Woody Allen paid tribute to his former muse, romantic partner and lifelong friend Diane Keaton, who died Saturday aged 79, in a heartfelt essay published in The free press.
“It’s grammatically incorrect to say ‘most unique,’ but all rules of grammar, and I suppose everything else, are suspended when talking about Diane Keaton,” Allen writes of the Oscar winner and style icon. “Unlike anyone the planet has ever known or is unlikely to ever see again, her face and her laugh lit up any space she entered.”
Allen remembers meeting Keaton when she starred opposite him in his 1969 play. Play it again, Sam. After a week of not speaking: “She was shy, I was shy, and with two shy people, things can get pretty boring.” » — notes Allen, they shared lunch during a break in rehearsals. “It was our first moment of personal contact. The result was that she was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: could I be in love so quickly?”
The two quickly became a couple and Keaton was the first person Allen showed his work to, his opinion the only one that mattered.
“I never read a single review of my work and only cared about what Keaton had to say about it. If she liked it, I considered the film an artistic success. If she wasn’t enthusiastic, I tried to use her reviews to re-edit and come away with something she liked better,” he wrote.
Allen was full of praise for Keaton’s artistic talents, noting that alongside her acting, dancing and singing abilities, she also “wrote books and did photography, made collages, decorated houses and made films”, but that she remained “a beautiful yoke” with deep ties to her family and her upbringing in rural Orange County.
Allen remembers a Thanksgiving at the Keaton family home, where he played penny poker with the Keaton clan and ended up the big winner, “clearing about 80 cents,” which made the rest of the family suspicious. “They thought I was pushing them.”
For many years, Keaton served as Allen’s artistic muse, appearing in several of his films, including his titular and Oscar-winning turn Annie Hallwhich won him the Oscar. She starred in a total of 8 Allen films, including the film version Play it again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973), love and death (1975), Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), Radio days (1987) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993).
Allen presented Keaton with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017, saying, “A lot of what I’ve accomplished in my life, I owe, of course, to her. Seeing life through her eyes. She’s truly amazing. She’s a woman who is great at everything she does.”
Keaton and Allen remained close and the actress publicly defended Allen through his public controversies. Most recently, during the #MeToo era, when allegations from former partner Mia Farrow resurfaced, accusing Allen of abusing their daughter, Dylan Farrow. Allen has always denied these allegations. “Woody Allen is my friend and I still believe him,” Keaton wrote at the time.
After “a few beautiful personal years together,” Allen notes in his essay, “we both moved on, and only God and Freud could understand why we separated.” Reflecting on her passing, Allen notes that “a few days ago, the world included Diane Keaton. Now it’s a world that isn’t. So it’s a drearier world. Yet there are her films. And her big laugh still rings in my head.”
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