Diane Keaton’s Three Perfect Movies, According to Rotten Tomatoes

Movie fans around the world were shocked and devastated to learn on Saturday (October 11) that legendary American actress Diane Keaton had died at the age of 79.

If you’re a fan of Keaton’s incredibly diverse and brilliant body of work, you can pay homage to him with a movie marathon of some of his most famous and beloved films, including his most famous collaborations with Woody Allen, “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall,” the latter of which earned him an Oscar for playing the title role (which was, in fact, based on her). Other must-sees include “Father of the Bride” and its sequels, “The First Wives Club,” “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II,” and “Something’s Gotta Give,” to name a few. Incredibly, Keaton appeared in three films that earned perfect ratings on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Even more unbelievably, I didn’t list any of these three above. Even more incredibly, one of them was Keaton’s first movie.

To be clear, I think almost every film in Keaton’s extensive catalog artwork is made better by her mere presence, and I’m as gutted as anyone else by the loss of this magnetic, charismatic and utterly unique actress. Still, three perfectly rated films is another great achievement for Keaton, so let’s look at three of his best (and first!) films.

Diane Keaton’s very first film role, 1970’s “Lovers and Other Strangers,” is one of the films that earned a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Cy Howard and written by Joseph Bologna, David Zelag Goodman and Renée Taylor (based on a play of the same name by Bologna and Taylor), “Lovers and Other Strangers” centers on two troubled couples. Future newlyweds Mike Vecchio and Susan Henderson (Michael Brandon and Bonnie Bedelia), who have been together for over a year, are having trouble getting to the altar, and Mike’s brother, Richie Vecchio (Joseph Hindy) and his wife, Joan – played by Keaton – are considering divorce over their parents’ objections.

“Lovers and Other Strangers” boasts a pretty spectacular supporting cast including Bea Arthur, Cloris Leachman and Anne Meara, as well as appearances from Meara’s equally famous husband, Jerry Stiller, and future Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone (the latter two of whom didn’t even get credits for the film). Keaton is part of a pretty big ensemble here, but she still manages to shine, making Joan approachable, messy, and fully realized.

Co-written with collaborator Marshall Brickman, Woody Allen’s 1973 sci-fi comedy “Sleeper” is genuinely hilarious and a little prophetic (in a disturbing way) – and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that Diane Keaton is fantastic in it. After Miles Monroe (Allen), a health food store owner in 1970s New York, goes to the hospital for a routine procedure that goes wrong, he is cryogenically frozen, only to be resuscitated by two scientists in 2173. The scientists who choose to bring him back are part of a resistance effort against the shadowy, anonymous figure known only as “The Leader”, who runs a police state dystopian following a nuclear explosion.

So where does Keaton fit in? She plays Luna Schlosser, a socialite and artist in this post-apocalyptic society who ends up receiving a “robot” (Miles in disguise) to help her with household chores. After discovering that Miles is not a robot but an unwitting time traveler, she is ready to turn him in until he kidnaps her and attempts to get her help in researching the Leader’s mysterious plan called “Project Aries”. As their story continues, Luna and Miles fall in love, but there is a lot great joke which precedes their happy union.

“Sleeper” is a very good first entry in the Allen canon, but truth be told, he never could have done it without Keaton. The actress’s third and final film to earn a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score was also a collaboration with Allen, and surprisingly, it came just two years after “Sleeper.”

I have … problems with Woody Allen as any sane person does, but far be it from me to pretend that his 1975 parody of Russian dramas, “Love and Death,” isn’t one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen in my life. After “Sleeper,” this is where Diane Keaton can really show off her goofy skills. Her character in the previous film was more of a straight man to prankster Miles, but in “Love and Death,” Keaton’s Sonja is a volatile, emotional, rebellious weirdo who runs away with his every scene.

As the cousin of Allen’s Boris Grushenko – who is hopelessly in love with her from the jump – Sonja is unfortunately in love with one of Boris’s sexier but dumber brothers and frankly never even bothers to fall for him, marrying a line of old men before she finally agrees to marry Boris (largely because she thinks he’ll get killed in a duel before she has to look after him). Keaton has too many great lines in this film to count, but I couldn’t help but include this mini-monologue she delivers to Boris:

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love, but then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer, to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love, to be happy then is to suffer but to suffer makes one unhappy; therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you understand this.”

Sonja and Boris eventually team up and try to work together to defeat Napoleon. When they fail, she escapes, but Boris is sentenced to death. Keaton is, and I can’t stress this enough, incredibly funny in “Love and Death”, and if you haven’t seen it, go see it immediately. Keaton has so many great films to choose from, but if you really want to work your way through his entire body of work, start with these three, and you won’t regret it.