERS!!People are babbling through a dinner...Suddenly, pay attention to the word suddenly, because things always seem to happen suddenly in this kind of movies.Suddenly, we see a row of women, tested like cows in a livestock market.John Klute is interrogated about the disappearance of a certain Thomas Gruneman. As well is Mrs. Gruneman. There is a meeting, by whom? to investigate the Gruneman case and they like Klute to do it. There is a call girl, who was under surveillance. The call girl remembered Gruneman from the mysterious letters. Gruneman may have been stalking this call girl. Why, how?, we don't know. By the way, the anonymous call girl was in the line of the tested girls.Suddenly we know the name of the call girl, Bree, because she is at the house of an unknown call girl caller, and we are witness of an embarrassing call girl-caller encounter. We see a day in the life of a call girl and suddenly John Klute is at her door, and next thing we see is Bree at an audition, because she likes to be an actress.We see a man unknown to us pouring drinks. A client of Bree. After a pathetic monologue from Bree we see a close up of John Klute. Bree is arguing with a woman unknown to us so far, but she is likely to be her psychiatrist. Suddenly Bree calls Klute, but we don't even know what happened last time when Klute was at her door. Klute has a tape recorder connected to his phone.Recordings from Bree are played. Then suddenly we see Bree with her pimp and a photographer, and the pimp appears to be: Klute, yes, undercover. The photographer is most likely her real pimp.Now the search is for a certain Arlyn Page, a junkie... Bree is acting with an Irish accent, just for fun I guess. Bree is scavenging through police photo's of dead girls. How did they get access to these photo's?Then the inevitably sexual encounter Klute-Bree, and suddenly they are an investigative team! Seventies disco and Bree goes into the arms of the pimp and Klute watches that.Klute reports to his boss and now they talk about a beating, who is beaten? Klute's boss listens to tapes of Bree and we see a photo of men on the moon...Klute goes to Bree, nothing is said, he puts her in bed. Next thing we see is Bree at the psychiatrist.O yes, now we are after Jane McKenna who is dead accordingly to Bree and Klute is at some weird evidence place, he found a necklace there I think.Body of Arlyn Page has been found by the police.Well, I have to say the scene on the market with Klute and Bree was very touching.So suddenly we know a name, Peter Cable, identified by comparing typewriter notes. It's the boss of Klute! Then we have a scene with Bree, Klute and her pimp. There is a fight between Klute and the pimp and Bree tries to stab Klute with scissors. Klute leaves and Bree is at her psychiatrist again, who is not there, then she calls Mr. Goldfarb, the mysterious client we have seen before.Then suddenly at the office of Mr. Goldfarb Klute's boss turns up and begins to confess 3 murders to Bree. He tries to murder Bree, but of course Klute is just in time and saves the day.Curtain.As we say in dutch when we hear a bunch of total nonsense: "Ik kan er geen chocolade van maken"I can't make chocolate of that.

Jackson Booth-Millard I knew this film appeared in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I knew the leading actor and actress, and it was rated five out of five by critics, so I hoped something good, directed by Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men, Sophie's Choice, The Devil's Own). Basically Pennsylvania executive Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli) has disappeared, an obscene letter was found in his office, addressed to New York prostitute Bree Daniels (Oscar and Golden Globe winning, and BAFTA nominated Jane Fonda), who had received several similar letters from him. Six months of fruitless police work pass, an executive at Gruneman's company, Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi), hires family friend and detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) to investigate Gruneman's disappearance. Klute rents an apartment in the basement of Daniels' building, taps her phone, and follows her as she visits clients, she appears liberated by the freedom, working as a freelance call girl, but she often visits her Psychiatrist (Vivian Nathan), to talk of the emptiness of her life and that she wants to quit prostitution. Daniels refuses to answer questions that Klute has, he approaches again, revealing that he has been watching her, she does not recall Gruneman, she tells that two years ago one of her clients beat her, she cannot say for sure after seeing a photo of Gruneman. Daniels takes Klute to meet her former pimp, Frank Ligourin (Roy Scheider), he reveals that prostitute Jane McKenna passed the abusive client onto Bree, and also to prostitute Arlyn Page (Dorothy Tristan), McKenna committed suicide and Page turned to drugs and disappeared. Klute and Bree develop a romantic relationship, but she tells her psychiatrist she fears her feelings and wishes would mean her returning to "just feeling numb", she admits to Klute that being watched makes her deeply paranoid. They find Page, she tells that the abusive client was not Gruneman, but an older man, later Page is found dead in the water, Klute deduces the prostitute suicide and Gruneman's disappearance are connected, the abusive client will likely come for Bree next. Klute revisits Gruneman's contacts to find connections with the case, comparing the writing, the obscene letters are traced to Cable, who Klute has been meeting to report on his investigation, Klute asks Cable for $500 to buy the "black book" of the first suicidal prostitute, he is certain the book will reveal the identity of the abusive client. Cable corners Bree, revealing he sent her the letters, explaining that Gruneman interrupted him while he was attacking a prostitute, he attempted to frame Gruneman, and Cable admits to the killings, he also plays an audiotape he made while murdering Page. Cable attacks Bree, Klute rushes in, but it is unclear whether Cable jumped or was pushed out of the window, to his death, in the end, with Klute's help, Bree moves out of her apartment, but a voice-over with her psychiatrist reveals Bree fears domestic life, and it is likely she will return to talk again. Also starring Nathan George as Lieutenant Trask, Rita Gam as Trina, Morris Strassberg as Mr. Goldfarb, Anthony Holland as Actor's Agent, Richard B. Shull as Sugarman, Jean Stapleton as Goldfarb's Secretary and Shirley Stoler as Momma Reese. Sutherland is well suited to playing the gentle small-town detective, but Fonda is indeed the big draw of the film, and deserved her Oscar for the role of the call girl being stalked and unsure what direction to go in, it is a simple story, a hooker who is unsure of the difference between love and sex, she has a connection to a missing man and a homicidal maniac is on the loose, it has a suspenseful atmosphere almost all the way through, it is an interesting crime thriller. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Very good!

LeonLouisRicci Known as Part of the Paranoia Trilogy from Director Pakula, it is perhaps the the Third Tier only because the other Two are so Good; "The Parallax View" (1974) and "All the President's Men" (1976).Jane Fonda (Best Actress Oscar) and Donald Sutherland lead a Good Cast with Roy Scheider and Charles Cioffi contributing to the Film's Mood. Moody it is. Gritty Realism Framed in a Foreboding Feeling of Early 70's NYC with its Counterculture, Drugs, and Freewheeling Philosophies. Pakula knows that there are Villains about, from the High-Rise to the Gutter and They bring with Them an Atmosphere of Dread.Dark in Subject Matter and Visualizations, it's a Creepy Affair using the New Found Freedom of Non-Code Hollywood "Letting it all hang out.". Subjects only Previously Hinted are In Your Face and Central to the Theme. Gripping in its Truth Telling and Combined with a Neo-Noir Style make this one of the more Memorable Offerings in the Time Period. It's a Time when All Hell was Breaking Loose from the Conventional with Expected Degrees of both the Positive and the Negative. This Fine Film Explores both Ends of the Spectrum.

slightlymad22 I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would. Filled with brilliant performances that papers over the slow plodding pace of the movie.Plot In A Paragraph: Following the disappearance of Pennsylvania executive Tom Gruneman. The police reveal that an obscene letter was found in Gruneman's office, addressed to a prostitute in New York City named Bree Daniels (Fonda), who had received several similar letters from him. After six months of police work turns up nothing, Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi), an executive at Gruneman's company, hires family friend and detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) to investigate Gruneman's disappearance.Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland are both excellent here, although for this reviewer it was Roy Scheider as Pimp Frank Ligourin who stood out. I also spotted Teri Garr in an uncredited role as Fonda's Psychiatrist's Receptionist. Sylvester Stallone is also Sylvester Stallone is also uncredited as a Discothèque Patron.