MovieChat Forums > Klute (1971) Discussion > The scene where Jane/Bree breaks down

The scene where Jane/Bree breaks down

posted 10 years ago by PussyCrusher_Principal
3 replies | jump to latest

Has got to be one of the most well performed crying scenes in film history. I'm not an acting expert or critic, just a film fan, so I make no claims to knowing what makes one better than another. I'm always impressed when actors cry, convincingly, on cue, and there are many throughout the 100+years of movies...but when the SNOT comes pouring from her nose like lava from a volcano...wow!

She described what she was thinking during the shot in "And The a Oscar Goes To...", which will be shown on TCM about a hundred times this month, and which inspired me to comment. Check it out if you haven't seen it already.

I wanna find one face that ain't lookin' though me...
I wanna spit in the face of these...Badlands

[–] jootsyfruit 10 years ago

Yeah, you know its a good crying scene when the actress isn't afraid of displaying snot strings. Definitely not pretty crying here, but adds to the realism.

[–] xdayton 10 years ago

Now that I think about it, Pakula directed the two greatest crying scenes in movie history: Fonda's in "Klute" and Streep's in "Sophie's Choice."

[–] EJverh 9 years ago

I agree. And that was unscripted too. She was supposed to act terrified and scared but Fonda said when it was time to do the scene she was listening to the tape of the other girl getting murdered and she found it incredibly sad that she started to cry. So powerful.