I already had a vaguely positive impression of Nora Ephron’s work, albeit somewhat muddled by the profusion of fellow screenwriters bearing her surname. She was the daughter of playwrights and scenarists Henry and Phoebe Ephron–whose extensive joint filmography includes such standbys as There’s No Business Like Show Business (1955), Daddy Long Legs (1956), and Desk Set (1957)–and the sister of Amy and frequent collaborator Delia Ephron. She also had an interesting assortment of spouses: author and sometime Playboy contributor Dan Greenburg, whose novel The Nanny was the basis for William Friedkin’s notorious The Guardian (1990); Carl Bernstein of All the President’s Men fame, whose exploits inspired Nora’s autobiographical novel and 1986 film Heartburn; and Nicholas Pileggi, who adapted his own work into Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995).
Then, when I heard the news this morning of her death yesterday at 71, and was reminded of some of her credits, I went “Whoa!” I associate her most readily with rom-com stuff like Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally… (1989) and such auteur efforts as Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998); in fact, from This Is My Life (1992) on, she directed her own work in everything except the 2000 films Lucky Numbers, which she did not write, and Diane Keaton’s Hanging Up, which she and Delia adapted from the latter’s novel. But she also co-scripted the super-serious Silkwood (1983), which was directed by one of my favorites, Mike Nichols, and proved to me that Cher could act, with all three rightly nominated for Oscars, as was leading lady Meryl Streep.
I liked Mail more than Seattle, primarily because I thought it was a rare example of a justifiable remake, with Internet anonymity proving a perfect modern-day analog for the pseudonymous letters unwittingly exchanged by coworkers in Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop around the Corner (1940). I remember admiring her first Steve Martin vehicle, Herbert Ross’s My Blue Heaven (1990), and not minding her second, Mixed Nuts (1994); typically, as a slobbering Nicole Kid-fan, I even enjoyed one of their most widely panned efforts, Bewitched (2005). And I loved Julie & Julia (2009), with its brilliant rendition of Julia Child by Streep (who had played the fictionalized Ephron opposite Jack Nicholson in Nichols’s Heartburn), which as far as I’m concerned ended Nora’s career on a high note.
Not a huge fan of rom-coms, but When Harry Met Sally is the best one of its kind if you ask me. Talented lady, gone too soon.
Well said; thanks, chum.
Have to echo the Fish’s sentiments. But I know you love them!!
Some of them, anyway, especially the one that inspired the title of this post. Then again, there are many I would avoid like the plague!