Before I watched this I was skeptical of Jane Fonda's award winning performance. Playing a prostitute in a murder mystery, how much can anyone do with that beyond the predictable terror and paranoia in the script? But wow, turns out she did a helluva lot.

I'm sure the scene that clinched her win was the chilling climax where the killer is playing the audio recording of her friend's murder while the camera plants a closeup on her for a couple minutes as she starts silently crying. Not just hollywood crying but yucky crying, tears streaming and snot coming out her nose, all the while not a word out of her mouth and really not much reaction otherwise. It's painful in its authenticity.

I had to watch the bonus interviews on that one. She says it wasn't planned. Director Pakula didn't give her any direction, they just set up the shot and let it roll. She says she drew on her research for the film, visiting morgues and seeing body after body of unclaimed prostitute corpses, and her acting in that scene was a genuine unfathomable sadness that she felt for all the victims.

That's exactly how it comes across in the film. Whereas a lesser actor would play the scene with fear, with a predictable portrayal of panicked self-preservation, Fonda took the scene and the entire film to a deeper level. It's not just about a prostitute being stalked by a killer, but suddenly it becomes about the much wider and unfortunately still applicable theme of violent misogyny - the killer isn't just 1 sexual deviant preying on easy targets.

I thought it was brilliant, not only in that scene but throughout the movie, that Fonda decided to play the role not as a terrified victim but almost like an objective observer lamenting the state of the things. Apparently that was totally her artistic contribution without any direction or prodding. Pakula pulled off a masterpiece of cinematography and ambiance while Fonda filled it with a great performance.