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Plenty of talented female actors have appeared in romantic comedies. Typically, if they want to receive Oscar recognition, they have to reach for dramatic parts. The late Diane Keaton, who passed away recently, took an opposite path and made it look effortless grace. Her first major film role was in the classic The Godfather, as dramatic an cinematic masterpiece as has ever been made. But that same year, she returned to the role of the character Linda, the love interest of a geeky protagonist, in a movie version of the theatrical production Play It Again, Sam. She persistently switched serious dramas with funny love stories across the seventies, and the lighter fare that won her an Oscar for outstanding actress, transforming the category forever.

The Oscar-Winning Role

The award was for the film Annie Hall, written and directed by Woody Allen, with Keaton in the lead role, a component of the couple’s failed relationship. Woody and Diane dated previously before production, and remained close friends until her passing; when speaking publicly, Keaton described Annie as a dream iteration of herself, as seen by Allen. One could assume, then, to believe her portrayal involves doing what came naturally. But there’s too much range in her performances, both between her Godfather performance and her Allen comedies and within Annie Hall itself, to discount her skill with romantic comedy as merely exuding appeal – though she was, of course, tremendously charming.

A Transition in Style

Annie Hall famously served as Allen’s shift between more gag-based broad comedies and a authentic manner. Consequently, it has lots of humor, dreamlike moments, and a freewheeling patchwork of a romantic memory alongside sharp observations into a ill-fated romance. Keaton, similarly, presides over a transition in American rom-coms, playing neither the fast-talking screwball type or the glamorous airhead popularized in the 1950s. Rather, she fuses and merges elements from each to create something entirely new that still reads as oddly contemporary, interrupting her own boldness with uncertain moments.

Watch, for example the sequence with the couple initially bond after a game on the courts, fumbling over ping-ponging invitations for a ride (although only just one drives). The dialogue is quick, but zig-zags around unpredictably, with Keaton soloing around her unease before winding up in a cul-de-sac of that famous phrase, a expression that captures her anxious charm. The movie physicalizes that tone in the following sequence, as she engages in casual chat while navigating wildly through Manhattan streets. Afterward, she finds her footing delivering the tune in a cabaret.

Dimensionality and Independence

This is not evidence of Annie acting erratic. Throughout the movie, there’s a dimensionality to her light zaniness – her lingering counterculture curiosity to try drugs, her fear of crustaceans and arachnids, her refusal to be manipulated by Alvy’s efforts to shape her into someone outwardly grave (for him, that implies focused on dying). In the beginning, Annie could appear like an unusual choice to win an Oscar; she is the love interest in a movie seen from a man’s point of view, and the main pair’s journey doesn’t bend toward either changing enough accommodate the other. However, she transforms, in aspects clear and mysterious. She merely avoids becoming a better match for Alvy. Numerous follow-up films stole the superficial stuff – neurotic hang-ups, odd clothing – not fully copying Annie’s ultimate independence.

Ongoing Legacy and Senior Characters

Possibly she grew hesitant of that trend. Following her collaboration with Allen ended, she took a break from rom-coms; her movie Baby Boom is essentially her sole entry from the complete 1980s period. However, in her hiatus, the character Annie, the character perhaps moreso than the loosely structured movie, became a model for the category. Meg Ryan, for example, is largely indebted for her comedic roles to Keaton’s ability to embody brains and whimsy at once. This cast Keaton as like a permanent rom-com queen despite her real roles being married characters (if contentedly, as in Father of the Bride, or more strained, as in The First Wives Club) and/or moms (see the holiday film The Family Stone or Because I Said So) than single gals falling in love. Even during her return with Woody Allen, they’re a established married pair brought closer together by comic amateur sleuthing – and she eases into the part smoothly, wonderfully.

But Keaton did have an additional romantic comedy success in 2003 with the film Something’s Gotta Give, as a dramatist in love with a man who dates younger women (the star Jack Nicholson, naturally). What happened? One more Oscar recognition, and a complete niche of love stories where mature females (usually played by movie stars, but still!) reclaim their love lives. One factor her passing feels so sudden is that Keaton was still making those movies as recently as last year, a regular cinema fixture. Today viewers must shift from taking that presence for granted to understanding the huge impact she was on the funny romance as we know it. Is it tough to imagine present-day versions of such actresses who walk in her shoes, the reason may be it’s seldom for a star of her caliber to commit herself to a category that’s mostly been streaming fodder for a recent period.

A Special Contribution

Consider: there are 10 living female actors who received at least four best actress nominations. It’s unusual for a single part to originate in a romantic comedy, let alone half of them, as was the situation with Diane. {Because her