I know that 79 is not young, but how old does that make me? Old enough to know the totality of loss incurred in the world of existing talent, now that Diane Keaton has died, but young enough to wonder with uncertainty who among our later generations of women could dare to compete or compare.
She has always held a special place in my heart, even from a young age, because I felt that she was cut from the same cloth of identity that my mother was – a “results feminist”, a feminist by doing, not a feminist of theory or labels or cavil or complaint. I first saw my mother in her when I saw “Baby Boom” – that movie was almost a template of what a successful single mother could look like – something that my mom was already doing herself by raising me.
In every role she played, she couldn’t help but remain a little bit herself – whether it was the way she delivered her lines, her daring sense of fashion, her general audacity, her personality was part of the package, and it was the keystone difference between her and the other ladies of the canyon. She knew when it was time to be a team player (First Wives Club?) , she knew when it was time to take the lead and shine alone (Looking for Mr. Goodbar?) – she also knew when things worked best in pairs – Woody Allen and Diane Keaton together was a force to behold, as funny and tragic as it gets, so far removed from everyone’s mundane life but yet so instantly relatable.
She didn’t pursue the wide variety of roles as her contemporary Meryl Streep – with Meryl, the talent lies in her ability to wipe the slate clean and reimagine any and every character or script given to her. Diane Keaton’s talent was managing to portray every role and make it just a little bit her own, her authenticity was obvious in an industry and era full of artifice, working in a profession that values obfuscation and pretending.
While many people might take this opportunity to revisit some of the movies she starred in, I don’t need to do that, as I watched “Sleeper” for the first time since college a few weeks ago. She played a futuristic space bimbo better thana anyone possibly could – that airheadedness didn’t expose a sense of vapidness, it made you consider that with her, there was so much more under the surface.
One particular summer, when I was in 8th grade, I was taking a lot of airplane flights alone – to see family, to London and to France, and I managed to catch “The First Wives Club” on flights headed east and on flights headed west (they switched the movie schedule midsummer, so I got to see the movie twice. For free!) What a treat – the flight was over before it began. This was my first Diane Keaton movie, and I knew she was special then as now. I caught up with her body of work in college, like a lot of people, and I’ve seen at least 6 or 7 movies with her in it. Every time, you’re glad to see her face, and you’re sorry to see her go. Just like we’re all sorry she’s no longer with us today.
