Diane Keaton’s passing at 79 landed like a silence after laughter: transient, disorienting, after which stuffed with echoes.
For half a century she made intelligence really feel playful and vulnerability really feel courageous, shaping popular culture from Annie Corridor’s menswear to One thing’s Gotta Give’s late-life romance.
What follows is a celebration of 20 performances that present why her work lives on.
1) Annie Corridor (1977)
Keaton’s most defining function doubles as a cultural detonation. The style (her personal closet, famously), the “la-di-da” filler when nerves hit, the best way a smile stalls on the fringe of uncertainty—that is wit with a pulse.
You possibly can really feel the actual historical past within the chemistry, which is why the jokes sting when the breakup lands. Her type ripple—free trousers, vest, tie—reframed cool for ladies in a single day, and it by no means left.
2) The Godfather Half II (1974)
The kitchen confession. The door slam. The ultimate look. Keaton threads Kay’s personal reckoning by way of a film about public energy.
When she tells Michael she ended the being pregnant—voice trembling however regular—the ethical middle of the trilogy lastly speaks with out compromise.
It’s one of many nice sustained reactions in American movie: horror giving technique to resolve, love conceding to self-preservation.
3) The Godfather (1972)
Kay begins because the daylight in a shadowed world. Watch Keaton within the marriage ceremony sequence: alert, curious, a beat behind the household code she’s attempting to decode.
By the point that door closes on her face, Keaton has charted a whole arc utilizing virtually nothing however stillness and the tiniest retreat within the eyes.
Critic David Thomson later referred to as her presence “alive with uncompromising kindness,” a human counterweight to operatic violence (The Guardian obituary).
4) Reds (1981)
Louise Bryant isn’t a halo in historic fog; Keaton makes her a working thoughts. In salon debates she parries, in Petrograd she hardens, and within the wilderness she trudges—love and politics braided collectively.
The quiet scenes with Nicholson’s O’Neill unspool a complete off-screen life; the final stretch with Beatty’s Reed is pure endurance. The nomination felt inevitable; the grit felt earned.
5) In search of Mr. Goodbar (1977)
Launched the identical yr as Annie Corridor, that is the whiplash. Keaton strips out the allure and performs Theresa like a match struck in a darkish bar—sizzling, vibrant, unpredictable.
The movie’s finale is notorious; what lingers is the best way she walks into hazard in search of one thing like freedom.
As The Guardian famous, her work right here was described as “fearless,” a part of a one-two that “signified a brand new form of feminine star… unbiased, liberated, and sexually assertive” (quoted within the obituary).
6) One thing’s Gotta Give (2003)
Erica Barry is competence undone. Keaton performs heartbreak as farce after which lets the farce bruise—these uncontrolled sobs that flip into fun you consider. It’s additionally a movie about older need shot with out apology; Keaton and Nicholson meet like equals, spar like professionals, and land one thing tender.
She later cited this period with particular fondness, and retailers have reported it as a private favourite amongst her personal movies see Folks’s remembrance piece on her “favourite amongst her iconic filmography,”
7) Manhattan (1979)
Mary Wilke might’ve been written as ice; Keaton performs heat with sharp edges. Notice the micro-hesitation earlier than she retracts a barb, the amused self-check after a reducing line. Underneath the urbane cadence is an individual testing who she desires to be. It’s the charisma of pondering out loud.
8) Love and Dying (1975)
Philosophy as ping-pong. Keaton fires off Sonja’s logic knots like she’s having fun with each syllable, then undercuts it with a bodily gag two beats later.
It’s the comedian rhythm—breath, look, pivot—that makes the spoof sing. Few actors can swap from Dostoevsky joke to pratfall and hold dignity intact; she makes that tightrope look simple.
9) Sleeper (1973)
Luna begins as airhead efficiency artwork and finally ends up a insurgent with comedian timing. The longer term is foolish; Keaton treats it like a playground, not a prop store. Watch how she “tries on” seriousness and discovers she likes the match—an arc instructed in throwaway gestures and delighted side-eyes.
10) Child Increase (1987)
J.C. Wiatt is a company animal studying to share house with a child and a self she didn’t plan. Keaton’s bodily comedy (convention calls whereas rocking a crib; splattered purée and an influence go well with) is matched by the mushy click on of perspective shifting. The ultimate pitch—profession on her phrases—is pure 80s aspiration performed with wit.
11) The First Wives Membership (1996)
Annie begins as apologetic and ends in a white-suit strut. Keaton calibrates the comedian neurosis so it doesn’t curdle, then lets confidence creep in.
The “You Don’t Personal Me” finale performs like an encore she’s been constructing towards the entire movie: friendship as reclamation anthem.
12) Father of the Bride (1991) & Half II (1995)
Nina Banks is the thermostat of the family. Keaton retains her amused, exasperated, mournful, and maternal—typically in the identical kitchen scene.
Reverse Steve Martin’s spiraling dad, she’s the hand on the shoulder and the raised eyebrow that claims “breathe.”
Keaton has brazenly expressed affection for this family-first run of movies; the tenderness exhibits on display screen (see Folks’s remembrance for her reflections on late-career favorites: Folks).
13) Manhattan Homicide Thriller (1993)
Carol Lipton is curiosity with a magnifying glass. Keaton performs the fun of getting a idea like most actors play romance.
The whisper-sprints down hallways, the closet stakeouts, the “I’m not nosy, I’m vigilant” power—proof that her comedian instincts stayed nimble a long time in.
14) Marvin’s Room (1996)
Bessie is care work personified. Keaton resists sentimentality and lets the character’s generosity communicate: the best way she listens, the unflashy humour, the acceptance that arrives with out trumpets.
Surrounded by Meryl Streep and a younger Leonardo DiCaprio, she facilities the movie by refusing to carry out sainthood.
15) Shoot the Moon (1982)
Religion Dunlap is the a part of a breakup we faux to not see—the pettiness, the bargaining, the anger that appears like readability till it doesn’t. Keaton permits ugliness with out shedding empathy. The plate-smash is catharsis; the quiet after is the purpose.
16) Crimes of the Coronary heart (1986)
Lenny Magrath is the sister who holds the tales collectively and forgets herself within the course of. Keaton leans into the smallness—hesitations, self-edits—in order that when Lenny claims pleasure, it lands. In a trio of Oscar-caliber actresses, she’s the low-frequency be aware you miss when it’s gone.
17) Interiors (1978)
Renata’s armor is articulation. Keaton drains the colour from her ordinary tics and performs a lady policing her voice and failing her coronary heart. In a movie of hushed rooms and glass edges, she finds ache with out speeches.
18) Play It Once more, Sam (1972)
Linda is the sunshine that pulls a lonely critic again into movement. Keaton’s early-career sparkle is in every single place—timing, ease, the sense she’s totally listening.
Round this era, Woody Allen remembered her as “lovable, humorous, completely unique in type, actual, recent … [she] lit up a boulevard,” a line that captures how shortly audiences felt they knew her (The Guardian obituary).
19) The Little Drummer Lady (1984)
Charlie is an actress recruited into an ethical maze. Keaton performs the profession-as-training floor: how pretending can flip into believing. The joys right here is watching her peel again layers of naiveté and select a self underneath strain.
20) E book Membership (2018)
A late-career wink. Keaton treats Diane (the character) as a cousin to Diane (the icon): romantic, self-conscious, recreation for reinvention. It’s consolation cinema elevated by veteran chemistry—proof that some stars age right into a joke, whereas she aged right into a welcome.
Why She Stays With Us
As a result of she made pondering attractive and kindness fashionable. As a result of she let awkwardness breathe till it grew to become type. As a result of even when the digicam lower away, you felt the afterglow of a thoughts at work. The trade tributes hold calling her “unique”; the movies above present what which means.
(For extra display screen picks every week, dip into Neon’s Sunday Watch.)