In appreciation of the shining star

Today shouldn’t go by without another remembrance and tribute to Diane Keaton.

Almost every obituary today after news of her death at age 79 broke was true Annie Hall In its title. Why not? It was this 1977 comedy classic that earned Keaton her only Oscar, defined her fashion sense that carried through to the end, and was hailed as her greatest role. Woody Allen won the first two of four Oscars for the film’s screenplay and direction, and the film won Best Picture.

Diane Keaton He was Annie Hall, or at least she made us think she was. In fact, her real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie. It gave Allen much of the inspiration to create the role for her just eight years after she made her Broadway debut, fully clothed of course, in the original production of hair.

Keaton could have skated to that image, made changes, and continued his successful career with that iconic image. There was a lot more However, in my opinion its TRUE The biggest role was still 26 years away, but I’d get there. Meanwhile, there he was The godfather films; Daring I’m looking for Mr. Goodbar. The saga red, Where she played the role of Louise Bryant and co-starred with Warren Beatty, who also directed; Loud funny First Wives Club with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn (but we didn’t get that promised follow-up); Exciting dramatic turns Shoot the moon With Albert Finney and Mrs. Soville With Mel Gibson; Hence her collaboration with writer-director Nancy Meyers, first drafted with Meyers and Charles Shayer on the film. Father of the bride Movies with Steve Martin, then Baby Boom and finally Myers as director and writer for 2003 Something has to give.

It was Which A film that truly showcased the full power of Keaton’s immense talents, all combined in the portrayal of a woman in her fifties who seems to have everything but romance in a society where middle-aged women are cast aside. Jack Nicholson was her co-star as a punk playboy who dates her girl, A man would never dream of hooking up with a woman his own age, but due to circumstances he suffers a heart attack in her house which leads to a relationship for the ages – the elderly This is territory that Hollywood rarely ventures into in mainstream films anymore, unless it’s with movie royalty like Keaton and Nicholson.

Keaton had it all in this gorgeous, sexy, sexy romantic comedy with a performance that made me melt. Keanu Reeves was also a young doctor who falls in love with her, and you totally believe why. She’s great in it, if not for Charlize Theron’s transformative role A monster That year would almost certainly have given her her second Academy Award for Best Actress. I don’t have to count the votes to know that this will be the result. As it turned out, this would be the last nomination she received, and her last great The part you got.

There were certainly many after that, and Keaton never stopped working, mostly in light comedies with others in her age group, notably Book club Movies with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. I loved seeing that foursome and it looked like they were all having fun. Her final, harrowing film summer camp, It was another attempt at this type of acting but one best forgotten. Keaton even shot a pilot who called him Tilda She played a fictionalized version of Nikki Finke, the founder of this site, but fortunately she never saw the light of day. If you look at IMDb, there are still several Keaton films listed in pre-production but fate intervened.

I heard a few months ago that Keaton wasn’t feeling well and was no longer moving out of her beloved dream home in Los Angeles. It was a bit of a shock because she wasn’t someone who looked old at all, forever Annie Hall, la di da and all that.

What many people may not know is that Keaton had a unique eye behind the camera as well, directing films Hanging And TV episodes of shows like Twin PeaksThe latter is the thing that seemed ripe for her creative sensibilities. Her first foray behind the camera was in 1987 with the remarkable documentary sky, She interviewed mostly ordinary people about their visions of the afterlife and heaven. And now she’s on that journey to TRUE place. Let’s hope you get enough material for an ethereal sequel.

Keaton wrote a few memoirs, but most notably his 1983 coffee table book Still Life, which is my favorite picture book to this day. never Because all of the images are intensely posed and organized with plein air shots of Hollywood sound stages with the famous and the infamous. She let the still images speak for themselves, but mentioned in the introduction her fascination with them. “For some reason, when you take people out of real life and depict them in an artificial situation, what you get is a feeling that people are really indefinable,” she wrote. “What you want is that place That quality that is indefinable, absolutely impossible.

What we got from her was a shining star who was completely unique, the ability to keep us watching no matter what she chose to do, and to be forever immortal as only the greats are.

Indefinable. This is Diane Keaton.