With a seemingly ageless face and an uncompromising head of jet black hair it’s hard to believe that Keanu Reeves is turning 51. His acting career is also reaching a milestone this year – the 30th anniversary of his first screen appearance in the T.V. film Letting Go . He has been a staple inclusion in the movie world since the mid 1980’s and to read his eclectic resume is truly to take a trip down memory lane.
From the slapstick stoner in Bill and Ted to solicitor turned vampire-hunter in Bram Stocker’s Dracula, the Action hero in Speed to the Sci-Fi messiah ‘Neo’ in The Matrix, the romantic lead in The Lake House to his directorial debut in the Chinese-American cross over film Man of Tai Chi – Keanu Reeves’s career has covered a monumental amount of ground in its 30 years.
It appears that he is now being recognised not for his excellence in an individual film but for his body of work as a whole. As a kind of birthday present from the film industry Keanu Reeves will be receiving a career tribute at this year’s Deauville Film Festival which will take place in the seaside village of Deauville, France, only days after he turns 51.
“Keanu Reeves has demonstrated his ability to take on extremely varied roles during his long and impressive movie career,”
Organizers of the four decade long festival cited as reason for the tribute Reeves’s roles as Neo from The Matrix, Jonathan Harker from Dracula, Le Chevalier Danceny from Dangerous Liaisons and his work with Gus Van Sant, Francis Ford Coppola, Bernardo Bertolucci and Richard Linklater.
Festival organizers also cited his work as the director of the above mentioned Man of Tai Chi, and producer with 2012’s documentary Side by Side, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXutPZR5h0k
Though these kind of flatteries are commonly bestowed upon individuals toward the end of their careers this doesn’t appear to be the case with respect to Reeves. With last year’s release of John Wick making a reported 400% profit and signalling his return to the action genre it would appear that Keanu Reeves is as relevant to movie goers now as he has ever been.