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Many great female actors have appeared in romantic comedies. Typically, should they desire to receive Oscar recognition, they must turn for weightier characters. Diane Keaton, whose recent passing occurred, took an opposite path and made it look seamless ease. Her initial breakout part was in The Godfather, about as serious an cinematic masterpiece as ever produced. But that same year, she revisited the character of the character Linda, the love interest of a geeky protagonist, in a cinematic take of the theatrical production Play It Again, Sam. She continued to alternate intense dramas with lighthearted romances throughout the ’70s, and the lighter fare that secured her the Oscar for leading actress, transforming the category forever.

The Academy Award Part

That Oscar was for Annie Hall, written and directed by Woody Allen, with Keaton portraying Annie, a component of the couple’s failed relationship. Woody and Diane had been in a romantic relationship before production, and remained close friends until her passing; during conversations, Keaton had characterized Annie as an idealized version of herself, through Allen’s eyes. It might be simple, then, to believe her portrayal required little effort. However, her versatility in Keaton’s work, from her Godfather role and her comedic collaborations and within Annie Hall itself, to discount her skill with funny romances as simply turning on the charm – though she was, of course, incredibly appealing.

Shifting Genres

The film famously functioned as Allen’s shift between slapstick-oriented movies and a more naturalistic style. Therefore, it has lots of humor, fantasy sequences, and a freewheeling patchwork of a romantic memory alongside sharp observations into a doomed romantic relationship. In a similar vein, Diane, led an evolution in Hollywood love stories, embodying neither the rapid-fire comic lead or the glamorous airhead common in the fifties. Rather, she fuses and merges traits from both to invent a novel style that seems current today, interrupting her own boldness with her own false-start hesitations.

Observe, for instance the sequence with the couple initially bond after a game on the courts, stumbling through reciprocal offers for a lift (although only a single one owns a vehicle). The exchange is rapid, but meanders unexpectedly, with Keaton navigating her nervousness before winding up in a cul-de-sac of her whimsical line, a words that embody her quirky unease. The film manifests that tone in the next scene, as she engages in casual chat while operating the car carelessly through Manhattan streets. Subsequently, she centers herself singing It Had to Be You in a club venue.

Dimensionality and Independence

This is not evidence of Annie acting erratic. During the entire story, there’s a depth to her gentle eccentricity – her post-hippie openness to experiment with substances, her anxiety about sea creatures and insects, her resistance to control by Alvy’s attempts to turn her into someone outwardly grave (for him, that implies death-obsessed). Initially, the character may look like an odd character to earn an award; she plays the female lead in a film told from a male perspective, and the protagonists’ trajectory doesn’t lead to either changing enough to suit each other. Yet Annie does change, in ways both observable and unknowable. She simply fails to turn into a better match for Alvy. Numerous follow-up films took the obvious elements – nervous habits, quirky fashions – failing to replicate her final autonomy.

Lasting Influence and Later Roles

Maybe Keaton was wary of that tendency. Following her collaboration with Allen concluded, she took a break from rom-coms; her movie Baby Boom is essentially her sole entry from the complete 1980s period. But during her absence, the film Annie Hall, the role possibly more than the unconventional story, became a model for the style. Actress Meg Ryan, for example, credits much of her love story success to Diane’s talent to play smart and flibbertigibbet simultaneously. This rendered Keaton like a everlasting comedy royalty even as she was actually playing married characters (if contentedly, as in that family comedy, or less so, as in the film The First Wives Club) and/or parental figures (see that Christmas movie or the comedy Because I Said So) than independent ladies in love. Even in her comeback with Allen, they’re a long-married couple united more deeply by funny detective work – and she fits the character effortlessly, gracefully.

However, Keaton also enjoyed an additional romantic comedy success in two thousand three with the film Something’s Gotta Give, as a writer in love with a man who dates younger women (actor Jack Nicholson, naturally). The outcome? One more Oscar recognition, and a entire category of romantic tales where senior actresses (usually played by movie stars, but still!) reclaim their love lives. One factor her passing feels so sudden is that Diane continued creating those movies as recently as last year, a constant multiplex presence. Now audiences will be pivoting from expecting her roles to understanding the huge impact she was on the rom-com genre as it is recognized. If it’s harder to think of modern equivalents of Meg Ryan or Goldie Hawn who similarly follow in Keaton’s footsteps, the reason may be it’s uncommon for an actor of Keaton’s skill to commit herself to a category that’s often just online content for a long time.

A Unique Legacy

Consider: there are 10 living female actors who have been nominated multiple times. It’s rare for one of those roles to begin in a rom-com, let alone half of them, as was the situation with Diane. {Because her