HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971, 114min.) 

Linda DeLibero, senior lecturer and special advocate for alumni and outreach, and former director of the JHU film and media studies program

After nearly a decade in film, Fonda's performance in 1969's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? finally earned her a reputation as a serious actress. In her next movie, Klute, her interpretation of call girl Bree Daniels cemented that reputation with what is arguably the best performance of her career. (She won her first Best Actress Oscar for her efforts.) Ostensibly a neo-noir thriller about a small-town private investigator tracking his best friend's killer in the big city, Klute is a landmark film of the 1970s, the first in director Alan Pakula's so-called paranoia trilogy (along with The Parallax View and All the President's Men). All are deep dives into the dark side of American power, here made starkly visual with the shadowy, hard-edged cinematography of the legendary Gordon Willis. Although the movie bears the name of Donald Sutherland's impassive detective, Klute is all about Bree, whose thwarted attempts to leave "the life" in New York and pursue a "normal" relationship with Sutherland reveal the terrible price women pay for a sense of freedom and autonomy. Released at the height of feminism's second wave, the film struck a nerve and was greeted with near-universal acclaim. Fonda's Bree Daniels, with her inimitable shag haircut and thigh-high boots, is one for the ages: tough, intelligent, self-aware, and heartbreakingly vulnerable, she is as fiercely complex as the woman who plays her.  

The summer film series is created in partnership with The Renaissance Institute.

$10 fee for guests or $40 for six films (No fee for ASG/RI members, or ASG subscribers)