Diane Keaton, who recently passed had–what I referred to in an earlier blog–sprezzatura. As you may have guessed, sprezzatura has Italian roots; it is defined by a way of doing things with effortless grace that conceals the effort involved. Contrary to her having said she never felt comfortable or secure in her work, what she brought to the big screen appeared flawless.
With a deep yearning to appear on the stage, Diane took the leap from acting in community settings in Santa Ana, California, to departing for Manhattan as a nineteen-year-old ingenue. I know full well that that was no small move because I did the reverse by going from living in Manhattan to Santa Ana to complete my internship in psychology. Although she had a role in the play, Hair, on Broadway, she took a giant step forward when she auditioned for a role in Woody Allen’s theatrical work, Play it Again Sam. Woody immediately knew that Keaton had stage presence when he said about her: “One talks about a personality that lights up a room, she lit up a boulevard.”
Woody had a preternatural ability in discovering talent, so he made sure not to let Diane go. As a pair, their collaboration in film making was marked by great success. Although she starred in several of Allen’s films, the high point of her film career was her role in Annie Hall where she played the role of the film’s title character. Diane’s birth name was Diane Hall but because another actress had the same name, she changed her surname from Hall to her mother’s maiden name of Keaton. It is not a coincidence that Annie’s last name is “Hall,” or as Ms. Keaton had said: “I’m playing an affable version of myself.”
In her 2011 memoir, Then Again, she wrote that when making Annie Hall, Allen told her to “wear what you want to wear so I did what Woody said: I wore what I wanted to wear, rather, I stole what I wanted to wear from the cool-looking women on the streets of New York.” Diane Keaton shaped fashion rather than allowing fashion to shape her tastes in clothing apparel. Other actresses tried to imitate her attire but never quite with the poise and sprezzatura of Ms. Keaton. Ralph Lauren, the famed fashion designer for women, stated that although he was credited with dressing Diane in her role as Annie Hall, it was really Diane’s style, a style that had its own mark of authenticity.
Keaton and Allen, the two lead characters in Annie Hall, play off their own insecurities. Annie is flighty and self-possessed, but these traits appear to go well with Allen’s character, Alvy Singer, and his neurotic anxieties. The development of their highly unlikely partnership, accentuated by their different ethnic cultures, East Coast Jew and mid-Western Protestant, speaks to the heart of the film. Keaton’s bodily gestures underscore her unique choice in her outfits that add to the combination of beauty and kookiness she exemplifies. Although Diane had been nominated for other Oscars, she received her only academy award as best actress for her role in Annie Hall.
Even though I remember her mostly as a comedic virtuoso, she starred in many other movies proving her talents extended far beyond comedy. In the same year, a few months earlier than Annie Hall came out in 1977, another movie, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, was released in which Keaton’s role was in stark contrast to her role as Annie Hall. Based on a true story, she played a young teacher in New York, highly insecure and vulnerable, looking for love. The currency she uses to gain notice and attention with strangers of the opposite sex is through her body. She prowls bar after bar in the single’s scene in Manhattan, in search of the love she lacks, offering her body on one-night stands with tragic results. I recall taking in this movie with my brother, Andrew, with great difficulty due to the powerful portrayal by Ms. Keaton of what it was like to experience the degradation of this woman. Molly Haskell’s review in New York magazine called Ms. Keaton’s “the performance of a lifetime.”
I always will remember Ms. Keaton for her marvelous and unique talent as a beautiful actress with great comedic skills enhanced by her wardrobe. In her memoir she wrote: “For some unfathomable reason, comedy is invariably relegated to the position of second cousin to drama. Looking back, I’m so happy and grateful to be in a Great American Comedy. Humor offers one of the benign ways of coping with the absurdity of it all.” Ms. Keaton knew how to draw from her own insecurities the necessary ingredients to forge a legacy of versatility, courage, and a deep understanding of the human condition.
Dr. Bernard F. Natelson 