Photo by R.V.P. Productions - © 1987
Heaven (1987)
Heaven (1987)
Heaven
(Lightyear Blu-ray)
Diane Keaton was an actor much beloved by all who worked with her. She assumed a variety of roles, including Kay Adams in The Godfather (1972) and sequels, but is most remembered for playing the era-defining title character in Annie Hall (1977). Her ventures into directing were well liked but left fewer impressions.
Although Keaton lived until October 2025, she was already thinking of what comes next in her directorial debut, Heaven (1987). Heaven is a documentary of a place unseen, an existence unknowable. Her film is a sequential collage of images and voices snatched from old movies (Green Pastures, Stairway to Heaven) and religious broadcasts, interspersed with short interview segments with Keaton’s family and several celebrities (Don King, Victoria Sellers). Their responses are varied, from literal to whimsical and metaphorical, from fearful to hopeful, resigned but fretful of the path to the end (and the beginning?). The tone is often ironic yet also serious, poignant, giddy and moving. The new home viewing release is Heaven’s debut in HD. (David Luhrssen)
