Tag: Klute

  • This Surveillance Thriller Is Peak Francis Ford Coppola

    This Surveillance Thriller Is Peak Francis Ford Coppola

    Francis Ford Coppola’s unhinged conspiracy masterpiece The Conversation was first released in 1974. The film was riding on the wave of the cultural Zeitgeist at the time, which was highly critical of government corruption after Watergate, The Pentagon Papers, and the failure of the Vietnam War. Numerous films from the period captivated this critical and…

  • This ’70s Paranoid Thriller Is Also a Benchmark Detective Mystery

    This ’70s Paranoid Thriller Is Also a Benchmark Detective Mystery

    Some films arrive in cinemas poised to break serious ground. Alan J. Pakula’s Klute is one such film. Elegant in its storytelling, smooth is its shot composition, and in essence, quintessentially cool, the crafty director’s second movie may be the finest detective thriller of its time. Sensational genre flicks arrived before and after its 1971…

  • ‘Rocky’: The Story Behind the Rights to Sylvester Stallone’s Knockout Hit

    ‘Rocky’: The Story Behind the Rights to Sylvester Stallone’s Knockout Hit

    The year is 1975, and Sylvester Stallone is a struggling young actor who is barely making ends meet financially, and he’s sure he has an amazing script that he’s written about a heavyweight southpaw from Philadelphia who goes by the name Robert “Rocky” Balboa. The actor had appeared in a number of uncredited roles in…

  • Klute at 50: a thriller less interested in a killer and more in character

    Klute at 50: a thriller less interested in a killer and more in character

    Jane Fonda gives a commanding performance in a film that avoids cliche and embraces a more nuanced view of sex workThere’s a version of Klute that sounds exactly like one of the generic sexy thrillers that popped up on video in the wake of Basic Instinct in the late 1990s. A high-priced call girl stalked…

  • Lee Wallace, Actor in ‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’ and ‘Batman,’ Dies at 90

    Lee Wallace, Actor in ‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’ and ‘Batman,’ Dies at 90

    Lee Wallace, the Ed Koch look-alike who coincidentally or not played mayors in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and Tim Burton’s Batman, died Sunday in New York after a long illness, his family announced. He was 90.Wallace also appeared in other notable films including Klute (1971), The Hot Rock (1972), The Happy Hooker…

  • Alixe Gordin Dies: ‘Scarface’, ‘Klute’ Casting Director Was 96

    Alixe Gordin Dies: ‘Scarface’, ‘Klute’ Casting Director Was 96

    Award-winning casting director Alixe Gordin died at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts on November 28. She was 96. Additional details about her death were not revealed.Born Alixe Glas on April 10, 1922 in Dayton, Ohio, she took her stage name Gordin when she started performing as a musician and an actor. She got into casting…

  • Can ‘Book Club’s’ Star Power Lure Older Moviegoers From ‘Deadpool 2’?

    Can ‘Book Club’s’ Star Power Lure Older Moviegoers From ‘Deadpool 2’?

    Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen were some of the most seductive stars of the 1970s, with boundary-pushing fare like “Klute,” “Barbarella,” and “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice” winning critical acclaim and filling theaters.Five decades later, the question is whether their fanbase will turn for the decidedly more commercial “Book Club,” set to open…

  • Emily Blunt, Sandra Bullock, Dave Chappelle & Jane Fonda Join Oscars

    Emily Blunt, Sandra Bullock, Dave Chappelle & Jane Fonda Join Oscars

    Emily Blunt, Sandra Bullock, Dave Chappelle and Jane Fonda are among the latest batch of stars to present at this weekend’s 90th Oscars telecast. The Girl On A Train star, Ocean’s 8 actress, stand-up comedian and Fonda, who won an Oscar for her controversial performance in 1972’s Klute, will be joined by Eugenio Derbez, Ansel…