It saddened me to read that the writer and director, Nora Ephron passed away today. Reading her obit tonight, I didn't realize that she wrote the movie, Silkwood, which starred Meryl Streep, who subsequently worked with Ephron on several projects. Four movies stand out for me as quintessential Ephron greats:
Heartburn, starring Streep and Jack Nicholson, based on Ephron's own life and painful marriage. These two scenes are memorable, not only for Ephron's honest writing, but of course, Streep's ability to lift the words off a page and make them seem completely believable; authentic; not rushed. You always want Streep:
When Harry Met Sally, starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, which chronicles the hilarious 12-year relationship between the two main characters, and famously asks the question: "Can men and women really be friends?" One of my favorite scenes, which sums up Sally's meticulous, detail oriented personality, is Sally ordering a piece of pie in a diner:
You've Got Mail, with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, is the story of two people who despise each other in real life, yet unknowingly connect perfectly online with only screen names to go by. He, a corporate retail executive; she a small bookstore owner sure to lose her inherited shop because of his new big-box store opening next door. (Ryan and Hanks also starred in Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle.) This scene at the coffee shop is a fave: "Hi, I'm Kimberly; Hi, I'm Janice..."
Finally, Julie & Julia, with Amy Adams, who often reminds me of Meg Ryan a little, as blogger Julie Powell, cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The film also stars Streep as the iconic chef. Although both women never meet, they both wander through their lives, almost on parallel courses, searching for something that gives their lives meaning: they find cooking... and butter. As is featured in the film: "You can never have too much butter." And "You are the butter to my bread and the breath to my life..."
A truly funny, heartfelt(burn) writer, Nora Ephron passed at 71. BSo
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