Klute

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alan J. Pakula directs. Gordon Willis behind the camera. Michael Small scores. Carl Lerner cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Made its money back 5.0× over at the box office.
• 355 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 4Directed by Alan J. Pakula, shot by Gordon Willis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Michael Small. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Carl Lerner shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland and Charles Cioffi carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "You'd never take her for a call girl. You'd never take him for a cop.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt0067309 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 12 themes, including "new york city", "prostitute", "cat", "obsession".

The technical file

Cinematography

Gordon Willis

Original score

Michael Small

Editing

Carl Lerner

Costume design

Ann Roth

Makeup / hair

Paul McGregor

Runtime

114 min · 1h 54m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$2,500,000

Box office

$12,512,637

Return

501% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Klute (1971) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

92% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

81/100

IMDB rating

7.1/10 · 32,197 votes

MPAA

R

Also by

Alan J. Pakula

• 
  All the President's Men

  1976 · ★ 7.7
• 
  Sophie's Choice

  1982 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Presumed Innocent

  1990 · ★ 6.8
• 
  The Parallax View

  1974 · ★ 6.8
• 
  The Pelican Brief

  1993 · ★ 6.6
• 
  Starting Over

  1979 · ★ 6.4

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  John Questions Bree’s Former Pimp (Clip)

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Original Theatrical Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Katt Shea on KLUTE

  Featurette

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2013-11-16
  ★ 9/10

  Once Bree breezes into Klute’s life, things will never be the same. Klute is directed by Alan J. Pakula and written by Andy and Dave Lewis. It stars Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider. Music is by Michael Small and cinematography by Gordon Willis. When businessman Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli) mysteriously disappears, private detective John Klute (Sutherland) is hired to find out what happened. Travelling to New York, Klute follows a lead to high class prostitute Bree Daniels (Fonda), who is known to have had much correspondence with Gruneman. An uneasy relationship forms between Klute and Daniels, but when it becomes apparent that she is being stalked by someone sinister, Klute gets in far deeper than he ever could have imagined. Alan J. Pakula, a purveyor of 1970s paranoia infused cinema, lends his astute sense of screw tightening to make Klute a taut and menacing neo-noir. He gives us a New York cloaked in urban claustrophobia, a place populated with lost souls, of emotionally stunted abusers, and sexually charged murders. Right in the middle are John and Bree, two people in search of meaning and direction in life, brought together by way of a miserable scenario. Their respective psychological make-ups suggest complexities, yet this chapter in their life is not. The mystery element to the narrative is not particularly strong, but it doesn’t really need to be, such is the strength of the lead characterisations and the atmosphere rung out by Pakula’s sparse direction and Willis’ spectral photography. Fonda is terrific, a ball of emotionally conflicted fudge, sexy, feisty but ever so fragile, she deserved her Academy Award. Sutherland is equally ace, masking John’s inner anxieties with stoic outward bravado. While Scheider and Cioffi offer firm and telling support. A very strong neo-noir that is an ode to great film making techniques, where story and characters are chosen as being more important than visceral shocks. 8.5/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• GU

  Gus Productions

• 

  Warner Bros. Pictures

  US

Key crew

• Set DecorationJohn Mortensen
• ProducerAlan J. Pakula
• Costume DesignAnn Roth
• CastingAlixe Gordin
• EditorCarl Lerner
• Art DirectionGeorge Jenkins
• Executive ProducerC. Kenneth Deland
• Assistant Art DirectorJohn Jay Moore
• Title DesignerArthur Eckstein
• Production AssistantMary Hughes
• HairstylistPaul McGregor
• Co-ProducerDavid Lange
• Camera OperatorMichael Chapman
• Assistant EditorIrene Bowers
• Script SupervisorBarbra Bjorkman
• Makeup ArtistIrving Buchman
• HairdresserBob Grimaldi
• Assistant DirectorWilliam C. Gerrity
• Unit Production ManagerEd Fay
• SoundChris Newman

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• new york city
• prostitute
• cat
• obsession
• audio tape
• detective
• junkie
• pimp
• conspiracy
• psychologist
• whodunit
• missing person

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)1971-06-23R
• Theatrical1971-06-25R

Also known as

International titles

• コールガールJP