Diane Keaton’s clothes were cinema. That much is certainly true when she emerges in “Annie Hall” after a tennis match in a wide-brimmed hat, khaki pants and an oversize vest with a tie poking out of it — perhaps the most memorable outfit in the history of movies.
That’s the moment when Keaton’s Annie first connects with Alvy Singer, played by the film’s director, Woody Allen, and her styling is so immediately idiosyncratic that it tells you everything you need to know about her character: She’s unique and a little bit askew in her consummate preppiness, the WASP to Allen’s nebbish. She looks like no one you’ve ever seen, a revelation in the tie her “grammy” gave her.
Her dialogue seems to match the quirkiness of her clothing as she awkwardly makes small talk with Alvy, chiding herself for saying something “dumb” when he compliments her tennis playing. “La-di-da, la-di-da, la-la,” she says, her hand on her hip. You get the sense that Annie threw on her clothes the same way she utters “La-di-da”: with little thought but complete earnestness, almost magically intriguing.
Keaton, whose death at 79 was confirmed on Saturday, was already known for “The Godfather” films by the time she appeared in “Annie Hall” in 1977, but it was the Allen comedy that would define not just her career but also her unmistakable aesthetic. The Diane Keaton look consisted of high necklines and oddball takes on traditionally male looks — hats and blazers; turtlenecks and button-downs; scarves and ties: menswear reimagined for herself. Other women would try to emulate her on red carpets or even in movies, like Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), for example. And yet, for the imitators, these ensembles looked like costumes. For Keaton, they were an ethos.
As an actress, Keaton could, when she wanted to, disappear into roles, like the unsuspecting mob wife Kay Corleone in “The Godfather” saga or the early 20th-century journalist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty’s drama “Reds” (1981). But Keaton’s, well, Keaton-ness was also one of her great skills.
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The post Diane Keaton’s Unmistakable Look Also Was Key to Her Art appeared first on New York Times.
