On Death And Dying: Diane Keaton's "Heaven" and "Unstrung Heroes"

When Diane Keaton passed away, many of us who post regularly on the socials took to our keyboards and told the world about our favorite role of hers and what her presence on screen meant to us. The range of titles was wide indeed. “The Godfather” movies, “Reds,” “Annie Hall” (and many other Woody Allen titles), “Looking For Mr. Goodbar," “Father of the Bride,” “Baby Boom” and my personal favorite, Alan Parker's “Shoot The Moon,” were among the many films that people remembered her for and that collection of films more than makes up for the lesser titles that also appear in her filmography. These are all-timers and it’s still hard to believe we now live in a world where she does not exist, except for her body of work. 

Within that legacy are two directorial efforts that I think tell us a lot about her. The first is the one that I posted about on that cloudy Saturday afternoon, her documentary “Heaven,” a pet project she labored on for years before finally releasing it in 1987. Not many people know about this film, but those lucky enough to find it feel grateful for the discovery. It has been on a regular rotation for me ever since I rented it on video that same year. I have been showing it to people for decades and they immediately want to own it after watching it so they can enjoy its pleasures and profundity again and again. It’s a deep trip into the subject of the divine and the unknown, but with a quirky, approachable framework that delights the eyes and ears while engaging the intellect on a personal level. In other words, this is also an all-timer. 

“Heaven” mixes contemporary interview footage with a random assortment of unknowns (except maybe for Don King) who all have an opinion on the afterlife, specifically the concept of Heaven. These testimonials are playfully interspersed with footage from classic films such as “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Metropolis,” “A Guy Named Joe,” “Green Pastures” and “Stairway To Heaven,” among many others. The people talking about their wishes and ideas of heaven are lit through psychedelic patterns and light schemes that seem like they’re not part of our world, but who have the wisdom of life experience to sound like an authority on the elusive subject for which they are being interviewed. Some are more articulate than others, but that insecurity makes the movie that much more human.

The film is broken up into chapters that ask such questions as, “Is there a Heaven?” “What is heaven like?” “How do you get to Heaven?” “Is there sex in Heaven?” And the most often asked question in the film that gets at least three hypnotic sequences, “Are you afraid to die?” These sequences can be quite intense as Keaton and her sound editors use loops of fire-and-brimstone televangelists screaming about eternity in Hell unless you repent, while another voice tells us, “your time will soon be gone! Your time will soon be gone!” all while Howard Shore’s score utilizes a ticking clock to the same effect he used it for in Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours.” It’s not subtle, but it’s an astonishing mash-up of images and ideas that achieve a thrilling crescendo each and every time. 

Keaton isn’t nearly foolish enough to think her film has all the answers. “Heaven” just wants to get the conversation going in the viewer’s mind. Its style feels akin to the music videos of the era and it’s no surprise that a few months after the film’s release, Keaton directed the similarly styled video for Belinda Carlisle’s hit “Heaven Is A Place On Earth.” The movie’s rhythm is informed by her musical choices throughout, including songs by Sam Cooke, “Endless Love,” by Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross, as well as Henry Mancini’s theme from “Peter Gunn,” all of which are used to poetic effect when coupled with footage from some of the most astonishing images of the afterlife that still resonate today (unfortunately, Wim Wenders’ ethereal “Wings of Desire” from the same year wasn’t on Keaton’s radar just yet, but his visual concepts of the afterlife would certainly fit at home here). The film is a kaleidoscope of ideas that burrow their way into the viewer and linger there for days after the film has ended, much like the most effective preachers of the world, the ones who invite the individual into the conversation rather than tell them what to think. 

“Heaven” is one of those forgotten films that needs a home. There remains only a DVD release from Image Entertainment and whose transfer just isn’t good enough. Death and dying may be the film’s focus, but few films are as alive as this one when expounding on the subject. It’s rich with color, hypnotic imagery, a propulsive soundtrack and an editing style that might remind the viewer of YouTube mash-ups, only better. Last I saw, it was available to view on Tubi and YouTube, but the last thing you want when watching this film is for it to be interrupted by an embedded Domino’s Pizza ad. This needs a blu-ray from a label that cares about it (and I’d be more than happy to write the essay, if you're out there). 

Fortunately, the same fate does not apply to her next directorial effort, 1995’s more straightforward drama, “Unstrung Heroes,” currently available from Kino Video. The film is based on the memoir by Franz Lidz (real name, Steven) about his childhood and growing up with his mother, Selma, who was dying of cancer, played in the film by Andie MacDowell. His father, Sid (John Turturro), has a scientific mind that rarely allows for fanciful thought or spiritual intuition, despite his Jewish upbringing. His brothers, Danny and Arthur (Michael Richards and Maury Chaykin, respectively), are just the opposite, as they dwell in their apartment hoarding newspapers and playground balls while dodging their landlord. They belong in their own “Grey Gardens” movie, but they do make appearances at important family gatherings. 

As his mother appears to get sicker and sicker, young Steven (Nathan Watt) feels the need to spend more time with his uncles and often runs away to be with them, much to the chagrin and worry of Selma and Sid. Steven detaches from his father as a means to get in touch with a part of his upbringing that barely gets mentioned in his own household. Danny and Arthur aren’t just more fun to be around than Steven’s father, they also are deeply rooted in their Jewish faith, something that Steven feels drawn to with each new experience. If these two can see a path toward an afterlife, despite their schizophrenia, perhaps there is hope for Steven’s mother in a way he had never imagined before and maybe it’s worth learning about as much as possible. 

It is Danny and Arthur who give Steven his new name and, thus, a new identity. He acts out in school against saying the Pledge of Allegiance, espouses conspiracy theories and begins wearing oversized hand-me-downs given to him by his uncles. Selma comically observes “oh my god, he’s becoming one of them.” Steven/Franz is on a personal journey of his own making, not to rebel, but to make sure that when his mother finally passes, he can find a way forward with his grief knowing she has a path into Heaven, or whatever it may be, and all is not lost. His father cannot understand any of it, at least not until the end. 

In one of the film’s final moments, after Selma dies, Franz discovers some old home movies in the trash, discarded by his father who prefers to not get bogged down in the memories that can never be re-lived. Franz sees this as a betrayal of all things his mother meant to him. The film opens with some lighthearted home movies being shot by Sid as scientific documentation of failed inventions and ends with Steven watching these movies in a synagogue, projecting the most perfect 8mm images of his mother onto the altar, perhaps as a way of sending her into the heavens, using scientifically-engineered light to project someone into their next realm of existence. 

This is where Keaton's two films intersect. Where “Heaven” uses old movies and new interviews to explore the subject of the afterlife with everyone in the film unable to agree on or articulate what that transition from life to death encompasses, “Unstrung Heroes" uses home movies in a synagogue to convey the transition on a more personal level. Creative types, such as Keaton, can conceive of a Heaven through cinema and visual storytelling. If Steven wants his mother to move on, he must build a Heaven for her through prayer and being open to spiritual experience, while part of her soul can still exist for him on film. “Heaven” is a movie about what Heaven might be while “Unstruing Heroes” is about one way to possibly get there. 

“Unstrung Heroes" was on my top 10 list for 1995 and it’s still frustrating to me that many dismiss it as just another average tearjerker. Richard LaGravenesce’s typically wise, funny and nuanced script is one of his best, aided beautifully by Keaton’s direction, Phedon Papamichael’s exquisite cinematography and Thomas Newman’s trademark emotional and inventive score. There isn’t a bad performance in the whole thing and MacDowell’s final scene represents a peak in Keaton’s directing career, using a pop song to serve as a backdrop for a moment in life that will define the rest of the family forever. Sure, it’s a tearjerker moment, but it never crosses into maudlin territory, not even close. 

These two films tell me a lot about Keaton as a deeply personal artist that maybe she never got credit for, particularly in her later years. I wish she made more films like this, but we’re lucky to have these at all (not to mention her "Twin Peaks” episode). When I watch that scene in “Annie Hall” where Alvy Singer buys Annie books on death and dying and she remarks that these books are a little on the heavy side, I often wonder if Allen did buy these books for Keaton and if they somehow started her on this journey. Perhaps there was an influence, but also, like Steven/Franz Lidz, maybe making “Heaven” and “Unstrung Heroes” were her way of constructing a kind of hope for an afterlife that maybe she had doubts about. As I posted on my Facebook page, I hope the Heaven she’s in is as magical as the movie she made about it. 

Whatever the case, you would do well to seek out both films. After all, your time will soon be gone.