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Donna's Favorite Movie Stars Diane Keaton Donna's Cool Movies

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Diane Keaton: Artist and Icon by Deborah C. Mitchell - Book In the past 30 years, Diane Keaton has been an actress, a director and a photographer. This work begins with her early years in California, but the primary focus is on her film career from the 1970s through the present. The author examines Keaton's image as star and public figure, drawing on information from interviews (including personal conversations with Keaton), feature pieces, press releases, books, photographs, posters, films, and reviews of films. Each chapter provides an overview of the significant events and influences in Keaton's life during a particular period, along with a thematic and stylistic analysis of that period's feature films, television movies, and photography. The film analyses include an examination of themes and technical elements such as cinematography, mise-en-scène, movement, editing, sound, acting, costumes, set, and narrative structures.

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Clown Paintings by Diane Keaton (Editor) - book The world needs its clowns. It's the clowns of society who make us laugh - sometimes - and who help us view our lives with greater clarity and perspective. Bigger than life, with their exaggerated features and makeup, dressed in their gaudily mismatched and hilariously oversized outfits, clowns refuse to be overlooked. And yet, the portrait of the clown has been all but ignored. Trained to respond respectfully to serious portraiture, we try to read meaning into their big mouths, prosthetic noses, and unruly tufts of hair. Ultimately, the paintings are mysteries: what did amateur artists, who lavished so much time on these iconic images, hope to capture and accomplish? Clown Paintings is a twisty little illustrated book that showcases 65 outrageous and compelling clown portraits, painted by amateurs and selected by actor-directo Diane Keaton. By turns hilarious and heartfelt, joyful and mortifying, these artworks were collected over the years by Keaton, who found herself as mesmerized by their mute eloquence as she was by their bad taste.

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Something's Gotta Give (2003) Movie Showtimes As upscale sitcoms go, Something's Gotta Give has more to offer than most romantic comedies. Obviously working through some semi-autobiographical issues regarding "women of a certain age," writer-director Nancy Meyers brings adequate credibility and above-average intelligence to what is essentially (but not exclusively) a fantasy premise, in which an aging lothario who's always dated younger women (Jack Nicholson, more or less playing himself) falls for a successful middle-aged playwright (Diane Keaton) who's convinced she's past the age of romance, much less sexual re-awakening. As long as old pals Nicholson and Keaton are on screen discussing their dilemma or discovering their mutual desire, Something's Gotta Give is terrific, proving (in case anyone had forgotten) that Hollywood can and should aim for an older demographic. Myers falls short with the sitcom device of a younger lover (Keanu Reeves) who wants Keaton as much as Nicholson does; it's believable but shallow and too easily dismissed. Myers also skimps on supporting roles for Frances McDormand, Amanda Peet, and Jon Favreau, but thankfully this is one romantic comedy that doesn't pander to youth. Mature viewers, rejoice! Amazon.com Movie Showtimes

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Town & Country (2001) A hilarious comedy about life, love, friendship and the sometimes blistering nature of marital bliss. An updated sex farce fueled by modern-day foibles, the movie's also an apologetic valentine from notorious womanizers like Beatty, who, as wealthy Manhattan architect Porter Stoddard, is paying the price for his dalliance with a sexy cellist (Nastassja Kinski). While Porter's wife (Diane Keaton) fumes with suspicion, their best friends Mona (Goldie Hawn) and Griffin (Garry Shandling) wage their own marital warfare after Mona spies Griffin with a gorgeous redhead. Mona shouldn't believe what she sees, but she still has cause to worry.

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The Other Sister (1999) The Other Sister is another addition to the genre, a well- acted comedy-drama centering on the romance of Carla (Juliette Lewis) and Daniel (Giovani Ribisi) and throwing in some general family angst as a secondary story line. The acting is tremendous--Lewis and Ribisi both give convincing performances without condescending to their characters. Diane Keaton plays yet another charming scatterbrain, this time as Elizabeth Tate, the uptight, rich mother who wants a picture-perfect life.

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Annie Hall (1977) Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on film. In it, Allen plays a thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton) is a Midwestern transplant who dabbles in photography and sings in small clubs. When the two meet, the sparks are immediate--if repressed. Alone in her apartment for the first time, Alvy and Annie navigate a minefield of self-conscious "is-this-person-someone-I'd-want-to-get-involved-with?" conversation. As they speak, subtitles flash their unspoken thoughts: the likes of "I'm not smart enough for him" and "I sound like a jerk." Despite all their caution, they connect, and we're swept up in the flush of their new romance. Allen's antic sensibility shines here in a series of flashbacks to Alvy's childhood, growing up, quite literally, under a rumbling roller coaster.

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Father of the Bride (1991) This '90s update of the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor hit is a mix of the pleasant and the silly, a nice enough movie but a little too controlled to become particularly interesting. Steve Martin plays the aging patriarch who is threatened by his daughter's engagement and not-quite-willing to let her go. The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers provides Martin's character with a perhaps too-broad range of comic responsiveness to the situation, some of it gentle (a ritual game of basketball between dad and his little girl) and some of it slapstick (Martin sneaking around his prospective in-laws' house and encountering a guard dog). Martin Short turns up as a wedding coordinator--which has deliriously delicious possibilities--but his inventiveness doesn't quite strike the chord this time.

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The Good Mother (1988) Every passion has its price. For Anna Dunlap (Academy Award(R)-winner Diane Keaton), a recent divorcee and mother of a young daughter, Molly, the price may be devastating. Discovering true passion for the first time in her life after meeting artist Leo Cutter (Liam Neeson, STAR WARS, EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE), Anna's life couldn't be more perfect. But shocking charges against the young woman place her newfound lifestyle under scrutiny, shattering her sizzling relationship and forcing her to prove that she is a good mother.

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The First Wives Club (1996) Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton prove that revenge is a dish best served cold. Former college buddies, they reunite at the funeral of a dear friend who took a swan dive onto Fifth Avenue. All three discover they share the same unhappy history of husbands who dove into middle-age by dumping them for trophy wives. Forming a warring triumvirate, they decide to get even, and along the way remind themselves of long-forgotten capabilities. The action gets a little too "wacky" at times, but the gals are great.

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Hanging Up (2000) You've got to admire a movie that embraces womanhood as so few mainstream movies do, and Hanging Up deserves credit for combining issues of sisterhood and elderly parent care while relying on neuroses to carry its unconventional plot. But you've also got to lament this botched "dramedy" from screenwriting sisters Nora and Delia Ephron (adapting the latter's novel) and director Diane Keaton, who lack a coherent plan for illuminating their trio of female siblings. Despite a sharp focus on Meg Ryan as the middle sister Eve--a capable Los Angeles event planner--the movie never quite seems to know where it's going, and you feel like the best scenes are merely happy accidents. In exploring the foibles of family, Keaton fared better with her earlier film Unstrung Heroes. In addition to directing, Keaton plays the eldest sister Georgia, a celebrity magazine editor, and Lisa Kudrow is kid sister Maddy, a soap-opera actress who's nearly as self-absorbed as Georgia. They leave it to Eve to care for their declining father (Walter Matthau), a retired screenwriter who slips in and out of lucidity and is, at best, a cantankerous curmudgeon whose estranged wife (Cloris Leachman) has long since severed all family ties. This is potent material--at least it could have been--and Ryan admirably struggles to hold the film together. But it's ultimately a losing battle as the movie, so full of cell phones and disconnected people (hence the title), becomes disconnected itself, offering hollow humor and a few memorable moments with characters whose problems are too minimal to worry about.

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