Your source for film reviews, news, new and popular cinema, classic films, art house films, silent films, film noir, action movies, obscure films, documentaries, horror films, cult films, anime and animated films, Criterion films--if it's a movie you'll find it all here. I made this blog for those who believe that film is a legitimate art form and seek others to share their passion for cinema with. I update this page daily with fresh film reviews and essays.
This is a plot summary of director Alfred Hitchcock's film 'Rope'.
Lifeboat is a 1944 survival drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on the book of the same name by John Steinbeck. When an American Merchant Marine ship bound for London and a German U-boat destroy each other, the survivors must find a way to survive in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.
Materialism, racism, elitism, and distrust are among the themes in this film. Like his 1948 film ‘Rope,’ Hitchcock’s Lifeboat uses a minimal number of elements—a boat, the ocean, and the sky. The lifeboat and its relative size against and between the ocean and the sky is a microcosm of planet Earth and the universe.
Summary:
In the Pacific ocean during World War II, an American merchant ship and a German U-boat torpedo each other and sink to the bottom of the ocean. Photographer Constance Porter (Tallulah Bankhead) is the 1st survivor in the lifeboat. She looks elegant and civilized in her fur coat applying lipstick. She takes out her camera to shoot footage of the debris around the boat. She films Kovac (John Hodiak), an engine mechanic on the ship, then helps him into the boat. Kovac, inadvertently knocks Connie’s camera out of her hands and into the ocean.
One by one, they pull survivors out of the ocean:
Sparks, the ship’s radio operator (Hume Cronyn)
Army nurse Alice Mackenzie (Mary Anderson)
Industrialist C.J. Rittenhouse (Henry Hull)
German U-boat Captain, Wili (Walter Slezak)
Joe (Canada Lee) swims to the boat with a young woman and her baby. When the ship sank, Mrs. Higley (Heather Angel) tried to drown her baby but Joe stopped her. Joe is black and Connie addresses him as Charcoal. Gus Smith, (William Bendix) who is German American, has a badly injured leg.
The survivors of the ship argue as to whether or not to throw the German overboard. Kovac is a Czechoslovakian and wants to kill the German but C.J. Ritt believes that they should treat the German as a POW and they keep him in the boat.
Mrs. Higley’s baby is dead and when she falls asleep they put the child into the ocean. Upon waking to find her child gone, Mrs. Higley goes overboard the following night while everyone’s asleep.
Their compass is broken and no one knows how to get to Bermuda. Kovac takes command of the boat. Wili has a compass but doesn’t tell them. Kovac accidentally knocks Connie’s Scandinavian typewriter overboard.
Gangrene has set in Gus’s right leg. Wili advises them to amputate the leg but Gus is fearful of losing Rosie, his girlfriend back home who likes to dance. Rosie’s a slut. Kovac knows this because he introduced her to Gus. Gus defends her and becomes angry with Kovac. The German is also a surgeon and Gus consents to the amputation. A storm blows in and when it leaves Gus’ right leg is gone.
Earlier, Wili told them how to get to Bermuda but Sparks suspects foul play. When Wili falls asleep, Joe frisks Wili and finds a working pocket watch despite the fact that Wili asked Connie for the time earlier. They wake Wili up but a strong storm takes control of the boat. Wili yells out commands in english! Water rushes into the boat. Connie loses her suitcase. The boat loses its sail.
By the time the storm passes, Wili has taken over the lifeboat and is at the oars rowing and singing. Everyone is laying around limp and exhausted. Mr. Ritt is blowing the flute. Sparks and Ms. Mackenzie are lying side-by-side smiling at each other; Connie and Kovac are doing the same.
All of their food and water are gone. And all of the elegance and dignity are gone now for Connie. Her hair is down and all of her makeup is washed off. Kovac's exposed torso is covered with tattoos and now, equalized by the storm, they both look like they’re from the lower end of Chicago.
They need water and it rains, but not enough. Gus is delirious with thirst and worries out loud about his Rosie and whether she will accept him with only 1 leg. When no one is looking, Wili pulls a flask of water from his coat and steals a sip. Gus sees Wili drinking the water and Wili pushes him out of the boat. Later, Willi admits to pushing Gus out of the boat to put him out of his misery. Joe pulls the container of water from Wili’s coat. They gang up on Willi and throw him overboard. Now, they have no ‘motor’ as Wili was the only person strong enough to row the boat. Worst of all, they have no compass!
They need food and water. Connie takes off her diamond bracelet and gives it to Kovac to use as bait to catch a fish. Joe spots a ship and cries out. Everyone forgets the line, the fish, and Connie’s diamond bracelet.
The ship turns out to be an enemy ship. However, an American ship destroys the enemy ship and they’re saved! A German soldier survives the attack and they pull him into the lifeboat. No one trusts the German but Connie sees his injuries and wants to help him despite Ritt’s warning not to do so. As they argue back and forth, the German draws a pistol but Joe knocks the gun loose. The German asks them if they are going to kill him. The end.
An analysis of themes from Alfred Hitchcock's film 'Lifeboat'
Lifeboat is a 1944 film by directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck and stars Tallulah Bankhead, Hume Cronyn, John Kodiak, William Bendix, and Canada Lee as Joe the porter. The entire film takes place in a lifeboat. Its passengers are stranded in the North Atlantic Ocean after their ship and a German U-boat exchange torpedoes and both sink to the bottom of the ocean. The plot of the film focuses on the divisions of the members of the boat and how those divisions are magnified under stress. In this analysis, I will look at the following divisions and how they are illustrated by the way those in the lifeboat interact with each other:
Stereotypes
Class
and national divisions
Other themes I will also look at are loss, spiritual disconnection, and true happiness.
Divisions
Stereotypes
At 55:25:00 on the DVD, Joe is stereotyped as a thief and ordered to frisk Wili’s pockets while he is asleep
Throughout the entire film, Connie's favorite phrase is “Some of my best friends are…” a phrase with historical racist implications
Class
At 26:40 into the film, Ritt, who is a ship builder, assumes command of the boat by privilege even though he knows nothing about sea navigation. No one on the boat feels worthy of taking command even though all of them are equal since they have no compass (Joe is left out of this discussion). Sparks recommends Kovac but Connie is against the idea of an oil man being captain
Connie calls Joe, the black man, charcoal
Throughout the movie, Connie’s favorite phrase is “Why, some of my best friends are…”
The irony of the film is that Connie pretends to be upper class but she is actually from the packing house section of Chicago like Kovac, or as she refers to it, the gutter. She was low-class but worked her way “up” by bartering her soul and marrying her way up the ladder. Each item she loses represents each of those marriages—the typewriter, the silk stocking, the fur coat, the suitcase, and especially the diamond bracelet that started it all. At 1:06:00 on the DVD, she tells all of this to Kovac. This is also why she tells him that the bracelet got her out of the gutter. Wearing the bracelet put her in the class with the men she used to move out of the gutter, fooling them into believing that she was in their class. What is also ironic about this scene is that Kovac has principals. Even though he is just an oilman and is from Chicago’s South Side, he refuses to lower himself for a woman the likes of Connie, bracelet or no bracelet. She feels lowered by his rejection which places him above her; this is written all over her face as Wili fixes the clasp on her bracelet, the clasp that was broken by Kovac’s rejection of her.
At 1:19:52 on the DVD, Ritt and Kovac play a game of poker to pass the time. Their contest represents labor versus management. Kovac, who maintains his integrity throughout the film, —especially by not falling for Connie and symbolically compromising his soul to move up in class and also at the beginning of the film where he returns a $20.00 bill to Ritt that he found floating with the debris— seems to win every hand. When Ritt finally gets a winning hand, 4 deuces, Connie, who’s looking over Kovac’s shoulder: “Looks like you’ve stepped out of your class this time,” she says to Kovac before the wind blows the winning cards out of Ritt’s hand. The dynamics of class are switched with Kovac playing the upper class and Ritt, the poor underclass who, no matter what, seems born to lose. And like those crushed on the bottom of society, Ritt becomes angry and violent. Ritt speaks for the underclasses in this exchange:
Kovac: “I had a full house!”
Ritt: “And I had four deuces!”
Kovac: “How do I know you had four deuces?”
Ritt: “You ought to know. You made the cards, didn’t you? And you marked ‘em, too! They are crooked, and you are crooked!”
Ethnic
Gus’s original surname is Schmidt but out of shame for his German heritage, changes it to Smith
Loss
Everyone in the boat loses what they love the most:
Mrs. Higley loses her child and her own life when she jumps overboard
Right at the beginning of the film, Connie loses her camera, then her typewriter, silk stockings, fur coat. Later, she loses her luggage
Businessman C.J. Rittenhouse loses the poker game he was involved in on the boat that got sunk. On the lifeboat, he loses 6 boxes of cigars. He loses the winning hand in a poker game with Kovac when a strong wind blows the cards out of his hand
Ashamed of his German heritage, Gus changes his name from Schmidt to Smith. He loses his right leg to gangrene and he loses his promiscuous girlfriend named Rosie who loves dancing and who, he feels, won’t accept him with 1 leg
Spiritual disconnection
Everyone in the boat is seeking his and her own idea of happiness, happiness defined by things. All of these lies are like Wili, the German enemy, rowing them towards eventual ruin. This disconnection from spiritual happiness, or God, is also illustrated by Ritt’s inability to recite the 23rd Psalm. But Joe’s connection with God is evident when he takes up the prayer from Ritt and recites it with ease. Another metaphor for spiritual disconnection and unhappiness is the broken compass which is ‘the way’ to God and happiness. Also, everyone in the boat puts all of their trust and faith in people and things. At 1:24:00 into the film Ritt laments: “When we killed the German we killed our motor,” but Joe counters by saying, “No. We still got a motor” as he looks up to the sky. So, in addition to loss, the film’s other themes are man’s disconnection from God and attachment to things outside of God.
Man defined by things
Ritt, the oilman, defines himself by his wealth
Gus Smith defines himself by his dancing ability
Connie defines herself by her typewriter, her camera, her fur coat, but most of all, she defines herself by her diamond bracelet which represents the upper class, her heart, and the bait she uses to hook up with other men
Will defines himself by his strength and superior intelligence
Kovac has his principles which Connie spends a great deal of energy trying to get him to compromise
Man’s faith in things
Ritt has faith in his money
Connie’s faith is in her diamond bracelet or her ability to seduce men
Wili, the German, has faith in his strength and intelligence
Gus Smith has faith in his legs and dancing ability
Having no compass, everyone puts their faith in Wili’s ability to get the boat to Bermuda
Joe, who is black, is the only person on the boat connected to God and the only person who puts all his faith in God.
True happiness
Of all the people in the Lifeboat, Joe is the only person who is married, has a family and seems to live a moral decent life. He has very little financially working as the ship’s porter but he seems happy and content. By contrast, the others on the boat seem unhappy and are involved in empty and dysfunctional relationships without love or real happiness:
The women
Ms. Mackenzie is in an affair with a married man in London
Connie’s self-worth is tied to her diamond bracelet (her identitification with society's upper class and her charms which she uses as bait). She marries men for money and as soon as she sees a better man or opportunity to advance herself she dumps the one she’s with
Mrs. Higley is the exception because she has a baby, something real that she can love. When the child drowns, Mrs. Higley jumps overboard
The Men
Sparks, a merchant ship radio operator, lives under the constant threat of being torpedoed by German U-boats
Gus is in a relationship with a promiscuous woman named Rosie who loves to go out and dance. He’s afraid that she won’t want him after he loses his right leg to gangrene and he has good reason to feel this way because of her past and the fact that Kovac knew her before when she dated another guy whom she maintains contact with
Kovac wears the names of all the women that left him tattooed on his body. One of these names is bigger than the others and stands out, most likely the one that broke his heart. This is why he hates Connie’s bracelet because he knows that some man who loved her gave it to her and she dumped him.
What it all really boils down to
Food and water—when the storm washes away everything, these are all that matter. In the end it’s about survival. Connie before the storm is civil and humane, especially when it comes to how they treat the German Wili. But after days with no food or water, she becomes violent. Anybody is capable of anything under the right circumstances. Without the bare essentials, none of the luxuries she values before the storm matters except the diamond bracelet and later she uses it as bait to fish with.
The deeper meaning of her using the bracelet to catch fish is that she told Kovac that she used the bracelet to marry up in class. When Connie hands the bracelet to Kovac, he smiles because she is also giving up what she uses to bait and deceive men with and also giving him her heart. The bracelet is also a reminder to him of deception because of what she did to get it. But as soon as Joe spots a ship, she drops the fish, or Kovac, for a bigger fish and as a result loses her bracelet and the fish. The ship turns out to be a German supply ship but it is destroyed by a U.S. Navy battleship. The enemy ship blowing up is an omen of some inevitable disaster somewhere down the line with those other men. But God shows her grace and destroys the ship to warn her that going after the bigger fish could result in not only winding up with no fish but could also result in her losing her life!
The appearance of the young German soldier at the end of the film represents a test for Connie. Did she learn from Wili, the German who misled them earlier? The young, wounded German is yet another man playing on Connie’s weaknesses and lusts. Mr. Ritt—the oldest person on the boat— who represents experience even asks her whether she’d learned from Wili. The soldier finally draws his gun and once again Connie faces certain destruction. But once again, God shows his grace and saves her through Joe who knocks the gun out of the German’s hand!
Why you should watch the anime version of 'Ghost in the Shell' before watching the live action version of the film starring Scarlett Johansson.
Honestly, special effects have surpassed anime which is why anime cooled down considerably around 2005. I'm not too excited about seeing the upcoming live-action Ghost In The Shell because, more than likely, the 'Japan' DNA of it will be removed. I believe Johansson will be great, but the level of sophistication and intelligence the anime is known for was never meant to appeal to mass audiences. American films come fully-assembled meaning they don't require any participation from the viewer at all because they're dumbed down to the level of your average 6 year old. The original GITS and those following it require that you have a basic knowledge of religion, politics, philosophy, and science. This is what has made anime stand apart from western animation and live action films. If you watch the original GITS they could almost be considered boring in that there isn't nowhere near the amount of action you're accustomed to seeing in American films where something's got to be blowing up every 5 minutes or some other attention-grabbing element has to be employed to keep our dumbed-down film audiences from nodding off such as gratuitous sex or comedy relief. So no, I'm not all that excited about seeing the GITS live action film although I probably will if the reviews aren't too bad.
This is a scene by scene analysis of 'Klute' starring Jane Fonda
This is a plot and scene analysis of 'Klute' that you can follow along with your DVD or Blu ray copy of this film. In the meantime, enjoy this clip.
Title 4 (00:09-12:02) (11:53) Stop after john pays Bree and wide scene of them on sofa
Summary
The film begins in the Pennsylvania home of business executive Tom Grunemann. He and his wife are hosting a dinner with invited friends including police detective John Klute and Peter Cable who is also an executive at the company that Tom works for. The atmosphere is very casual. Tom and his wife are at opposite ends of the dinner table smiling at each other.
The following scene begins at the same dinner where 2 detectives interview Mrs. Grunemann concerning her missing husband. Klute is present as he and Tom were good friends. There were no signs preceding Tom’s disappearance as he and his wife were very happy. The cops produce a letter they found in Tom Grunemann’s desk at the plant, an obscene letter to a New York call girl. The letter is 1 of 7 letters they found in his desk addressed to the New York call girl named Bree Daniels.
In the next scene, a tape recorder plays a conversation between Peter Cable and call girl Bree Daniels.
Following the titles, the scene opens in Manhattan, New York at a casting call for a television commercial. One by 1, the casting director and his assistant send the models home, including Bree Daniels. She leaves the casting call and goes to a hotel to turn a trick with a john in town from Chicago.
Analysis
The opening of the film sets the stage for the Jeckyl and Hyde personalities of call girl Bree Daniels and the killer Peter Cable. There is nothing at the dinner table to indicate anything unusual about Peter Cable at all. The large window in the background shows a garden and allows the sun to brighten the room and faces around the dinner table.
The following scene opens at the same table but it is shot at night and the window in the background is dark. The time of day in both of these scenes are contrasted as a metaphor for Bree and Cable who are both actors in this film, pretending to be people they aren’t and hiding dark secrets.
In the opening titles, Cable plays a tape recording of Bree trying to get him to relax. Her words on the tape explains how she brought out Cable’s dark side:
Bree: “Would you mind if I take my sweater off? I think that in the confine’s of one’s home one should be free of inhibitions…”
“You mustn’t be ashamed, you know, there’s nothing wrong. Nothing is wrong.”
Where there are no rules or laws, there are only animals. We are capable of anything under the right circumstances. But rules, norms, discipline, and penalties keeps us civilized toward one another. Bree’s 1st statement on the tape provides the key to freeing Cable’s dark side because she is actually telling him that he could act out his repressed desires at night, in private, when no one is looking. Her 2nd statement on the tape gives Cable the moral justification to rationalize killing the prostitutes who, he later says, brought out his dark nature.
After the opening titles, Bree reacts from being turned down for an acting part by manipulating a john out of $100.00. Her dream is to be an actress, to pretend she’s something that she isn’t, and acts out this desire to manipulate others on her johns. The john is very timid but she gets him to tell her what he wants by creating an atmosphere that makes him relaxed and not ashamed. Then, she brings him back down to earth by letting him know that all of her charms—her smile, discretion, interest—are an act when she asks the john for payment up front. The john’s face goes from total bliss to disappointment. You get the sense that she gets her kicks from manipulating the john this way because it validates her acting abilities.
Title 9 (21:25—24:10) (3:15) Stop after Bree says “It’s just so silly to think that somebody can help anybody, isn’t it?” to her therapist.
Summary
Bree explains to her therapist why she likes turning tricks with johns over acting, how they are similar and, at the same time, different from each other.
Analysis
Bree tells her therapist that she isn’t getting anything from the sessions and can no longer afford them. The therapist is Bree in this encounter, a paid comforter providing no real warmth. Bree tells the therapist that acting with johns protects her because she doesn’t have to feel anything for them. This explains her anger towards Klute later. He coaxes feelings out of her like she does with her johns. But Klute really cares for Bree. Her last words in this scene are ironic: “It’s just so silly to think that somebody can help anybody, isn’t it?” These words are ironic because Klute helps her.
Title 12 (31:01-37:41) (6:40) Stop after Bree says “You could get a perfectly good dishwasher for that.”
Summary
Klute blackmails Bree. He tapped her phone and has recordings of her and her johns. He offers to barter the tapes in exchange for information on Tom Grunemann. She has had so many johns over the years that she can’t remember if she’d dated Grunemann or not. She makes an attempt to seduce him for the tapes but she is unsuccessful in doing so.
Analysis
This scene shows just how disconnected Bree is from the johns she’s slept with. She d a john who beat her up and she can’t remember his face. This also explains why she is pursuing an acting career which is a way of distancing herself from emotions that might dredge up painful memories.
Title 15 (47:57—58:49)(10:52) Stop after they make love and she taunts him saying “Don’t feel bad ‘cause you lost your virginity. Everybody always does.”
Summary
Bree auditions for a part but doesn’t get it. Afterwards, she and Klute go out for lunch and she agrees to help him find a prostitute named Arlyn Page who was assaulted by the man believed to be Tom Grunemann. They stop by a penthouse to question a madam Arlyn worked for. But Arlyn had a heroin habit, the madam told them, and had to be let go. They stop by a nightspot to question a lesbian Arlyn used to date but the lesbian had no knowledge of Arlyn’s whereabouts. They go by the police station’s morgue to check pictures of deceased women with no luck. Finally, they return to the apartment. Klute asks Klute if she can spend the night in his apartment because she hears noise in her own apartment. They make love.
Analysis
Bree doesn’t get the part because she is incapable of putting her real feelings into the role. Therefore, she’s just faking it and her phoniness is obvious including her fake Irish accent. The irony is that when she is acting with her johns she comes across as real and they actually buy into her performance.
When she shows up at Klute’s apartment, she is not faking her feelings; she is afraid. To make up for not getting the part she auditioned for earlier, and for allowing herself to feel safe with Klute, she makes love to Klute, not out of desire or pleasure for showing him her real self. She taunts him for not making her have an orgasm. Bree is so accustomed to manipulating the feelings of others that she suspects others of doing the same to her.
Title 19 (1:02:56—1:10:20) (7:24) Stop after Klute and Bree embrace
Summary
Bree and Klute find Arlyn Page and her boyfriend who are both junkies and strung out. Bree returns to Frank—her old pimp—in his nightclub and he gives her heroin.
Klute stops by a high-rise office building to report his investigation to Peter Cable. Cable pretends that he’s pleased but he isn’t. When Klute leaves, Cable plays a tape recorded conversation of himself and Bree on the night he beat her.
Klute stops by Bree’s apartment. The heroin has her strung out and her place is a mess. He stays with her and helps her come down off the drugs in her system.
Analysis
Bree is a human being despite the cold front she puts up to the world. And when she feels vulnerable she throws up a wall which is why she returns to Frank every time she shows Klute her unpretty side. She also uses heroin to numb herself to Klute. He sees Bree as she really is, the person and not the actor. He sees her worst and still he accepts her. By contrast, she is rejected by every acting agency which also explains her distrust for Klute, the fact that he accepts her and they don’t.
Like Bree, Peter Cable is also an actor. His image is the opposite of someone responsible for murdering prostitutes. This is why he doesn’t become a suspect until the end of the film. At the beginning of the film, he blends in with everyone at the dinner table.
Title 24 (1:18:47—1:25:31) (6:44) Stop at “Let it all hang out, you know, to do it all and fuck it.”
Summary
Bree is talking to her therapist and explaining the changes that Klute is bringing into her life. Later, she and Klute return to her apartment and find it trashed.
Analysis
Bree is being herself with Klute and allowing herself to enjoy sex which she numbs herself from enjoying with johns.
She tells her therapist that she becomes angry at Klute for making her feel because she needs a certain distance to do her job. Klute is putting her back in touch with herself.
And he is close to identifying the killer. Peter Cable, like Bree, became violent when Bree got him to let go of his inhibitions. He blames Bree for his violent tendencies.
Title 27 (1:30:53—1:34:45) (3:53) Stop at “I’ll have her call you as soon as she gets home. I promise.”
Summary
Bree returns to her pimp. Klute beats up the pimp. Bree stabs Klute with a pair of scissors and he leaves. After this incident, Bree stops by to see her therapist who is unavailable.
Analysis
Again, Bree is put a situation where she feels vulnerable and returns to her pimp, Frank, to distance herself from Klute who also makes her feel vulnerable. Like she told her therapist, when she feels vulnerable she becomes angry with Klute. When she stabs Klute with the scissors this shows that anyone is capable of anything under the right circumstances. This incident shows how Bree helped bring out the killer in Peter Cable. The recording of her urging him to let go of his inhibitions was the beginning.
Title 32 (1:43:46—1:51:55) (8:09) Stop after she says “I’d go out of my mind.”
Summary
Peter Cable comes face to face with Bree Daniels. He admits to murdering Tom Grunemann and the 2 prostitutes, Arlyn Page and Jane McKenna. He blames the murders on Bree for exposing his weaknesses. He plays a recording he’d made of him speaking with Arlyn Page and killing her. Then, he stops the recording and attacks Bree but Klute comes to her rescue. Cable jumps out of the window.
Bree moves out of her apartment.
Analysis
Peter Cable confronts his weaknesses and attacks the person he feels is responsible for exposing them like how Bree attacks Klute for bringing out her weaknesses. Later, Bree moves out of her apartment suggesting that she may also be leaving acting and prostitution behind.
This is a plot summary of director Alan Pakula's film 'Klute'.
This is a film summary of 1971's 'Klute,' one of my favorite films from my favorite decade.
'Klute' directed by Alan Pakula
A Pennsylvania executive named Tom Grunemann vanishes. His wife and friends are left with no clues except for obscene letters he sent to a New York prostitute named Bree Daniels.
Bree is rejected at a casting call. Later, she meets an out of town john at his hotel room. The client is shy but Bree gets him to relax and open up. She returns to her apartment and someone calls her breathing without identifying himself.
Peter Cable hires a cop named John Klute to investigate Grunemann’s disappearance, to go to New York and question Bree Daniels who is the last person to correspond with the executive who is also suspected of murdering 2 prostitutes.
Klute rents the basement of the apartment where Bree lives. He taps her phone and records a number of her transactions. He blackmails Bree with tapes he recorded off her phone. He shows her a picture of Grunemann but she has had so many johns that she can’t recall his face. But she does remember the john that beat her, a john her pimp named Frank set her up with. A john referred to Frank by a jealous whore named Jane McKenna who is now dead. But there is another whore named Arlyn Page who also dated the abusive john. Klute and Bree visit a madam Arlyn worked for but, according to the woman, Arlyn is a junkie and has fallen off the map.
Bree continues to get ‘breather calls.’ She shows up at Klute’s apartment afraid and he lets her sleep at his place. In the middle of the night, they make love.
Klute and Bree find Arlyn and her junkie boyfriend in a room in a rundown neighborhood waiting for a drug delivery. But when Cappie sees Klute and Bree, he becomes spooked and runs away leaving Arlyn and her boyfriend miserable. In a high-rise office, Peter cable plays a tape he’d recorded of him and one of the dead prostitutes.
To Klute’s dismay, Bree returns to her old pimp and relapses back to her drug habit. Klute finds her later at her place. She is strung out and her apartment is a mess. He straightens up her apartment and watches over her until she gets all of the dope out of her system.
The police fish Arlene’s corpse out of the harbor. Klute rules out Grunemann. He now believes the killer is someone close to Grunemman. And the only person who can identify the killer is Bree. With Arlyn dead, Klute keeps tabs on Klute’s comings and goings. He tells her he worries about her. Bree tells her therapist that she met a guy who is making her feel again.
Klute and Bree pick over produce at a farmer’s market. Later, they return to her apartment and find it in shambles. Someone cut up all of her clothes and came in a pair of her panties. Bree moves in with Klute.
Klute and the police analyze the typed letters of everyone involved with the case, including Klute’s. But the only typed letters matching the style of Grunemann’s letters are those belonging to Peter Cable. Klute baits Cable with a lie, asking him for $500.00 dollars to buy Jane McKenna’s address book. The book contains all of her johns and possibly the DNA of the john who broke into Bree’s apartment and left semen in a pair of her panties.
Feeling vulnerable again, Bree returns to Frank. Klute attacks Frank and Bree stabs Klute with a pair of scissors. Klute is able to avoid being stabbed and leaves Bree’s apartment. She comes to her senses and goes to see her therapist who isn’t available. Bree is desperate for someone to talk with.
Peter Cable cancels his scheduled flight to Pennsylvania to find Bree who has Jane McKenna’s address book. Klute finds out about Cable’s cancelled flight and searches for Bree.
She stops by the garment factory to talk to Mr. Goldfarb who left money for Bree with his secretary.
Bree waits for Goldfarb at the empty plant, unaware that Cable is also there. He reveals himself and confesses to murdering Jane McKenna, Arlyn Page, and Tom Grunemann. Grunemann caught him red-handed after he’d beaten Jane McKenna. Cable killed Grunemann to keep him from reporting the beating.
Cable accuses Bree of bringing out his sickness. He plays a tape recording of him torturing Arlyn Page. When the tape stops, he attacks Bree, chokes her, but Klute appears. Cable jumps through a plate glass window and falls to his death. Bree moves out of her apartment and leaves New York.
Klute is a 1971 crime thriller directed by Alan Pakula and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and Roy Schneider. Detective John Klute is hired to investigate the disappearance of Tom Grunemannn who is connected with the deaths of 2 New York prostitutes. The only clues to Grunemman’s disappearance are letters he sent to a New York call girl named Bree Daniels who also had contact with the man responsible for murdering the prostitutes connected with Grunemann’s disappearance. Bree is an aspiring actress who also suffers from insomnia because of a john that beat her a couple of years ago. She is also an expert at catering to men’s darkest fantasies. Not until she meets Klute does she realize that she also has a dark side and the closer Klute gets to her the blurrier the line between Bree and Peter Cable, the murderer, becomes.
Acting
Bree Daniels, like Peter Cable, is an actor, hiding her true self behind a fabricated image.
Why Bree Daniels wants to be an actress
To protect herself from feeling and being hurt
She’s insecure with who she really is
Having power of others’ feelings and perceptions makes her feel powerful
She can’t remember the john that attacked her because she doesn’t want to experience or ‘feel’ the incident again. Acting is a metaphor of how she distances her emotions in relationships with men.
Why Bree feels uncomfortable with Klute
He sees who she really is, without her makeup and phony confidence. He sees her afraid, vulnerable, weak, and insecure
Why Bree can’t land an acting job
She can’t get an acting job because she shuts down her emotions when others are in control. But she is a great actress when she is in control of the situations such as when she caters to the fantasies of her johns.
Peter Cable
Like Bree, Peter is also an actor who hides behind a make believe image. This is why the film reveals him as the killer early on and also why he doesn’t become a suspect until the end of the film. As a business executive, Cable is rational, professional, stable. Most of all, his decent image doesn’t match that of a maniac killing prostitutes.
Bree shows her dark side
Fear
Underneath all the numbness, Bree is a human being and whenever she shows this side of herself she throws up a wall between her and Klute. This explains why she returns to Frank who represents a barrier of protection between feelings and those who can potentially hurt her. And this also explains why she uses heroin to hide feelings.
Bree is frightened by the feelings Klute brings out of her, weaknesses she is used to exposing in her clients.
Anger
Bree tells her therapist that she becomes angry at Klute for making her feel. This is why she stabs Klute with scissors. Cable’s anger comes out the same way. At the end of the film, he accuses Bree and the other whores of exposing his fantasies and weaknesses. “I was never fully aware of mine (his moral weaknesses), until you brought them out,” he tells her.
Letting go of Inhibitions
Bree gets Cable to free his moral inhibitions and brings out his murderous tendencies. She does this by pretending that she cares about him the way she pretends to care about the commuter in the hotel:
She asks the commuter what he wants and he whispers it in her ear, too shy to say it out loud. We never get to know what he wants but she says with a smile “That sounds fantastic.”
But when she stops to ask him for payment upfront, the commuter’s face changes to disappointment because he knows that Bree is only acting
Klute gets Bree to reveal her real self by simply caring for her. She needed someplace to sleep and he let her sleep at his place; he protects her; he accepts her despite her being a prostitute; he doesn’t judge her; he helps her kick her drug habit; he doesn’t leave her when she insults him and leaves him to run back to Frank twice!
In real life, people sometimes become violent when they find out that their partner or spouse is unfaithful. The person who opened themselves up feels deceived, tricked into believing something false. This is also an analogy explaining Peter Cable’s actions and Bree’s hostility towards Klute. Bree got Cable to show his dark side to her even though she cared nothing for him; on the other hand, Klute gets Bree to open up but unlike her his concern and feelings are real and in her world real concern is just part of the “hustle.”
Money can’t buy love or friendship
Having gotten by by acting, Bree has no one she can talk to and be herself with. Neither her paid therapist nor her favorite john are available when she really needs them. In the end, it is Klute who saves her from Peter Cable.
