Diane Keaton Movies
After rising to fame in a series of hit Woody Allen comedies, Diane Keaton went on to enjoy a successful film career both as an actress and as a director. Born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, she studied acting at Manhattan's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater and in 1968 understudied in Hair. On Broadway she met actor/director Allen and appeared in his 1969 stage hit Play It Again, Sam. In 1970, Keaton made her film debut in the comedy Lovers and Other Strangers and rose to fame as the paramour of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone in the 1972 blockbuster The Godfather. That same year, she and Allen -- with whom Keaton had become romantically involved offscreen -- reprised Play It Again, Sam for the cameras, and in 1973 he directed her in Sleeper. The Godfather Part II followed, as did Allen's Love and Death. All of these films enjoyed great success, and Keaton stood on the verge of becoming a major star; however, when her next two pictures -- 1976's I Will, I Will for Now and Harry and Walter Go to New York -- both flopped, she returned to the stage to star in The Primary English Class.In 1977, Allen released his fourth film with Keaton, Annie Hall. A clearly autobiographical portrait of the couple's real-life romance, it was a landmark, bittersweet, soul-searching tale which brought a new level of sophistication to comedy in films. Not only did the film itself win an Academy Award for Best Picture, but Keaton garnered Best Actress honors. That same year, she also headlined the controversial drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Two more films with Allen, 1978's Bergmanesque Interiors and the 1979 masterpiece Manhattan followed; however, when the couple separated, Keaton began a romance with Warren Beatty, with whom she co-starred in the 1981 epic Reds; she earned a Best Actress nomination for her work in Beatty's film. Continuing to pursue more dramatic projects, she next co-starred in 1982's Shoot the Moon, followed by a pair of box-office disappointments, The Little Drummer Girl and Mrs. Soffel. The 1986 Crimes of the Heart was a minor success, and a year later she made her directorial debut with the documentary Heaven.
Keaton's next starring role in the domestic comedy Baby Boom (1987) was a smash, and after close to a decade apart, she and Allen reunited for Radio Days, in which she briefly appeared as a singer. Upon starring in 1988's disappointing The Good Mother, she began splitting her time between acting and directing. In between appearing in films including 1990's The Godfather Part III, 1991's hit Father of the Bride, and 1992's telefilm Running Mates, she helmed music videos, afterschool specials (1990's The Girl with the Crazy Brother), and TV features (1991's Wildflower). She even directed an episode of the David Lynch cult favorite Twin Peaks. After stepping in for Mia Farrow in Allen's 1993 picture Manhattan Murder Mystery, Keaton essayed the title role in the 1994 TV biopic Amelia Earhart: the Final Flight and in 1995 made her feature-length directorial debut with the quirky drama Unstrung Heroes. After co-starring with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn in the 1996 comedy smash The First Wives Club, she earned another Oscar nomination for her work in Marvin's Room. In 1998, Keaton starred in The Only Thrill and followed that in 1999 with The Other Sister. She subsequently stepped into another familial role in 2000's Hanging Up with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.
Aside from a few scattered television appearances, 2001 and 2002 were relatively slow years for Keaton. Despite participating amongst a star-studded cast including veterans Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Charlton Heston, and Warren Beatty, 2001's Town & Country was not particularly well-received among audiences or critics. In 2003, Keaton played Jack Nicholson's love interest in director Nancy Meyers's Something's Gotta Give (for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination) and executive produced director Gus Van Sant's avant-garde Elephant), which won Best Director and Golden Palm awards at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
This final installment in the Look Who's Talking trilogy is a combination of Make Room For Daddy and The Lady and the Tramp. In the six years since the original Look Who's Talking, Mikey and Julie are now old enough to speak for themselves, so the producers came up with a new gimmick -- talking dogs. The Ubriacco family adopts two surly dogs, Rocks (the voice of Danny DeVito), a street-smart mongrel, and Daphne (voice of Diane Keaton), a snobbish pure bred poodle. The story kicks in with Christmas rapidly approaching and Molly (Kirstie Alley) out of a job. Because of this, her husband James (John Travolta) must work doubly hard to impress his new boss, Samantha (Lysette Anthony). But Samantha, it seems, has hired James for more than what appears in his job description. Samantha contrives a plan to get James to her cabin in the North Woods on Christmas Eve, where she plans to seduce him. James' family races to rescue him from the snowbound cabin, but when their taxi skids off the snow-covered road, it is left to the primal instincts of Rocks and Daphne to save the day. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, (more)
There's a real murder and a real mystery in Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery, but these plot pegs are used mainly to allow Allen to explore modern urban relationships. Allen plays a N.Y.C. book editor, Larry Lipton, married to Carol (Diane Keaton, who replaced Mia Farrow at the last minute, for reasons well publicized at the time). Carol is a free spirit, ever willing to try new experiences, but Larry is a wet blanket. When it begins to look like a neighbor has killed his wife, Carol is eager to investigate the mystery, but Larry thinks her suspicions are nonsensical and doesn't want to leave his apartment. Undaunted, Carol finds another "Nick Charles" in the form of family friend Ted (Alan Alda), who joins the investigation, and feels attracted to Carol and isn't afraid to let her know. Meanwhile, a writer under Larry's aegis (Anjelica Huston), who feels romantically drawn to him, also decides to join in the fun. Slightly jealous of Carol in the face of her budding relationship with Ted, Larry reluctantly agrees to go along on her clue-hunting expedition -- and it is he who discovers the corpse, who as it turns out was killed after Carol started poking around the apartment building. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
The made-for-cable satirical comedy Running Mates is about a bachelor U.S. Senator named Hugh (Ed Harris), who falls in love with Aggie (Diane Keaton), a widowed children's author, while he is running for president. Though she hates politics, she finds something charming in the slick Hugh and agrees to marry him. Unfortunately, the press finds something suspicious within Aggie's past, and it could sink his campaign. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Steve Martin stars in this remake of the 1950 Vincente Minnelli classic as shoe executive George Banks, whose happily married existence hits a bump when he greets his daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams), home from a semester studying in Europe. She tells her father that she is engaged to be married. When the shocked George asks to whom, she says his name is Bryan (George Newbern) and that he is an "independent communications consultant." George is even more shocked when he finds out what the wedding will cost (when George goes through the card file for invited wedding guests and is told someone is deceased, George chirps, "He died? That's great!"). As George is ignored during the mad preparations for the wedding, he wistfully looks back to all the good times he has had with Annie and sadly looks forward to the time when he loses his little girl. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1991
Episode 22 of Twin Peaks, "Slaves and Masters," originally aired on February 9, 1991, and was directed by Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton. The episode opens with Evelyn and Malcolm telling the cops about James, while James and Donna discuss their next move at Walli's. Ed and Norma talk about their future while in bed together, only to be interrupted by wrestling champ Nadine. Cooper and Truman question Shelly and Bobby, who blame Hank for Leo's shooting. Leo remains in the woods, being trained by Windom Earle, and Shelly returns to work at the Double R diner. Cooper receives Albert's report, which contains incriminating evidence and a link to Caroline Earle. Ben is healed by the "Appomattox Scenario," in which he reenacts the Civil War along with his mentally disturbed son, Johnny Horne (Robert Bauer). That night, Eckhardt and Catherine scheme about Josie, Donna interrupts Evelyn and Malcolm, and Cooper finds a message saying, "It's your move." ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Set in the rural South of the '30s, the made-for-cable film Wildflower is about a pair of teenaged siblings who become friends with an epileptic girl named Alice (Patricia Arquette), who has been forced to live in the barn behind her father's house because he believed her seizures were the work of the devil. With the help of the two teenagers, the girl is able to become part of everyday society. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Arquette, William McNamara, (more)
After a break of more than 15 years, director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo returned to the well for this third and final story of the fictional Corleone crime family. Two decades have passed, and crime kingpin Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now divorced from his wife Kay (Diane Keaton), has nearly succeeded in keeping his promise that his family would one day be "completely legitimate." A philanthropist devoted to public service, Michael is in the news as the recipient of a special award from the Pope for his good works, a controversial move given his checkered past. Determined to buy redemption, Michael and his lawyer B.J. (George Hamilton) are working on a complicated but legal deal to bail the Vatican out of looming financial troubles that will ultimately reap billions and put Michael on the world stage as a major financial player. However, trouble looms in several forms: The press is hostile to his intentions. Michael is in failing health and suffers a mild diabetic stroke. Stylish mob underling Joey Zaza (Joe Mantegna) is muscling into the Corleone turf. "The Commission" of Mafia families, represented by patriarch Altobello (Eli Wallach) doesn't want to let their cash cow Corleone out of the Mafia, though he has made a generous financial offer in exchange for his release from la cosa nostra. And then there's Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), the illegitimate and equally temperamental son of Michael's long-dead brother Sonny. Vincent desperately wants in to the family (both literally and figuratively), and at the urging of his sister Connie (Talia Shire), Michael welcomes the young man and allows him to adopt the Corleone name. However, a flirtatious attraction between Vincent and his cousin, Michael's naïve daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) develops, and threatens to develop into a full-fledged romance and undo the godfather's future plans. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1990
- PG13
Diane Keaton, Carol Kane and Kathryn Grody are the title "siblings," three unrelated women who perform as a lounge trio and struggle to come up with the money to buy their own club. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Carol Kane, (more)
Anna Dunlap (Diane Keaton) is a divorced mother living is Boston with her 6-year-old daughter Molly (Asia Viera). She supports herself and her daughter by working part time in a lab and teaching piano. Her ex-husband Brian (James Naughton) is a Washington lawyer who has since remarried. Anna meets Leo Cutter (Liam Neeson) and she and the Irish sculptor begin a torrid and passionate love affair. Molly walks in while the two are making love and lies down to sleep next to her mother, oblivious of their act of intimacy. Molly innocently relates the incident to Brian, and the livid lawyer sues for custody of the little girl. An ugly courtroom battle begins, with Leo being accused of molestation of a minor and Anna branded as an amoral, unfit mother. Her attorney Muth (Jason Robards) levels with Anna and tells her she must choose between Molly and her lover. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, this powerful drama is taken from the best-selling novel by Sue Miller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Liam Neeson, (more)
The directorial debut of Diane Keaton, the eccentric 1987 documentary Heaven is a free-flowing examination of the images people hold of the afterlife. Rather than taking a historical or narrative approach, the film is built out of numerous segments, each of which centers around a single question: from the general "Are You Afraid to Die?" and "What is Heaven?" to more provocative queries such as "What is God Like?" and "Is There Sex in Heaven?". The bulk of the film consists of expressively lit interviews, about these questions, with a wide variety of individuals. The film searches out people of extremely different backgrounds, from elderly men and women to punkish teenagers. Religious beliefs represented range from intensely fundamentalist Christian preachers to New Age practitioners with a far more non-traditional image of heaven. These interviews are broken up by montages of stock footage, which present images of death and heaven as represented in classic (and not-so-classic) cinema and television. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Woody Allen's gentle and nostalgic tribute to the glory days of radio and coming-of-age during World War II plays like Fellini's Amarcord filtered through Neil Simon. The nominal star is Seth Green as Joe, a teenage Jewish boy, growing up with a house full of relatives in Brooklyn. Allen cuts between Joe's working class neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, Queens, and the glittery and glamorous world of radio in Manhattan. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Farrow, Seth Green, (more)
Management consultant Diane Keaton has no time in her life for anything except her high-profile job. All this changes when she inherits a 14-month-old infant from a pair of recently deceased-and very distant-relatives. Intending to put the child up for adoption, she discovers that she has grown fond of the kid and has begun to thrive on the responsibilities of motherhood. All of this, of course, jeopardizes Keaton's love life and professional standing, but all turns out well when the baby inadvertently leads to a whole new moneymaking agenda for our heroine. Capraesque in concept, Baby Boom avoids phony sentiment and obvious humor, emerging as one of the singular comic delights of the late 1980s. On great bit has Keaton "celebrating" a major business coup by surreptiously performing an under-the-table jig (a bit of business that dates back to the 1924 Reginald Denny comedy Skinner's Dress Suit). Baby Boom was spun off into a TV sitcom in 1989, with Kate Jackson filling Diane Keaton's designer shoes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Harold Ramis, (more)
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Beth Henley (who also penned the screenplay), Crimes of the Heart stars three high-powered actresses as three high-strung sisters. Lenny (Diane Keaton), Meg (Jessica Lange) and Babe (Sissy Spacek) gather at Lenny's deep-South home for her birthday. Lenny, the oldest, can't seem to sustain a relationship with a man. Meg is an aspiring actress who hasn't progressed beyond commercial voice overs. And Babe is released on bond from jail after shooting her senator husband. Add to this information the fact that the girls' mother killed herself in Lenny's house, and that when Meg offhandedly expresses the wish that grouchy grandfather Hurd Hatfield would slip into a coma, he does, whereupon the sisters, despite every effort to treat the situation with proper sobriety, burst into helpless laughter over her "psychic" powers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, (more)
- 1984
- R
Based on John Le Carré's novel by the same name, this story about Charlie (Diane Keaton) a female double agent working between the Palestinians and Israelis, loses some of the excitement and in-depth characterization engendered by the long novel -- mainly because the novel is hard to capture in a two-hour filmed format. But the action itself carries viewers along as Charlie ends up leaving England and her job as an actress in a Brit repertory company to meet Kurtz (Klaus Kinski) in Greece who recruits her as a spy. Charlie later has to handle her own emotions when she gets romantically involved with her Israeli contact (Yorgo Voyagis), though events move her quickly along to a Palestinian military camp near Beirut. Once she has passed herself off as a reliable Palestinian agent and completed her military training at the camp, she goes to Germany to hunt down a Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey). Filled with a multitude of characters and locations, not to mention camera shots, the intensity of this story is dissipated somewhat by literally and figuratively covering a lot of territory, though the thread of the story itself is never lost. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Yorgo Voyagis, (more)
- 1984
What do you get when you cross Hitchcock and Renais? Douglas Davis' creation Psycho Mein Amour made up of the plots from Psycho and Hiroshima Mon Amour. ~ All Movie Guide
Based on a true story, Mrs. Soffel is set in Pittsburgh near the dawn of the 20th century. Peter Soffel (Edward Herrmann) is the warden of a top security prison, and his wife Kate (Diane Keaton) often comes by to read the Bible aloud to the inmates, despite her fragile health. While making her rounds, she makes the acquaintance of the Biddle Brothers, Ed (Mel Gibson) and Jack (Matthew Modine), who are sentenced to death for murder and robbery. Ed has become something of a celebrity thanks to his letter-writing campaign, in which he appeals in the letter-to-the-editor columns of the popular press to stay the execution of his brother and himself. His good looks, intelligence, and charm make a strong impression on Kate, whose marriage offers her little excitement. In time, Kate finds herself falling in love with Ed, and she discovers that she's unexpectedly receptive to his suggestion that she help him escape. Mrs. Soffel was the first American film from noted Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Mel Gibson, (more)
Director Alan Parker and writer Bo Goldman chronicle the emotional disintegration of an unhappy marriage. Albert Finney and Diane Keaton play George and Faith Dunlap, a seemingly happily married couple living with their four daughters in a converted farmhouse in Marin County, California. George is inwardly empty and decides to have an affair with Sandy (Karen Allen), who has doubts about how long their affair will last. Faith is also suffering from ennui and takes up with Frank Henderson (Peter Weller), the contractor for the Dunlap's tennis court. Frank, after discovering about Faith's affair, is in a confused state: he wants to leave and live with Sandy but doesn't want his wife to date other men and demands the love of his daughters -- all of whom now detest him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Finney, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1981
This compilation of three classic films is an experimental program where they all run together on three screens simultaneously. ~ All Movie Guide
Few filmmakers other than Warren Beatty would have had the courage and vision to fashion an epic film from the life of famed American Communist John Reed (who is the only US citizen buried in the Kremlin). The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of unsubtle and prejudicial broad strokes. The film begins in 1915, when Reed (Beatty) makes the acquaintance of married Portland journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). So persuasive is Reed's point of view--and so charismatic is Reed himself-- that Bryant kicks over the traces and joins Reed and his fellow radicals. Among the famous personages depicted herein are Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton), Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) and Max Eastman (Richard Herrmann). The second half of this nearly-200-minute film skims through the years when Reed, now a Russian resident, becomes disillusioned by the harsh realities of Bolshevism. Despite the celebrity line-up of real-life "witnesses" to the events depicted in the film (ranging from novelist Henry Miller to comedian George Jessel!), historians took Reds to task for its oversimplification of events and its laundering of the notoriously promiscuous Louise Bryant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, (more)
On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him ("My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue," he moans. "They'll be far away from God... away from the action") Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and {%Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: "You have to have a little more faith in people." Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith, and Mary Beth Hurt play Renata, Flyn, and Joey, the grown daughters of wealthy Arthur (E.G. Marshall) and his emotionally disturbed wife, Eve (Geraldine Page). When Arthur leaves Eve, her three daughters rally around her. As it turns out, none of the daughters are ideally suited to provide an "anchor" for their distracted mother, but all four women are strengthened by their renewed relationship. Interiors received five Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Woody Allen, Best Original Screenplay for Allen, Best Actress for Geraldine Page, Best Supporting Actress for Maureen Stapleton (who plays Arthur's new love), and Best Art Direction for Mel Bourne and Daniel Robert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, (more)
- 1977
- R
Adapted from Judith Rossner's best-selling novelization of a true story, Richard Brooks's melodrama turns one woman's search for a liberated life into a cautionary tale about promiscuity. After an affair with her college professor, no-longer-good Catholic girl Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton) follows the lead of her hedonistic sister (Tuesday Weld) and moves out of her oppressive family home to forge a life of her own. A compassionate teacher of deaf children by day, Theresa metamorphoses into a sexually free cruiser of singles bars by night. She prefers the satisfying attentions of unpredictable, danger-tinged stud Tony Lopanto (Richard Gere) to the more noble intentions of social worker James (William Atherton), but she ditches anyone who prevents her from being her "own girl." As Theresa's life threatens to spin out of control, she makes a vow to clean up her existence once and for all. But before she makes the break, she goes to one more bar and brings home one more man (Tom Berenger). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, (more)
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. Jewish comedy writer Alvy Singer (Allen) ponders the modern quest for love and his past romance with tightly-wound WASP singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton, née Diane Hall). The twice-divorced Alvy knows that it's not easy to find a mate when the options include pretentious New York intellectuals and lifestyle-obsessed Rolling Stone writers, but la-di-dah-ing Annie seems different. Along the rocky road of their coupling, Allen/Alvy weigh in on such topics as endless therapy, movies vs. TV, the absurdity of dating rituals, anti-Semitism, drugs, and, in one of the best set pieces, repressed Midwestern WASP insanity vs. crazy Brooklyn Jewish boisterousness. Annie wants to move to Los Angeles to find that fame that finally does in the relationship -- but not before Alvy gets in a few digs at vacuous, mantra-fixated California. Originally entitled Anhedonia (the inability to enjoy oneself), Annie Hall blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as Sleeper (1973) and Bananas (1971) with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, Annie Hall beat out Star Wars for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
