Showing posts with label Nora Ephron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nora Ephron. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2012

RIP Nora Ephron, promoter of the classics

If you've been single anywhere from the late 90's to now--you've probably thought of internet dating from time to time. You know it makes you look desperate and that it isn't a very reliable way to meet someone. You worry about what they are really like, what's really on their mind, what they look like, and what happens when you meet. You worry about them texting you 24/7 because they are desperate too. It looks so easy though. Talk through email. It doesn't take much time or dedication. You don't have to be hurt the same way that just looking does.  It is safer feeling, the internet is a crutch. People say bold things on the internet.
But then people you know met that way, and they are happy. Then there is those advertisements that run at night where you're up because you're a lonely television watching insomniac.
Don't we all wish it could be as easy as it is in You've Got Mail? The truth is, You've Got Mail, brings some of the worries into a light hearted laugh. However, we all wish that the the person on the other line is like Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan. They aren't bad looking and they are both sweet. They look good together and there is obviously the mind attraction too.
This movie is a remake of The Shop Around the Corner (Jimmy Stewart) and then it was done as In the Good old Summertime (Van Johnson and Judy Garland). There is something attractive about words. Falling in love with someone for their mind first, then discovering they look good too. It is attractive as well to think that a person you hate could actually have a sweet hidden disposition (hidden at least from you) or that they are right there but you never bothered to dig into who that person really is, and that person you like.
So RIP Nora Ephron, for writing, directing, and producing my favorite modern movie...a remake but she put such a cute couple and with such artistry as well as her own perfect mix of originality along with the classic--it was totally forgivable it was a remake of such an old classic, in fact it was a work of art itself. Doing remakes are hard especially a classic one that has not been reproduced in over 20 years. Not only did she include such wonderful tributes, she made other movies such as Sleepless in Seattle--which has a bit of homage to Cary Grant's An Affair to Remember. In her other movie When Harry Met Sally, who could forget Harry singing "little surrey with the fringe on top" from Oklahoma, not to mention Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman's Casablanca in their talks. She also wrote Julie and Julia. She didn't do a ton of movies but she did not need to because hers were the classics of the 1990's/1989. (In all these except Julie and Julia, starred Meg Ryan) (pps--which is why I view the Meg Ryan that was -before her recent plastic surgeries--as a classic of her own.) They promote the classics but bring it into this century in all of it's innocence yet under layers of what adult life has to offer. The first time I watched this I was in the second grade and it is still my favorite for different reasons. Our classics always evolve on us. That is what good films do, they speak to us in all times of our life so we can watch it and never be bored.
People she promoted through references
Jimmy Stewart
Van Johnson
Judy Garland
Deborah Ker
Humphrey Bogart
Ingrid bergman
Margaret Sullavan
(Rodgers and Hammerstein's song)

RIP Nora Ephron
May 19, 1941-june 26,2012