......in this. Especially in the red dress in the beginning. People always go on about Apollonia and I've heard people negatively compare how Keaton looked to her, but I thought she was beautiful. I liked the old hair too.
shareI thought she had a sweetness about her. She was and is a lovely looking lady.
I enjoy many of her films. Have you seen Looking For Mr. Goodbar? Disturbing, but with funny moments. There is a scene I enjoy where she and Richard Gere are sitting at a bar. She has a book in her hand. Gere taps it with his fingers and says how much he liked it... or the movie. I forget exactly what he says. The book is The Godfather by Mario Puzo.
For me, Keaton was OK.. Certainly a decent enough looking woman (Michael was handsome and a war hero so his consort wouldn't be a dog), but other than the distinctly non-ethnic quality to her, she was just slightly better than average IMO.
The sleeper in this movie was the actress that played Sonny's wife. She was gorgeous.
What? Sonnys wife?
Now, Apollonia, she was gorgeous.
Yeah, but throwing in a 17 year old virginal Italian/Greek goddess is hardly fair. My comment was regarding Diane Keaton and comparing her to another mature woman, Julie Gregg (who died two years ago).
Here is a pic of her circa The Godfather:
http://www.raysdvds.org/headshots/cast/Julie%20Gregg.jpg
And one about the time she was a henchman (henchwoman?) on TV's Batman:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/batman60stv/images/5/5a/Finella.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131021001328
Given her low screen time, she doesn't get much attention. But many women, if given a second look, can surprise you. Anyway, that's my take on all this...
"People always go on about Apollonia and I've heard people negatively compare how Keaton looked to her"
That's because Simonetta Stefanelli was an exotic looking knockout and Diane Keaton was rather generic looking. She wasn't even the second best looking actress in this movie IMO; Talia Shire was.
Around this time, Keaton was most famous for a TV commercial about deodorant, where she was wearing track clothes(tank top and shorts) and complaining about running around all the time. Pretty girl-next-door-ish.
Her relationship with Woody Allen bought her five years of leads in his movies: Play It Again, Sam; Sleeper, Love and Death, and. climactically, Annie Hall.
And she had done a 1970 movie with Richard Castellano(Clemenza) called "Lovers and Other Strangers."
So...she was around at the time and "breaking." I suppose "the Woody connection" brought her the most power at the time. Indeed, 1972' Play It Again Sam came out not long after The Godfather , and Paramount put the two of them together at the end of ''72. (A "Diane Keaton double bill?").
Kay was described as pretty damn beautiful in the novel, and pretty damn sexual. The latter didn't make it into the movie at all. Keaton was...attractive.
Her line reading in II about "this Sicilian THING" was indeed pretty poor -- pushing her out past her abilities. The flibber-gibbeting of Annie Hall was more her style.
But, oh,well...she won the female lead in The Godfather. Its hers. Across three movies, more than most of the male actors got(Brando, Caan, Castellano, Duvall.)