Alan J. Pakula's 1971 movie Klute centers around the investigation by a small-town cop, John Klute, of the disappearance of a missing executive, Tom Gruneman, who is thought to have sent a series of obscene and menacing letters to New York “call girl” Bree Daniels, played by Jane Fonda. The film intercuts Klute's efforts to discover the truth about Gruneman with extracts from recordings of a paid sexual encounter between Bree and Gruneman's killer, and from a session between Bree and her therapist, combining to produce an effect of suspense and surveillance that led to its being thought of as one of Pakula's 'paranoia trilogy' of films, alongside The Parallax View in 1974 and All the President's Men in 1976.

Amelie Hastie's study of Klute challenges the notion of it as a straightforwardly 'Pakula' movie, stressing its making as a collaborative venture between the director, production crew and cast, in particular highlighting Fonda's contribution. She traces Fonda's many public personae - as an actor, political activist, fitness guru, political wife and celebrity - and focuses on the film's complex narrative and visual style, as well as considering it in the wider context of other films by Pakula and Fonda, and of the New Hollywood.