Alan J. Pakula, 1971
Zizek's theory: if you want to know what a horror film is really about, take away the horror element (the killer or the monster) and see what's left. Watching Red Desert, I felt like I was watching a kind of Zizekian horror or thriller film; one without a killer or monster. I had a similar feeling with this one, not because there isn't a killer, but because that part of the story felt so flimsy and inconsequential.
But that doesn't really matter, the film focuses more on a) how these circumstances allow a relationship to develop between sort-of private investigator Klute (Donald Sutherland) and the prostitute who may have once hooked a married man (Jane Fonda) and b) to create a general mood of tension and paranoia. Klute, along with The Parallax View and All The President's Men, constitute what some call Pakula's "paranoia trilogy," and you can certainly see why. Two of the film's early shots -- the ones that introduce us to Sutherland's and Fonda's characters, respectively, are slow tracks a cross groups of people; they very subtly suggest a police lineup -- who are we looking for? Pakula employs a lot of long shots and long takes, especially of Fonda; as a result, she looks vulnerable to some kind of sudden attack. Throughout the film, we see shots that seem to be from the point of view of someone watching her; we don't know if someone is actually there, and if so who it is, ratcheting up the paranoia.
Pakula gets really fine performances out of his actors; Fonda won an Oscar for hers. It's really quite excellent, it traverses very cliched territory (the hard as nails but vulnerable underneath hooker) and makes it something whole and human. I love Sutherland, but manly as a cool older guy. Here he's wonderfully understated, you can tell so much by the way he moves his eyes. Compare this performance with Edward Woodward's in The Wicker Man (one of the few films that can be described as "campy" that I don't really enjoy): I mean, you can tell the guy's a prude, but it's not over the top, it doesn't make you hate him, and you feel there's room for change.
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