Diane Keaton, the American actor known for her astonishing singularity and freshness, has left an indelible mark on cinema. Her millpond calm face, beauty, and unworldliness captivated generations, making her more than just America's sweetheart. Keaton was the sophisticated, sweet-natured woman with whom America was unrequitedly in love, out of the country's league.
In the golden age of the American New Wave in the 1970s, Keaton was at the centre of great comedy and tragedy. She played Kay, the innocent wife of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone in Coppola's The Godfather (1972), aghast and complicit witness to mob toxicity. In the sequel, her Kay reveals the awful truth about her miscarriage to the icily infuriated Michael, like a modern-day Medea.
But it was as a comic performer of ethereally self-aware genius that Keaton became most known. In films opposite Woody Allen, such as Sleeper, Play It Again Sam, Love and Death, Manhattan, and most gloriously Annie Hall (her Oscar-winner), she showcased her talent. Annie Hall is the jewel of the American New Wave, closer to the French New Wave with its freewheeling city life and literary in-jokes.
Keaton was almost Allen's comedy partner, but her screen presence went beyond 'kooky' or 'manic pixie dream girl'. She could play the straight 'feed' to Allen with faultless seriousness, as in Love and Death, where her line 'Sex without love is an empty experience' sets up Allen's immortal gag. She also nailed broad physical comedy.
Keaton's performance in Looking for Mr Goodbar (1977) deserves to be better known: a bold casting against type as a schoolteacher exploring casual sexuality. In the 1980s, she starred in Reds (1981) with Warren Beatty, playing feminist activist Louise Bryant, and in Shoot the Moon (1982) opposite Albert Finney. Though directors later struggled to capture her distrait style, Keaton continued to perform in Allen movies and other comedies.
