The Legacy of Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron...you were a humorous, strong, brilliant, and inspirational woman. Thank you for creating your lovely worlds for us.  I have always thought of you as a kindred spirit and friend. You have always been there for me on the most difficult of days-- your bittersweet humor serving as a perfect band-aid.

Nora had a way of writing that not only feed your soul, but your inner foodie.  After watching "Heartburn" my puffy red eyes and tear stained face were craving the unusual concoction of roasted lemon  chicken, bellinis and rice pudding (with raisins). Deliciousness on both accounts.

"If we get married, we'll ruin everything" 
-Rachel from "Heartburn"

"You shouldn't have a ring you can't wear on the subway"
-Rachel from "Heartburn"



"When Harry Met Sally (as some of you know by now) forever changed my life! I first saw this movie when I was eighteen and even though Nora burst my bubble about relationships later on in an interview I saw in my 20's... I will always think of these following witty repartees and smile. 

Sally: "I'd like the chef salad please with the oil and vinegar on the side and the apple pie a la mode."
Waitress: "Chef and apple a la mode."
Sally: "But I'd like the pie heated and I don't want the ice cream on top I want it on the side and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it if not then no ice cream just whipped cream but only if it's real if it's out of a can then nothing."
Waitress: "Not even the pie?"
Sally: "No, just the pie, but then not heated."

"There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance... You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance." 

-Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally"

"You know, I have a theory that hieroglyphics are just an ancient comic strip about a character named Sphinxy."  
-Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally"



"I am not your consolation prize, Harry." 
-Sally Allbright from "When Harry Met Sally"

Then there is my favorite ending to a 
movie ever. Picture this: old blue eyes
singing "It Had to Be You" while Harry 
runs through the dark wet streets of New York trying to find
Sally and beat the clock to midnight...and then...to quote
Nora's words from earlier in the film..."best last lines in a 
movie ever"...

"I love that you get cold when its 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can
still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. 
And its not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New 
Years Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest 
of your life to start as soon as possible."  
-Harry Burns from "When Harry Met Sally"

Harry: "The first time we met, we hated each other"

Sally: "No, you didn't hate me, I hated you.  The second time we met, you didn't even remember me."

Harry: "I did too! I remembered you. The third time we met, we became friends"

Sally: "We were friends for a long time"

Harry: "And then we weren't"

Sally: "And then we fell in love.  Three months later, we got married"

Harry: "Ya, it only took three months"

Sally: "Twelve years and three months"

Harry: "We had this... we had a really wonderful wedding

Sally: "It was... it really was a (laughing) beautiful wedding"

Harry:  "We had this enormous coconut cake"

Sally:  "Huge coconut cake, with the tiers, and there was this, this very rich chocolate sauce on the side"

Harry: "Right, 'cause not everyone likes it on the cake, 'cause it makes it very soggy"

Sally:  "Particularly the coconut, soaks up a lot of that stuff, so you really... it's important to keep it on the side"

Harry:  "Right."

A lot of critics of rom-com's like to say that Nora Ephron basically makes the same movie over and over...I, however, disagree.  While "Sleepless In Seattle" does star Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (along with an AMAZING cast of support actors) and also includes a terrific soundtrack..."Sleepless" tackles widowerhood, the loss of a parent, friendship, and destiny.  

In the nineties amid films with depressing and scary subject manner, it was the perfect "meet-cute" film depicting love, family, and friendship, with a different more updated or modern approach...yet it still stayed true to romantic comedies the way they "used to be".

Annie's Mother:  "...at one point I looked down and couldn't tell which fingers were his and which were mine. And I knew. Ya know? Magic. It was magic...I knew we'd be together forever and that everything would be wonderful."

Annie Reed:  "Now that was when people KNEW how to be in love. They knew it! Time, distance... nothing could separate them because they knew. It was right. It was real. It was..."

Becky:  "A movie! That's your problem! You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie."

"Look, Annie... I love you. But let's leave that out of this. I don't want to be someone that you're settling for. I don't want to be someone that anyone settles for. Marriage is hard enough without bringing such low expectations into it, isn't it?"

-Walter from "Sleepless in Seattle"

"Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental."

-Annie Reed from "Sleepless in Seattle"

"Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breath in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breath in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while."

-Sam Baldwin from "Sleepless in Seattle"

But most importantly, I feel that among all of my emotions on the passing of Nora Ephron, is that we won't have her in Hollywood making films that need to be made...first chivalry died and now romance.  Nora, you will be sadly missed by this chick flick!

Carnage

Let me begin by climbing up on my soapbox for a moment and screaming at the top of my lungs that THIS is the kind of movie we need to have in theaters for a longer period of time than half a week! Why we can have Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill" and others of that ilk in theaters for three or more weeks sucking up space is just beyond me! That being said, this film was brilliant!  


"Carnage" is the latest addition to the filmography of Roman Polanski.  Set in a modest New York City apartment is the microcosm for the world's issues with only two couples to defend them played by the incomparable Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly.  Like an incredibly well oiled machine, these characters and their actors are perfectly matched and executed from beginning to end.  Based on the play "Le Dieu du carnage" by Yasmina Reza who also co-wrote with screenplay with Polanski, is a tale of two boys and their altercation in the park.  As the film opens we meet Nancy and Alan Cowan (Winslet/Waltz) whose son is accused of hitting another boy with a stick to the face and Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Foster/Reilly) who are the parents of the boy whose face caught the stick.  The two couples have come together to form a resolution in what they hope will be a civilized understanding and an apology.  What they find themselves in is a caffeinated, scotch infused battle royale of wits, words, the sexes, honesty, and humor.  

Roman Polanski (love him or hate him) is a master of film.  His perverse knowledge of humankind, his visualistic style, and his uncanny eye for detail are truly what set his films apart from others. Keeping true to his nature, he shot the entire film on one set... perfect for Polanski's penchant for voyeur-esque close-ups and odd angles. 

This film is witty, smart, and completely relatable to everyone!