Line #21 Film/Klute


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/klute_sutherland_fonda_1971.jpg]]
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3	->''"And what's your bag, [[TitleDrop Klute]]? What do you like? Are you a talker? A button freak? Maybe you like to get your chest walked around with high heeled shoes. Or make 'em watch you tinkle. Or maybe you get off wearing women's clothes. Goddamned hypocrite squares!"''
4	-->-- '''Bree Daniels'''
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6	''Klute'' is a 1971 crime thriller film directed by Creator/AlanJPakula, starring Creator/JaneFonda, Creator/DonaldSutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Creator/RoyScheider.
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8	When Pennsylvania businessman Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli) goes missing, his wife hires John Klute (Sutherland), a family friend and private detective, to find him. The only real lead is some obscene letters Gruneman had allegedly written to Bree Daniels (Fonda), a call girl in New York City who was once high-priced, but after being busted by the police is struggling to make ends meet. Klute tracks down Bree, who reluctantly agrees to help trace Gruneman's whereabouts.
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10	Fonda won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Actress for her performance.
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12	----
13	!!This film contains examples of:
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15	* AllMenArePerverts: Played straight -- Bree describes some of the acts she puts on for clients, and especially played straight with [[spoiler: Peter Cable, the real killer]] -- but also averted, particularly with Klute, to the amusement of Bree:
16	-->'''Bree:''' Men would pay $200 for me, and here you are [[CelibateHero turning down a freebie]]. You could get a perfectly good dishwasher for that.
17	* AloneWithThePsycho: The climax
18	* BerserkButton: Klute freaks when he sees Bree and her pimp at her apartment.
19	* BigApplesauce: Though the film starts out in Pennsylvania, most of it takes place in Manhattan.
20	* BluffingTheMurderer: Klute has figured out that [[spoiler:Peter Cable]] is the killer but has no evidence. So he makes up a story that he's about to acquire an incriminating address book, in order to smoke him out.
21	* ChekhovsGun: The audiotape that plays over the opening credits.
22	* FakeOrgasm: When Bree is with her client early in the movie, during a RevealingHug, we can tell she's faking it.
23	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Subverted at first -- Bree is very cynical about her job -- and then DoublySubverted when she falls in love with Klute.
24	* LastNameBasis: Klute.
25	* MisplacedAccent: InUniverse, Bree affects an Irish accent when auditioning for the role of UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc. The play director [[LampshadeHanging comments]] on how "interesting" her accent is.
26	* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler: Cable]] blames Bree and other prostitutes for his horrific acts, claiming that they preyed on his hidden fantasies that shouldn't have been unlocked.
27	* NeverTrustATitle: The film is named after Klute, but Bree is definitely the main character and focal point.
28	* NoodleIncident: [[spoiler: How exactly Cable Murdered Tom Gruneman, the hooker and covered his tracks remains unknown.]]
29	* PetTheDog: One of Bree's clients is an elderly garment factory owner who's probably only gone on vacation for one week in his life, so all she does is pretend to have just come back from an exotic vacation (which she describes in detail) and let him look at her breasts.
30	* PlatonicProstitution: One of Bree's regular clients is an old man, who just wants companionship from her.
31	* PoliceAreUseless: Played straight at first (which is why Klute gets hired in the first place), but ultimately subverted; Klute works closely with the police once he's in the city.
32	* ReminiscingAboutYourVictims: [[spoiler: Peter Cable does this]]:
33	-->'''[[spoiler: Peter Cable]]:''' I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm so deeply puzzled. I've done terrible things, I've killed three people. Really, I don't consider myself a terrible man, no more than-than others. See, [[spoiler: Tom Gruneman]] had discovered me. We were here on business together and he found me and Jane [=McKenna=] in my hotel room. She had become hysterical and she started screaming and I guess I hit her. I don't actually recall, it all happened so quickly. Anyway, she fell and hit her head and that's when [[spoiler: Tom]] came in the room. I guess he must have heard her screaming. But I never understood really why she... she did that, she had never screamed before. And it was the revulsion and the contempt that I saw in his face. And the certainty that sooner or later he would use it against me within the company. And I tried to endure that as long as I possibly could, you see.
34	* TheQuietOne: Klute.
35	* SecondaryCharacterTitle: Donald Sutherland is billed second, and Bree is clearly the main character in the story.
36	* TheShrink: Bree goes to a therapist, and her sessions are windows on her thinking.
37	* TheStoic: Klute rarely shows emotions or even changes his expression. We see him smile twice in the whole film. This makes the scene where he snaps all the more effective (see BerserkButton above).
38	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler: Cable works out that Tom's searching for an incriminating address book is a ruse to draw him out. But he also notes that the police won't be slow behind to suspect him either and the jig is up.]]
39	* ToplessnessFromTheBack: Provided by Jane Fonda, but verging on FanDisservice as it happens while she's servicing a john.
40	* VehicleVanish: Cable vanishes this way behind a passing bus while chasing Bree in the streets.
41	* WakeUpFighting: Bree, in her strung out state when nursed by Klute.

Context Film / Klute