Diane at 30

Mack is 30 when she experiences her existential crisis. For Keaton, who turned 30 in 1976, it was the age at which she filmed her Oscar-winning role in “Annie Hall.”

“I would say I was anxious, a little anxious about life,” she says of her 30th year, which came after wellregarded roles in the first two films in “The Godfather” saga, but before “Annie Hall” sent her career skyrocketing. “Of course, I was very, you know, happy to have that opportunity to be in that role, which I really enjoyed.

“But before that, you know, it was just trying to get moving and being,” Keaton says. “You know, I'd been in `Hair' [the 1968 original Broadway production] and all those things.

“And finally, [`Annie Hall'] happened, and that was so extraordinarily wonderful for me,” she says. “I loved it. That movie was great.”

Aselton sees “Mack & Rita” as a movie about figuring out who you are, and being true to oneself. Keaton says that for her, that's been a goal at which she's been more or less successful at different points of her life.

“I think it came in and out in certain phases,” she says. “I don't think it was always consistent, you know? So sometimes it was like, `Oh, no, I can't,' or `Yes, and I'll apply myself better and be more, you know, in tune with what's needed.'

“It's true for most of us, though,” Keaton says. “It isn't always just like this wonderful path and it all went smoothly, just great.”

After graduating from Santa Ana High School in 1964, Keaton soon headed to New York City to study acting as part of her quest to be her truest self, she says.

“You go to New York, and you go to acting school, and then you have all this overwhelming amount of responsibilities that you kind of never thought it would be like that,” she says. “And you don't know everything and you have to get the bus and try to find a place to live, an apartment.

“All those things, though, come together to give you the responsibility of handling your life in some form or another,” Keaton says. “And of course acting was just always my favorite.”

As a student of acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan, she learned early on that finding yourself is a journey.

“I remember working and Sandy Meisner, he would come up to me once