RIP Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton died on October 11 at the age of 79.
She aged so gracefully that she hardly seemed to age at all, although she apparently eschewed cosmetic surgery and the like. She was so vibrant and her smile so charming that it seemed odd of her to die; out of character, a case of miscasting. Plus, no illness had ever been announced, a fact which compounded the shock although it’s now reported that she had been ill for months.
The word “quirky” seemed to have been invented for Keaton. But she was a great deal more than that. She was an excellent actress, a stalwart friend, a dog lover, a photographer, a mother of two children she adopted after the age of fifty, and a person of unique style.
The movie that made her famous, Annie Hall, was based on her personality. It was a sort of belated love letter from Woody Allen, and very funny:
Keaton seemed like that rarity: an actress who was very much herself in interviews, self-deprecating, and tremendously likable.
I could choose to post any number of other clips of Keaton from any number of her other movies. But I think this one – from a movie I’ve never seen, Baby Boom – demonstrates her comic timing and quicksilver ability to go from one emotion to another:
RIP beautiful, unique, and funny lady.
Actually I think that the movie that made her famous was The Godfather.
BrooklynBoy:
No, it was Annie Hall that made her a star and celebrity. I watched an interview with her where she discussed that.
Keaton was one of a kind. I loved her in all the Allen and Godfather movies. She kept her special beauty and unique fashion sense throughout her life.
I was curious about the latter and looked this up. She credits her mother.
____________________________
Diane Keaton Was a Once-in-a-Lifetime Fashion Icon. Look Back on How Her Signature Style Came to Be
The actress’ personal style was forged early on with the influence of her mother. In a PEOPLE interview published one year before her death, the star said it was her mom who led her down an avenue of self-expression through their shopping trips to Goodwill. She recalled, “She was my biggest supporter and manifester of my creativity. Later in life, my inspiration came from countless hours of cutting and pasting my way through magazines like Vogue magazine.”
https://people.com/what-diane-keaton-said-about-her-style-11828903
I haven’t seen that first clip from Annie Hall since the film came out. Now that I’m dating, it is particularly relevant and funny.
Annie Hall is streaming. Don’t recall which channel, ask your remote.
fullmoon.
Check free streaming sites Pluto and Tubi, the latter a Fox NewsCorp entry. I bet it is available.
Yes, neo. That classic scene from the very mainstream hit “Baby Boom”(1987) is a comedy built out of second wave feminist dilemma that “you can’t have it all”!
Even though the feminist line that’s sold is “of course, you can!” The Superwoman can have a high achieving career and motherhood, if she chooses. And should.
Hence, the premise is about a workaholic NYC corporate ladder climber has a stuffy and insufferable BF.
Failure leads her to retreat and become unxpectedly overwhelmed by an old house and more in Vermont, and yet struggle to find herself (and this just when Vermont was becoming fashionable with urban New Yorkers).
Complications are endured, and when life gives her lemons, makes lemonade!
Thus, in the classic screwball comedy Hollywood way, she threads the needle of this New Woman’s goals, and again faces her core lifestyle dilemma anew in corporate New York City….What does she choose to do?
It’s a good, heartfelt dilemma the ambitious and overachieving female can identify with even today. Even though such honest self-confrontation has lapsed among the young.
It’s so sad that Hollywood has retreated from universal morality tales like this one.
I recall her being very good in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” a very dark and disturbing film.
Jimmy:
Yes. People often forget that one. But it showed her range and her courage in taking roles .
The first time I noticed Christopher Walken was in “Annie Hall.”
Keaton and Woody are visiting her white-bread family. Walken, her brother named Duane, confesses his urge to Woody, that when driving he has the urge to drive head-on into an oncoming car. Followed by his description of the shattered glass and leaping flames.
Woody responds, “I have to go now, Duane, because I’m due back on Planet Earth.”
Soon after Woody and Keaton are in a car with Walken driving in the pouring rain. Woody is terrified.
One of the small rewards of “Annie Hall.” 🙂
Soon after Woody and Keaton are in a car with Walken driving in the pouring rain. Woody is terrified.
==
Hmmm. Walken starred in a 1983 film among whose early scenes is one which shows him driving in the pouring rain and crashing his VW into a tractor-trailer broadside. He lands in a coma for several years and then awakes. The film is an account of his recovery and the spooky supernatural phenomena surrounding him.
One of my very favorite Keaton clips (there are so many!) is the scene in Baby Boom where she becomes hilariously unhinged when told that the well on her Vermont property has run dry:
https://youtu.be/jUkqho3OUos?si=Du2-Zk6Aiv0Ch8-H
I feel like I lost a dear friend.
While not a famous film, the one that first introduced me to Diane Keaton was “Play It Again Sam” (1972). I saw it a few times when it came out and thought it was hysterical. And I thought Keaton was a lovely leading lady.
Having watched it again perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, the comedy did seem rather sophomoric. Although, I was nearly a high school sophomore when I first saw it.
It’s also interesting that the story was originally a Woody Allen stage play, then directed on the screen by Herbert Ross, with Allen starring. I find the stories of creative writers who make the difficult jump from stage or screen writing to film directing quite fascinating.
I find the stories of creative writers who make the difficult jump from stage or screen writing to film directing quite fascinating.
TommyJay:
Quite so. Whatever else, Allen had an astonishing arc from comedy writer to comedian to actor to director and made it look inevitable.
Bob Odenkirk of “Breaking Bad” hit that quadfecta too, but not so major.
It’s “Annie Hall”.
“I find the stories of creative writers who make the difficult jump from stage or screen writing to film directing quite fascinating.” But perhaps those jumps are not so surprising if you consider that each version still requires the person to have developed a nearly complete concept in his mind before converting it into script, views of the required actions and effects, and communicating these to other participants in their endeavors.
On top of that, writers usually get plenty of time to do re-writes to polish their output, and both stage and screen acting and directing allows for multiple rehearsals and retakes until they get the “right” result.
The only other places in our lives where we get to look so accomplished and capable is after long and detailed study of a given domain – a form of rewriting and rehearsing our lives.