Diane Keaton sits cross-legged in an upstairs bedroom and delivers script lines to her three screen daughters. Director Alan Parker gently guides his young charges in another fine performance before he calls for a "cut." Keaton's junior co-stars in Parker's new MGM film "Shoot the Moon," in which she stars with Albert Finney, listen with rapt attention as she and Parker work with them in preparation for the next scene.

As the camera reloads, the kids climb up on the bed with Keaton and begin to comb her hair, adjust her clothes and fix a pin. Tina Yothers, the seven-year-old actress who plays Molly, curls up under Diane's arm. It is a tender off-camera moment, but one that was repeated time and time again throughout the filming of "Shoot the Moon," as the actors grew to be more a family than the half-dozen strangers they had been.

Keaton had always wanted to play the role of a mother on film to a much greater extent than in her roles in the "Godfather" films. "Shoot the Moon's" touching screenplay by Academy Award-winner Bo Goldman presented just such an opportunity. The experience of working with Yothers, Tracy Gold, Viveka Davis and Dana Hill was a two-fold thrill for Keaton. Not only did she have a chance to essay a full-time maternal character, but she also became something of an off-screen mother to the young actresses who played her daughters.