“Well, there's this man... and I don't know exactly what he wants out of me, or anything like that. But he took care of me… When you're used to being lonely and somebody comes in...and moves that around, it's sort of scary I guess…I want to...manipulate him. In all the ways that I can manipulate people. I mean, it's easy to manipulate men. Right?”
- Dialogue from ‘Klute’ (1971)
She was never robust, but had a hardness about her, as if Life,
early on, had delivered low blows…. a mother’s suicide, an industry that
celebrated beauty above brains… You could hear it in her sharp delivery, see it
in her curt smiles. Perhaps Jane Fonda’s sublimated pain compelled her – professionally
and personally – to haphazard choices.
We have a sex queen in Barbarella (1968) evolving into a political activist who poses in a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun unit in Hanoi (1972). Just four years apart... Aside from an extremely private pursuit of integrity, she’s to be admired more for diligence than condemned for dreadful photo ops.
It comes as little surprise that her greatest role is of an emotionally
damaged prostitute, striving to escape ‘the life’. The film Klute (1971)
seems tailormade for someone detaching from the corporeal and sliding into a
more cosmic vibe, the world of the mind where people can’t find you. Jane Fonda always hummed with a West Coast 60s
ethos…but never a hippy like brother Peter. There was a drive to escape herself,
to transition the entertainer, the dancing bear, to Citizen Jane, to be taken
seriously, damn it.
And she was. Jane Fonda was redeemed by her resilience. She
never let up. Even her exercise videos attest to a discipline unknown by many. Relaxation
is not in her lexicon. She always had
more angular lines than curves. And it was this emotional awkwardness that
empowered her performances. Her difficulty in expressing compassion and
understanding did indeed look real.
Again, from Klute.“You make a man think that he's accepted. It's all just a great big game to you. You're all obviously too lazy and too warped to do anything meaningful with your life, so you prey upon the sexual fantasies of others. I'm sure it comes as no great surprise to you when I say that...there are little corners in everyone which were better off left alone. Little sicknesses, weaknesses, which should never be exposed. That's your stock in trade, isn't it, a man's weakness? I was never really fully aware of mine...until you brought them out.”
In her best roles, perhaps in her life, Jane Fonda reveals the
difficulty of emotional honesty. And the camera just loves emotional honesty. It’s
so difficult to fake.
#janefonda #klute #donaldsutherland #peterfonda #1960s #cult #film #rogervadim #barbarella #vietnam #film #review #pop #culture