The day should not pass without another memory and thanks to Diane Keaton.
Almost all deaths today, following the news of his death at age 79, were right Anne Hall in your title. And why not? It was that 1977 comedy classic that gave Keaton her first and only Oscar, defined her fashion sense that carried her through to the end, and is being hailed as her greatest role. Woody Allen won the first two of his four career Oscars for his screenplay and direction, and the film was named Best Picture.
Diane Keaton was Annie Hall, or at least she made us believe so. In fact, her real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie. This gave Allen a lot of inspiration to create the role for herself just eight years after she first appeared on Broadway, fully clothed, of course, in the original production of Hair.
Keaton could have skated in this image, made variations and had a successful career with that highlight. There was so much more however, and in my opinion she TRUE The biggest role was still 26 years away, but I’ll get there. In the meantime, there was The godfather films; the boldness Looking for Mr. Goodbar; the epic Reds, where she played Louise Bryant and co-starred with Warren Beatty, who also directed; the raucously funny First Wives Club with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn (but we never got the promised follow-up); stirring dramatic twists Shoot for the Moon with Albert Finney and Mrs. with Mel Gibson; and later his collaboration with director and screenwriter Nancy Meyers, first forged with Meyers and Charles Shyer in Father of the bride movies with Steve Martin, so Baby Boom and finally Meyers as director and writer, 2003 Something has to give.
Was what film that truly showcased the full force of Keaton’s immense talents, brought together in the portrait of a fifty-something woman who seemingly has everything except romance in a society where middle-aged women are basically left out. Jack Nicholson was her co-star as a lecherous playboy romancing her daughter, a man who would never dream of being with a woman his age, but who due to circumstances suffers a heart attack in her house, leading to a forever relationship – the older ages, that is – an area that Hollywood rarely touches on in a mainstream film, unless it’s with movie stars like Keaton and Nicholson.
Keaton had it all in this wonderfully smart, sexy and sensational romantic comedy, with a performance that made me melt. Keanu Reeves also cameos as a young doctor who falls in love with her, and you totally believe why. She’s magnificent in this and if it weren’t for Charlize Theron’s transformative transformation Monster that year would certainly earn her a second Oscar for Best Actress. I don’t need to count the ballots to know that would have been the result. Ultimately, this would be the last nomination she would get, and the last excellent part she achieved.
Of course there was much more after that, and Keaton never stopped working, mostly on light comedies with other people his own age, notably the Book Club films with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. I loved seeing that foursome and it looked like everyone was having fun. His last film, the terrible summer camp, It was another attempt at this type of casting, but it’s best forgotten. Keaton even shot a pilot named Tilda in which she played a fictional version of Nikki Finke, founder of this website, but luckily it never saw the light of day. If you look on IMDb, there are still several Keaton films listed as in pre-production, but fate intervened.
I had heard a few months ago that Keaton was not doing well and was no longer leaving his beloved dream home in Los Angeles. It was a little shocking because she wasn’t someone who seemed to age a lot, forever Annie Hall, la dee da and all that.
What many people may not know is that Keaton also had a unique look behind the camera, directing films such as Shutting down and TV episodes of shows like Twin Peaksthe latter something that seemed ripe for his creative sensibilities. His first foray behind the camera was in 1987 with the fascinating documentary Paradise, in which she interviewed mostly ordinary people about their view of the afterlife and heaven. Now she’s on this journey to real place. Let’s hope she gets enough material for an ethereal sequel.
Keaton wrote a few memoirs, but the most memorable is a coffee table book in 1983 called “Still Life,” which is still my favorite picture book. always because all the photos are posed and staged in heavily retouched technicolors of Hollywood sound stages featuring the famous and infamous. She lets the photographs speak for themselves, but in the preface she stated her fascination with them. “For some reason, when you take people out of real life and photograph them in an artificial situation, what you get is the feeling that the people are truly indefinable,” she wrote. “What you want is place that indefinable quality, which is totally impossible.”
What we got from her was an entirely unique shining star, an ability to keep us watching no matter what she chose to do, and to become forever immortal as only the great can be.
Indefinable. This is Diane Keaton.
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