A look back at the Oscar-winning actress’s pair of big-screen directing efforts.
“I really like the whole aspect of it,” Diane Keaton told Larry King about directing during a 2000 interview. “I like the editing, I like the preparing of it, I like the visual aspect of it, I like the shooting, I like the camera; but most of all I love the actors, which is what I am,” she added. Anyone who had ever seen any of Keaton’s directing work would agree with her. The actress loved throwing herself into all aspects of whatever she was creating behind the camera and letting everything absorb her. The results of her work typically ranged from the surprising to the iconic.
She helmed the music videos for two of pop icon Belinda Carlisle’s biggest hits, “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” and “I Get Weak,” in the late 1980s. The out there imagery proved captivating, and Carlisle herself credited Keaton’s visions for the videos as being partly responsible for both songs’ successes. Keaton’s documentary effort from around this time, Heaven, got her a fair bit of criticism, but her season two episode of Twin Peaks, “Slaves and Masters,” gave something of a jolt to the already wild series. This was in addition to the other directing and producing work she did for television and film, which included producing the haunting 2003 Gus Van Sant indie Elephant.
But Keaton’s feature work as a director never got its full due while she was alive, despite some undeniable talent that she showed with both efforts. In honor of what would have been her 80th birthday, I thought a tribute to 1995’s Unstrung Heroes, and 2000’s Hanging Up were more than due.
Unstrung Heroes
Set in the 1950’s, a young boy named Steven (Nathan Watt) has to contend with junior high, his invention-driven father Sidney (John Turturro), and his oddball uncles Danny (Michael Richards) and Arthur (Maury Chaykin). When Steven’s loving mother, Selma (Andie MacDowell), gets sick, it forces him to start to see life through a vastly different lens than the one he was used to.
Set in the tranquil Southern California landscape of the 50s, Unstrung Heroes benefits from a beautiful screenplay from Richard LaGravenese, who adapted this real-life story with such care and love that it’s no wonder Keaton was drawn to make it as her feature directing debut. The nostalgic cinematography is gorgeous, Thomas Newman’s Grammy and Oscar-nominated score is everything, and the beautiful Spanish-style home in which the family resides all work their wonders. Much like Keaton herself, Steven comes from a family full of unconventionality, imagination, and love. Sidney’s wacky inventions are fun to see, as well as his belief in the importance of documenting everything with his movie camera. There’s a playful curiosity in the story and in the storytelling approach itself that lovingly captures this family and their special dynamic. An early scene sees Selma serve pancakes for Steven’s birthday dinner, while a device Sidney has created project an illuminated solar system around the dining room as they eat. Turturro is amazing here as a man who is eternally curious about the world and the possibilities within it, while Richards is a tour de force as the paranoid Danny, and Chaykin is sweet as the childlike Arthur. The scenes featuring Steven in his uncle’s apartment are some of the film’s most magical, with a maze of newspapers and a closet full of colored rubber balls that spill out when the door is opened. It’s the perfect world for him to escape to when cancer hits Selma, and he doesn’t know what to do.
Unstrung Heroes is an incredibly sensitive and loving film that captures the emotions of the characters in ways that speak to reality, despite some of the more fantastic touches. It’s telling and touching the way Sidney’s demeanor changes the more Selma’s condition worsens, with his drive for experimentation and overall gusto slowly vanishing. This speaks to his wife’s influence on him and how he was only able to be his true, unorthodox self because of her and the safe space she provided. It’s similar to a kind of reverence Keaton had for her mother, which she chronicled in “Then Again,” the bestselling book she wrote about her. The director shares the same kind of admiration for Selma in this film as does MacDowell, who beautifully grounds the character, making her the film’s most solid presence, despite being the most fragile one, physically. One special moment sees Steven asking Selma if she’s dying. The honesty with which she tells him yes, before saying she’s sorry for dying, feels like the kind of moment that wouldn’t exist in most cinematic fare of the day with a child protagonist, but it speaks to the unique bond between this mother and son. Keaton captures it exquisitely. Reflecting on the film she created some years later, she commented: “I liked the movie because it was about family, and it’s also about the notion that documentation is key, that saving the past is really important.”
Hanging Up
The heroine of Hanging Up is Eve Marks (Meg Ryan), a successful wife and mother who owns her own event planning business, and whose father, Lou (Walter Matthau, in his final film role), has recently become a handful. Due to some recent health issues, Lou has to be checked into the hospital for some tests, leaving Eve convinced he’s near death. However, neither of her sisters, including older magazine publisher Georgia (Keaton), nor younger soap opera actress Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), believe her.
Keaton was so synonymous with Nancy Meyers from the late 80s to the early 00s, yet manages to acquit herself well with Nora Ephron in this, their only collaboration together. Co-written and produced by Ephron, who adapted her sister Delia’s novel with her, Hanging Up‘s autobiographical elements are everywhere. Perhaps that’s why Ephron suggested Keaton direct it herself after first presenting her with the project with the intent of casting her as Georgia. Meanwhile, issues with the comedy Town & Country, which Keaton starred in alongside Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, forced her to shoot her second directing effort in between that movie’s end of principal photography and subsequent reshoots. It’s probably why the Christmas flashback sequence and the Thanksgiving end scene make things feel like Hanging Up was meant to be released during the previous holiday season. Beyond this were the reservations Keaton had about directing herself, which she was eventually able to shake once she realized how she could put her own stamp onto the movie. Hanging Up does feel like a movie Diane Keaton would create, thanks to some visually pleasing cinematic transitions and a return to the Southern California setting (Ephron and her sisters were also raised there). Some additional great visual touches are on hand, especially in the Halloween birthday party Eve throws for her son, which includes hanging jack-o-lanterns and white sheets that are illuminated. The family dynamics may mirror the Ephron’s themselves, especially with Keaton playing a Nora analog that sees her in a great turn as the sister who has become a success, much in the way the actress did in real life.
Ryan is great at playing frazzled, giving a near-manic performance that provides the perfect balance between the script’s comedy and her character’s ever-growing fear that her father is dying. It’s a great breather from the date movies that made up so much of Ryan’s career during this time. A funny recurring bit sees her exclaim, “He’s dead!” every time the phone or doorbell rings. There’s a spirited, but elegiac performance from Matthau (who became sick near the end of filming), while Kudrow’s comedy chops serve her well, and Keaton manages to shine in a role that’s something of a departure for her as well. Even though there are three comedic actresses in the roles, and the film does venture into slapstick now and then, Hanging Up has a number of moments that are grounded in reality. Eve’s estranged mother’s (Cloris Leachman) revelation to her that she simply never wanted to be a mother is gentle, yet up front, while Lou’s drunken tirade during his grandson’s birthday party all show the complicated dynamics within the family. They also speak to the assortment of random moments that come back to us while we’re saying goodbye; the mental places we go to when something’s coming to an end. Eve is convinced their father is dying, while Georgia is in deep denial, and Maddy is hopelessly oblivious. Each response feels so real because each one represents the different stages a person goes through when this part of life hits them. The refusal to accept that their father is dying hit home for me, bringing back memories of my own reaction when that part of life hit me. Watching Hanging Up for the first time since my own father’s passing, I was struck by the emotional places it went to, and how Keaton was able to capture it.
When asked in 2005 why she hadn’t directed since Hanging Up‘s release in early 2000, Keaton said: “I need to work on my craft more.” I know what she means. Neither Unstring Heroes nor Hanging Up can be considered perfect films. There’s a need for more evenness between the polish and the substance in the two titles. Also, with both films clocking in at the 90+ minute mark, there’s a slightly rushed quality to certain aspects of each film that threatens to shortchange the affective emotional beats.
Still, watching them back-to-back as I did, both movies make for a beautiful double feature. Their similarities are apparent. The two films represent different types of love letters to California (Pasadena and Beverly Hills, respectively). Both are about families, compromised relationships, holding on, and letting go. Each one spotlights the death of a parent, from different stages of life, while still conveying how scary, powerful, and life-altering it can be, no matter the age of the child. Finally, both Unstring Heroes and Hanging Up are a great encapsulation of life changing, both in an instant, the way Joan Didion famously described, and in the deceptively gradual way you don’t even realize.
