From the film Annie Hall all the way to the movie Something’s Gotta Give: Diane Keaton Emerged as the Archetypal Queen of Comedy.

Plenty of talented performers have starred in rom-coms. Ordinarily, if they want to receive Oscar recognition, they must turn for more serious roles. Diane Keaton, who died unexpectedly, charted a different course and made it look seamless ease. Her first major film role was in The Godfather, as weighty an American masterpiece as has ever been made. Yet in the same year, she reprised the part of Linda, the love interest of a geeky protagonist, in a cinematic take of the stage play Play It Again, Sam. She regularly juggled intense dramas with funny love stories during the 1970s, and it was the latter that won her an Oscar for outstanding actress, altering the genre for good.

The Award-Winning Performance

That Oscar was for the film Annie Hall, co-written and directed by Allen, with Keaton portraying Annie, a component of the couple’s failed relationship. The director and star had been in a romantic relationship before production, and remained close friends for the rest of her life; in interviews, Keaton described Annie as a perfect image of herself, as seen by Allen. It might be simple, then, to assume Keaton’s performance required little effort. But there’s too much range in her acting, contrasting her dramatic part and her funny films with Allen and inside Annie Hall alone, to discount her skill with romantic comedy as merely exuding appeal – even if she was, of course, tremendously charming.

Shifting Genres

Annie Hall notably acted as Allen’s transition between slapstick-oriented movies and a realistic approach. Consequently, it has plenty of gags, fantasy sequences, and a loose collage of a relationship memoir alongside sharp observations into a fated love affair. In a similar vein, Diane, oversaw a change in Hollywood love stories, portraying neither the screwball-era speed-talker or the glamorous airhead common in the fifties. Rather, she fuses and merges aspects of both to invent a novel style that seems current today, cutting her confidence short with uncertain moments.

Observe, for instance the moment when Annie and Alvy first connect after a game on the courts, stumbling through reciprocal offers for a lift (even though only a single one owns a vehicle). The exchange is rapid, but zig-zags around unpredictably, with Keaton maneuvering through her own discomfort before winding up in a cul-de-sac of her whimsical line, a phrase that encapsulates her nervous whimsy. The movie physicalizes that feeling in the subsequent moment, as she makes blasé small talk while navigating wildly through Manhattan streets. Later, she finds her footing delivering the tune in a club venue.

Depth and Autonomy

These aren’t examples of Annie being unstable. During the entire story, there’s a dimensionality to her playful craziness – her post-hippie openness to sample narcotics, her panic over lobsters and spiders, her resistance to control by Alvy’s attempts to mold her into someone more superficially serious (which for him means preoccupied with mortality). Initially, Annie could appear like an odd character to earn an award; she’s the romantic lead in a story filtered through a man’s eyes, and the main pair’s journey doesn’t lead to sufficient transformation accommodate the other. Yet Annie does change, in ways both observable and unknowable. She just doesn’t become a better match for her co-star. Numerous follow-up films borrowed the surface traits – anxious quirks, eccentric styles – not fully copying her final autonomy.

Enduring Impact and Mature Parts

Possibly she grew hesitant of that tendency. After her working relationship with Woody finished, she stepped away from romantic comedies; her movie Baby Boom is practically her single outing from the complete 1980s period. Yet while she was gone, the film Annie Hall, the persona even more than the free-form film, emerged as a template for the style. Meg Ryan, for example, is largely indebted for her comedic roles to Keaton’s ability to portray intelligence and flightiness together. This cast Keaton as like a everlasting comedy royalty despite her real roles being more wives (be it joyfully, as in the movie Father of the Bride, or more strained, as in that ensemble comedy) and/or moms (see that Christmas movie or Because I Said So) than single gals falling in love. Even during her return with Woody Allen, they’re a long-married couple united more deeply by comic amateur sleuthing – and she slips into that role smoothly, wonderfully.

Yet Diane experienced another major rom-com hit in 2003 with the film Something’s Gotta Give, as a playwright in love with a older playboy (actor Jack Nicholson, naturally). The outcome? Her final Oscar nomination, and a entire category of romances where mature females (usually played by movie stars, but still!) take charge of their destinies. A key element her passing feels so sudden is that she kept producing those movies just last year, a regular cinema fixture. Today viewers must shift from expecting her roles to understanding the huge impact she was on the rom-com genre as it is recognized. Should it be difficult to recall modern equivalents of such actresses who emulate her path, that’s probably because it’s seldom for a star of her talent to commit herself to a category that’s often just online content for a long time.

A Special Contribution

Reflect: there are ten active actresses who earned several Oscar nods. It’s uncommon for any performance to begin in a rom-com, not to mention multiple, as was the situation with Diane. {Because her