Movie review - "When Harry Met Sally" (1989) ****

 Some of humor has dated - attitudes, rather. Sally's orgasm is actually out of character for her - but what a scene. Beautifully directed. Meg Ryan is the heart - so good. Funny, gorgeous. Billy Crystal rises. Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher excellent. Made with such love. Woody Allen given the proper schmaltz treatment.

Book review - "Desperately Seeking Something" by Susan Seidelman

 Entertaining book about a director who was a big deal in 1985 but then had a few under performing films then went to movie prison and never quite got out of it although she had a strong career including the pilot for Sex in the City. Written brightly. Maybe could've done with a few trims (there were a lot of bits where she says she couldn't remember the name of something). Seidelman was middle class, so isn't as traumatised - her parents subsidised her lifestyle, which every director needs, and she married well, had a kid etc. I don't meant to be dismissive, just pointing out it adds to a life.

Madonna stories are the best, offering to go down on Barbara Boyle, munching faces as she auditions love interests. Rosanne Barr offered to go down on Seideman too.

Random observation - Seidelman doesn't seem to repeat key collaborations. What happened to the writer of Susan? Why didn't she work with the same stars again? Really wish she and Rosanna Arquette worked together again (although Seidelman admits they butted heads).

Also I think the good luck that greeted Smithereens and Susan vanished later on. She didn't have the stars to make her films non-ignorable, except arguably Meryl on She Devil. Making Mr Right and Cookie needed bigger stars I feel.

Loved the story about Gary Oldman flaming out on Dylan. Had no idea about Seidelman's later movie work.

Script review - "When Harry Met Sally" by Nora Ephron

 This was mocked on a podcast by two males making fun of the premise, but it does operate as a decent thesis and also is a film of its time. This material has been much mined since by TV. It copied a lot of Woody Allen, but does offer a female point of view. It also feels, well, Jewish, in its emphasis on the importance of being married. But it's simple yet effective, smart, two contrasting characters, and the plot develops logically. I'm not sure how long they'll last married -Harry's got too many issues.

Sidebar: Meg Ryan really made the film go next level. Billy Crystal is absolutely fine but I get the feeling a bunch of other stars could have played the role but Meg is the heart.

Book review - "Nora Ephron: Everything's Copy" by Liz Dance (2015)

 I was hoping for an indepth bio - this is more of an academic work, an analysis of text which is always dangerous with filmmakers because texts change so often due to external factors. I guess in Ephron's case she was a director with power (most of the film) so her films can be taken more as texts and of course she wrote. There's a lot of analysis of Ephron's essays, scripts and prose... not so much unfilmed scripts which I think would have been interesting. It also looks at the work of her parents and sister. Not bad, I think I was just looking for something more.

Book review - "Mike Nichols: A Life" by Mark Harris

 Fabulous book. Definitive. Nichols was a major player - this book captures it. The background, the upbringing, the college years (he could be mean - not surprised), comedy with Elaine May, straight acting, adventures as a director, early films, incredible success, great disappointment, exotic love life, terrible fathering (at first... he got better), finding his groove as a film director again, compulsive spending, addictions to drugs at a late age.

I was familiar with a lot of the hits - The Graduate, Virginia Woolf - but it was great to read about the disappointments - Day of the Dolphin, The Fortune, Fools. The theatre stuff is gripping. People seem to have really loved him. But he couldn't do everything as those who've seen The Fortune can attest.

A magnificent book.

Top Ten - My fave bit parts/dailies in film

1) Adelina Poerio in "Don't Look Now" (1973) - if you've seen the film you'll probably guess who it is (nothing to do with the sex scene unless there's a longer cut version I'm unaware of!)... if you havent seen the film I won't spoil it for you... and it's a film worth seeing (maybe not right before a trip to Venice though...)

2) Mickey Rourke in "Body Heat" (1981) as Teddy the arsonist... this is kind of cheating since Rourke went on to become famous, but its a great debut... its a brilliantly written part, as a smart con with a code of honour (Lawrence Kasdan's script is incredible) and Rourke's casting makes it sing... you can see why everyone thought he was going to be a star...

3) Frederick Piper as the milkman in Hitchcock's version of "The 39 Steps" (1935)... very clever writing... a model who to do the comic thriller, perhaps the hardest genre of all to do well... Charles Bennett did the bulk of the script (he's shamefully not credited in the play adaptation of the film), though I'm not sure if he was responsible for that particular scene... there is a scene like it in the original novel though not treated comically).

4) Xander Berkley as Dr Lamar in "Gattaca" (1998)... to go into too much detail would give away spoilers, so I'll just say he has one of the most affecting lines (to me anyway) ever, "my son's not all that they promised. But then, who know what he could do." (to get the full impact you really have to see the whole film, which is worth it)

5) Estelle Reiner in "When Harry Met Sally" (1989). You know the scene. You know the line. Magic. (An aside... it's a shame Estelle Reiner never teamed up with Martin Scorsese's mother in a film-director's-mothers-who-steal-scenes-in-their-son's-movies mega match.)

6) John McGiver as the clerk in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) - Mickey Rooney’s yellowface has tended to overshadow the excellence of the support cast - Buddy Ebsen, Patricia Neal and McGiver ... who does wonders in his one scene. An aside - is this the first Hollywood movie where two prostitutes go off into the sunset together ?

7) Linda Rae Jurgens who plays Mrs Metcalf in “Top Gun” (1986) - Tom Skeritt’s wife - she’s in the scene where Maverick, having his end of act 2 crisis of confidence, comes to see Viper for a pep talk after Goose has (spoilers but seriously?) died - he knocks on the door and Mrs Metcalf answers it and he asks to see her husband and she says he’s out back and then she lingers and asks how Maverick is and what he’s been up to and tells him to come over for dinner sometime and Cruiser looks sort of awkward waiting for the scene to end - and it’s so random - and I love i because it feels so obviously like a bit part actor trying to drag out their bit with some impro(she clearly doesn’t want to move out of shot ) but you can also see why they kept it in because it does expand the world of the film eg life at Top Gun isn’t just about flying comps and homoerotic volleyball games and singalongs it’s also about families and going to have dinner at the homes of senior officers - and her role raises all sorts of interesting questions (is this the life awaiting Kelly McGills?, does she have a crush on Maverick ? Is it lonely for the women of Top Gun with all the men playing endless games of volleyball and standing around in locker rooms?). I wish I could find the clip - the actress is lobbying on twitter for a role in the sequel and I say why not?

8) Joy Page in "Casablanca" (1942). You probably don't remember the name - I had to google it - but if you've seen the film you'll remember the scene. She's the Bulgarian refugee who asks Rick if she should sleep with Major Strasser to get a visa. The scene is a marvel of screenwriting to get around the censor. Maybe she's not the world's best actor but she was effective. She got the gig because she was Jack Warner's step daughter and didn't do much acting after that.

9)  Michelle Joyner in Cliffhanger (1993) - superb sequence and she’s amazing ... (I actually can’t remember anything else in the film) ... and I can’t recall her in any other movie ... but what a moment ...

10) Danielle Duclois who plays Denise, the daughter of Robert de Niro in Midnight Run... possibly my favourite sequence/scene in a great film. Wendy Phillips is outstanding as the wife too. Some of the reasons why people love this film and moment - I love how director Martin Brest gives the end of the scene to Duclois, and the storyline with Jack and his family isn't resolve, and it does push the story forward.

Movie review – “Take Her She’s Mine” (1963) **1/2

Nora Ephron’s letters from college inspired her parents to write a hit Broadway play, no doubt appealing to it’s middle class Jewish audiences with its theme of “aw gee kids are funny when they go off to college, thinking of sex and wacky political causes”. James Stewart is very WASPY but he’s written in a way familiar from the New York Jewish comedies of the time, fretting over his daughter’s sex life (which feels awkward). The role of the wife is minimised – she’s hardly in the film at all – but the daughter is prominent (Sandra Dee).

Dee looks very sexy here – tousled hair, swimsuits, beatnik outfits, even garters in a French can can fantasty sequence. Guys are constantly pawing her, even her arts lecturer. She’s a lot of fun – I really loved her singing folk songs on a guitar – it’s one of her best performances.

It’s an episodic tale – Dee gets up to adventures, dad goes to investigate, chaos resumes. There are some laughs but much of it is repetitive (another protest, dad gets arrested, dad tries to escape), and the film overstays it’s welcome despite Robert Morley in the support cast. The last third takes place in France, apparently because Daryl Zanuck was a Francophile (the film was the first made by 20th Century Fox after it had been closed down in the wake of the Cleopatra debacle.)

Book review – “Backstory 5” Ed Patrick McGilligan

An interesting collection of interviews, but probably the weakest in the series so far, mainly because it includes too many writers turned directors (Albert Brooks, John Hughes, Nora Ephron, John Sayles, Barry Levinson), thus their careers have already achieved decent PR - Backstory was all about shining a light on people who hadn't received enough notice. Also a lot of the interviews aren't as thorough. 

I found the most interesting interviews were with people who aren't that well known: Jean Claude Carrier, Ronald Harwood, Barbara Turner, Rudy Wurlitzer.

Movie review – “Julie and Julia” (2009) ***

After the misfire of Bewitched Nora Ephron found form again by making a film on a subject she was really passionate about – food. When I say “found form” I really mean she made a good Nora Ephron film; my wife adored it but I found myself nodding off a bit. 

Meryl Streep is good value as Julia Childs and her relationship with Stanley Tucci is one of the most believable depictions of a loving supportive marriage (very subtly played, like the way he’s supportive and how the fact the can’t have children is conveyed). The modern section is less good; it’s simply less of an achievement to cook a lot of stuff than it was to do what Julia Childs could, the character of Julia’s husband is nothing (if they didn’t give him a character why not just make him really good looking, or funny, or cast a TV star keen to break into features?). 

Also Amy Adams is surprisingly un-engaging; I was always a big Amy Adams fan but it's like she's hamstrung by having to play a real character and has tried to dig in where she can, creating pain and frustration that's all too well. The film really just needed a good old fashioned bubbly star performance like from a young Meg Ryan, or say Reese Witherspoon or Kristen Bell. Bright support cast and great art direction if you're into that sort of thing. 

The film also gets points for acknowledging that Julia wasn't particularly appreciative of Julie when she found out about what was going on.

Book review – "Heartburn" by Nora Ephron

These days Nora Ephron is associated with sappy movies that have moments of brightness but tend to be overwhelmed by schmaltz and reference of old Hollywood classics – so it’s worth revisited this brilliant, pungent classic, a magnificent depiction of divorce. Full of brilliant moments – every page has some classic line. Very funny – how our emotions battle with our intellect, dealing with break up of marriages. There’s comments about food throughout the book and I realised she rehashed a gag in When Harry Met Sally (“Pretty. Nice. Big tits. Basic nightmare.”)

Book review – “And now… Here’s Johnny” by Nora Ephron

I picked this up at a second hand book store only because it was (a) cheap and (b) written by Ephron, presumably as a quickie during her journo years. I say “presumably” because it’s actually a very good book, well written and entertaining, and it seems to be fair. Published in 1967, it’s a bio of the famous American Tonight Show host, about whom I have heard a lot about but never seen more than a minute’s footage of. Ephron gives background to the show, Carson’s life and early career, the false dawn of stardom (he was given his own show in the 50s but it flopped – but then he came back hosting a day time quiz show), and success on the Tonight Show. Space is also given to Jack Paar, who comes across as a more complex and interesting creature than Carson – but Carson is not without interest too: a driven, talented man, seemingly stand offish but probably just Protestant. It doesn’t shy away from his less appealing straights eg greed, sacking his manager and producer. And like a good journo Ephron lets Carson’s idiotic-sounding second wife hang herself merely by quoting her. (He eventually got rid of her a few years after this book came out.)

Book review – “I Hate My Neck” by Nora Ephron

I’ll admit there are a lot of things I find irritating about Nora Ephron movies – all the emphasis on food and interior design and sentimentality. But she’s a great writer and some of the stuff here is terrific – advising parents of teenagers to buy a dog so someone will be glad to see them, doing aerobics to Chicago. I wasn’t so interested in the whining about the price of rent in New York and the state of her neck and aging, but it’s all well written and it is consistently smart and witty. There’s som unexpectedly moving stuff too when she talks about her friend who died young (age 66).