Nora Ephron names her favourite romantic comedies
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to crown Nora Ephron as the queen of the romantic comedy genre. No one was writing and directing rom-coms as complex, heartwarming and enduring as Ephron, who earned her first screenwriting credit with the Academy Award-nominated Silkwood in 1983.
Her second collaboration with director Mike Nichols came three years later when she penned Heartburn, although it was 1989’s When Harry Met Sally, directed by Rob Reiner, that further established Ephron’s talents. Regarded as one of the greatest rom-coms ever made, the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope is at its best here.
Ephron penned her debut directorial feature, This Is My Life, in 1992 before directing movies such as Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and, finally, 2009’s Julie and Julia. The rom-com genre would’ve been nothing without Ephron, who passed away in 2012, leaving behind an unforgettable legacy.
She once listed all of her favourite rom-coms for the Daily Beast, many of which provided vital inspiration for her own career as a screenwriter and director. Ephron was a fan of many classic Hollywood love stories, such as 1934’s The Thin Man by W. S. Van Dyke and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. Discussing the latter, Ephron emphasised the Master of Suspense’s multi-faceted nature. She said, “In addition to everything else he did, Hitchcock made great romantic movies.”
Another favourite of Ephron’s is The Palm Beach Story by Preston Surges, which is well-respected as one of the greatest screwball comedies of the classic Hollywood era. However, it is also considered a romantic comedy – one that Ephron believes is essential viewing. She explained, “I tell everyone I know who wants to be a screenwriter to watch the scene at the beginning of the movie, where Colbert is stuck in the bathroom with the Wienie King. It’s a lesson in specificity.”
Besides Golden Age classics, Ephron cited movies from her contemporaries, such as Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters and Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, as some of her favourites. Despite Allen’s Annie Hall being considered one of the greatest rom-coms ever, Ephron seemed to prefer Hannah and Her Sisters despite calling it “not strictly a romantic movie.” She added, “The scene at the end in Tower Records between Dianne Wiest and Allen is one of the greatest falling-in-love scenes ever filmed.”
Sense and Sensibility, penned by Emma Thompson, is Ephron’s favourite Jane Austen adaptation, with the filmmaker believing that it is executed perfectly. “A lot of Jane Austen movies founder on the fact that the plot almost always includes a letter that changes everything. It’s hard to do letters in movies. But in this one, everything works,” she explained. The movie, also starring Thompson, won her the Academy Award for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and remains one of her finest performances.
Nora Ephron’s favourite rom-coms:
- The Thin Man (W. S. Van Dyke, 1934)
- It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934)
- The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)
- His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
- Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
- The Palm Beach Story (Preston Surges, 1942)
- The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
- Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)
- Splash (Ron Howard, 1984)
- Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
- Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995)
