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Numerous talented actresses have performed in rom-coms. Typically, when aiming to receive Oscar recognition, they need to shift for more serious roles. Diane Keaton, whose recent passing occurred, charted a different course and executed it with seamless ease. Her debut significant performance was in The Godfather, about as serious an cinematic masterpiece as has ever been made. But that same year, she revisited the character of the character Linda, the object of a nerdy hero’s affection, in a cinematic take of Broadway’s Play It Again, Sam. She regularly juggled serious dramas with funny love stories during the 1970s, and the lighter fare that secured her the Oscar for leading actress, altering the genre for good.

The Award-Winning Performance

That Oscar was for Annie Hall, co-written and directed by Allen, with Keaton portraying Annie, a component of the couple’s failed relationship. Woody and Diane had been in a romantic relationship prior to filming, and continued as pals until her passing; during conversations, Keaton portrayed Annie as a dream iteration of herself, through Allen’s eyes. It would be easy, then, to assume Keaton’s performance involves doing what came naturally. But there’s too much range in Keaton’s work, from her Godfather role and her funny films with Allen and throughout that very movie, to dismiss her facility with rom-coms as merely exuding appeal – even if she was, of course, highly charismatic.

Evolving Comedy

The film famously functioned as Allen’s transition between slapstick-oriented movies and a realistic approach. As such, it has lots of humor, fantasy sequences, and a loose collage of a relationship memoir alongside sharp observations into a doomed romantic relationship. In a similar vein, Diane, presides over a transition in Hollywood love stories, portraying neither the screwball-era speed-talker or the sexy scatterbrain famous from the ’50s. Instead, she mixes and matches elements from each to create something entirely new that feels modern even now, cutting her confidence short with uncertain moments.

Observe, for instance the moment when Annie and Alvy initially bond after a match of tennis, awkwardly exchanging proposals for a ride (although only one of them has a car). The dialogue is quick, but zig-zags around unpredictably, with Keaton navigating her nervousness before concluding with of “la di da”, a words that embody her quirky unease. The story embodies that tone in the subsequent moment, as she engages in casual chat while operating the car carelessly through New York roads. Afterward, she finds her footing performing the song in a club venue.

Depth and Autonomy

This is not evidence of the character’s unpredictability. During the entire story, there’s a depth to her gentle eccentricity – her hippie-hangover willingness to try drugs, her anxiety about sea creatures and insects, her resistance to control by the protagonist’s tries to shape her into someone more superficially serious (which for him means focused on dying). In the beginning, Annie could appear like an strange pick to earn an award; she is the love interest in a story filtered through a man’s eyes, and the central couple’s arc fails to result in either changing enough to make it work. Yet Annie does change, in ways both observable and unknowable. She just doesn’t become a more compatible mate for the male lead. Plenty of later rom-coms took the obvious elements – anxious quirks, quirky fashions – without quite emulating her final autonomy.

Lasting Influence and Later Roles

Perhaps Keaton felt cautious of that tendency. Post her professional partnership with Woody finished, she paused her lighthearted roles; Baby Boom is really her only one from the entirety of the 1980s. But during her absence, Annie Hall, the character perhaps moreso than the unconventional story, served as a blueprint for the style. Meg Ryan, for example, credits much of her love story success to Keaton’s skill to portray intelligence and flightiness together. This made Keaton seem like a everlasting comedy royalty while she was in fact portraying married characters (if contentedly, as in Father of the Bride, or less so, as in the film The First Wives Club) and/or moms (see The Family Stone or Because I Said So) than unattached women finding romance. Even during her return with Allen, they’re a established married pair drawn nearer by humorous investigations – and she slips into that role effortlessly, gracefully.

But Keaton did have a further love story triumph in the year 2003 with Something’s Gotta Give, as a writer in love with a man who dates younger women (the star Jack Nicholson, naturally). What happened? Her last Academy Award nod, and a whole subgenre of romantic tales where senior actresses (usually played by movie stars, but still!) take charge of their destinies. One factor her loss is so startling is that Keaton was still making such films as recently as last year, a constant multiplex presence. Today viewers must shift from expecting her roles to grasping the significant effect she was on the funny romance as we know it. Should it be difficult to recall modern equivalents of such actresses who similarly follow in Keaton’s footsteps, the reason may be it’s seldom for a star of her caliber to devote herself to a genre that’s mostly been streaming fodder for a while now.

A Special Contribution

Reflect: there are ten active actresses who have been nominated multiple times. It’s rare for one of those roles to start in a light love story, not to mention multiple, as was the example of Keaton. {Because her