As my personal tribute to late Diane Keaton (1946-2025) last night I watched her classic 1977. Oscar winning "Annie Hall" directed and created for her by Woody Allen. Last time I saw it was decades ago, when Allen was still celebrated as a movie genius and to my biggest surprise, time had not diminished this beautiful movie, in fact I don't remember when was the last time I enjoyed a movie with all my heart - I watched it between giggles and tears, it really moved me deeply and I could not stop thinking everything in it feels so real even if I understand there had to be a script - it was one of those rare examples where the line between art and reality is completely gone, I would swear these are real people in the real situations and not actors following the script.
It was not her first time acting in a Woody Allen movie - in fact, it was their fourth movie collaboration and kind of goodbye gift to her, as they both moved on to different relationships - but this time the story was completely created and dedicated to Keaton and it feels so. Keaton herself would always say it was the easiest job of her career and this role not only catapulted her into stars, but also launched her famous "Annie Hall fashion" style and basically mapped the rest of her legend - with a few exceptions ("Looking for Mr. Goodbar"), her movie roles will be sweetly eccentric, urban women who bump into things, say wrong things at the wrong time and perpetually lose their car keys (a predecessor to Meg Ryan type of roles). While she continued on successfully, in my mind nothing matches the sheer genius of her movies with Woody Allen and in my heart I will forever associate these two.
This is why I found so unsettling that majority of her obituaries try to brush Woody Allen and focus on anything else instead - it is almost forgotten now, but there was a time when Allen was a major movie superstar, a genre in himself, with one hit after the other and big stars waiting in line to be included in his work. Since early 1990s and a scandal about his leaving Mia Farrow for their adopted Korean daughter, conservative America basically cancelled him and he slipped into irrelevance - mention his name and 99% of people will tell you their opinion, based on tabloids and ideas about him as a child molester. While I admit that its unusual and quite bizarre that someone marries their adopted child, it must be pointed that she was 27 at the time and they are still married to this day. It took Diane Keaton's death that the world (and myself) suddenly remembers Alen who is still alive and working, thought I seriously had to stop and think when was the last time I saw any of his recent work. I do remember enjoying excellent 2005. thriller "Match Point" with Scarlett Johansson and a lovely romantic comedy "Midnight in Paris" but than slowly his star dimmed and nowadays he is hardly ever mentioned, thanks to conservative backlash and general public decision that he must be ignored and cancelled. I loved "Annie Hall" so much that I might as well go back and re-watch all Woody Allen movies one by one - I enjoyed his work much more than anything I saw recently.
This is why I don't accept this recent perspective where Keaton is celebrated as a "star of Godfather" (where she played 3 seconds, supporting role) "and also played in some Woody Allen movies" (where she was the main female role) - I might have to do some more research but nothing of her later work hits me as much as her work with Allen, it was basically watered down Annie Hall, forever clumsy and giddy, but forever lovely.
It is not possible to love Keaton without at least acknowledging her connection to him.
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