To the editor: Whereas most tributes to Diane Keaton within the wake of her dying deal with her iconic roles and Oscar-winning efficiency in “Annie Corridor,” we’re additionally mourning a girl who refused to vanish — a star who insisted that ladies’s tales don’t finish after a sure age (“Diane Keaton, movie legend, trend trendsetter and champion of L.A.’s previous, lifeless at 79,” Oct. 11).
Keaton didn’t simply navigate Hollywood’s dismissive remedy of older girls; she subverted it. From “The Godfather” to “Guide Membership,” her profession charted the evolution of girls each on and off display screen. When Keaton appeared as Kay Adams in “The Godfather” in 1972, she confirmed us what occurs when a girl disappears into a person’s world.
As a youngster, I acknowledged the warning. My conventional Chinese language American immigrant mom wished me to marry nicely and be a homemaker who suppressed my very own wants. Kay represented the lady I feared — shedding my voice and id.
5 years later, “Annie Corridor” was a revelation. Keaton’s Annie wore males’s vests, sang off-key and confirmed that authenticity was its personal type of magnificence. At 57, she starred in “One thing’s Gotta Give,” demonstrating that need and reinvention don’t expire at menopause. The movie grossed $265 million worldwide, proving audiences will prove for tales about older girls. In 2018, at 72, Keaton starred in “Guide Membership,” reminding us that ladies don’t cease craving journey or reference to age.
But, whilst Keaton celebrated girls’s full arcs, Hollywood nonetheless treats them as expendable after 40. Keaton refused to cover her wrinkles. That refusal was energy itself.
For 5 a long time, Keaton confirmed us that our tales by no means finish; they evolve. She taught us that turning into your self is a lifelong act of recreation.
Yvonne Liu, Rancho Palos Verdes
