The series A posteriori le cinéma is intended as an opportunity to celebrate the 7the art by revisiting flagship titles that celebrate important anniversaries.
In cinema, sometimes a line is so striking that it alone guarantees the immortality of a film. Of course, many additional qualities contribute to the completion of a masterpiece. But when a piece of dialogue enters popular culture, it is guaranteed cinephile eternity. “I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship,” at the end of Casablancais such a replica. The film When Harry Met Sally (When Harry Met Sally) also contains an unforgettable line: “Give me the same thing she gives me,” a restaurant customer asks after watching Meg Ryan explode with pleasure while eating her salad in front of a stunned Billy Crystal. It was 35 years ago this month, an opportunity to look back at a romantic comedy that remains a model of the genre.
The film had a long gestation period that began with a conversation between director Rob Reiner (Stand By Me/Count on me ; The Princess Bride/Princess Buttercup ; Misery ; A Few Good Men/Men of honor), producer Andrew Scheinman and screenwriter Nora Ephron. Struggling to recover from a divorce, Reiner was feeling down and thinking he’d like to make a movie about a man and a woman who don’t want to sleep together because they’re afraid it will ruin their friendship.
Ephron liked the idea. Above all, she found that Reiner’s laments about his single life had real comic potential. In the audio commentary recorded for the film’s 2007 Blu-ray, she tells her old friend, amused, “I think that’s the part I liked the most about it at the time: You were depressed, Rob, but you cherished your depression. You kept coming back to it as a joke. And it was perfect for the character.” [de Harry]. »
Soon, the characters of Harry and Sally became, more or less, alter egos of Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron. Hence the name Harry Burns (“ burns ” for “burned”), to which Ephron opposed Sally Albright (“ all bright ” or “all shiny”).
From the moment they first meet, as Harry (Billy Crystal, perfect) and Sally (Meg Ryan, more than perfect) drive from Chicago to New York, it’s obvious they have nothing in common. And by the logic of opposites attract, it’s equally obvious that love awaits them.
But before we get there, it will take time.
The strength of the scenario
Divided into three periods, namely 1977, 1982, then 1987-1988, the most important narrative portion, Nora Ephron’s screenplay describes what is first a hilarious enmity, then a mixture of curiosity and rejection, and finally a touching friendship gradually turning into a feeling of love. To rewatch the film (confession: I know it by heart) is to measure all the genius with which Ephron modulates the evolution of the relationship between the two protagonists.
For the film’s 25th anniversary, Oliver Lyttelton writes about it in IndieWire : “ When Harry Met Sally is still as miraculous, close to perfection […]The film is both witty and funny, still compelling a quarter-century later, admirably timeless. [de nombreux films de la même période ont vieilli beaucoup plus vite] and even quite deep at times.”
In an article celebrating the same anniversary, published in the TimeMegan Gibson adds:
“Harry and Sally grapple with the age-old question of the differences between men and women. The issues the couple faces—through their two best friends, Jess and Marie, played brilliantly by Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher—are pretty universal among 20- and 30-somethings: fighting over possessions and decorating when moving in with someone; needing a “transition person,” or rebound, after a breakup; dealing with a partner who demands a lot of attention [“high maintenance”] — a term the film coined and popularized. And of course, the tension and awkwardness that follows sex with a good friend. What’s even more remarkable is how relevant the film remains today. Watch it again. Aside from a few hairstyles and fashion choices, the film has aged remarkably well, thanks in large part to its script.”
In a 2018 essay published in the New York TimesEleanor Stanford also returns to the strength of the scenario:
“The central question of When Harry Met Sally is whether men and women [vraisemblablement hétérosexuels] can be friends without sex getting in the way. Beyond this tired preoccupation, the film explores what different kinds of intimacy look like […]. The way Ephron translates this intimacy is particularly impressive.”
One such “intimacy” occurs during the proverbial “pillow talk,” presented in a wonderfully deconstructed way. In that Harry and Sally are each in their own bed talking on the phone while watching… Casablancathe late-night movie. Harry goes into hypochondriac worries, Sally reassures him pragmatically: at this stage, they tell each other everything, without having yet crossed the Rubicon.
Rob Reiner films this split-screen sequence (“ split screen “), in homage to the “bedroom comedies” of Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Moreover, When Harry Met Sally is very referenced on the cinephile level. For example, the initial road-bickering section recalls Frank Capra’s masterpiece It Happened One Nightwhich Reiner already cited in his previous romantic comedy The Sure Thing (Holiday Conquests)…
From real life
To return to the screenplay by Nora Ephron, the future director of Sleepless in Seattle (The magic of destiny) and of You’ve Got Mail (You have a message), other romantic hits with Meg Ryan, specifies in the audio commentary that the writing was collaborative. Ephron conducted interviews with Reiner and Crystal, but also with long-term couples, whose stories were repeated verbatim, by actors, during the mockumentary interludes (a vestige of Reiner’s docu-movie This Is Spinal Tap).
Sometimes, entire sections of conversations between Ephron and Reiner, or between Reiner and Crystal, ended up in the script.
The famous scene where Sally puts Harry in his place, after he has peremptorily declared that he makes every woman he sleeps with cum, in this case draws its source from a similar exchange between Ephron and Reiner. The difference is that the former did not fake an orgasm on the spot to prove that “all women fake it from time to time.” She kept that for her script.
However, it was Meg Ryan who had the idea for the scene to take place in a public place. Thus was born one of the most memorable sequences in the history of cinema. As for the neighbor at the table who, after seeing Sally having fun like that, says to the waiter at the restaurant “Give me the same thing as her” (” I’ll have what she’s having “), this is Rob Reiner’s mother.
Interestingly, during the studio’s preliminary screenings, the audience laughed so much, and laughed for so long, that the dialogue in the next scene became inaudible. So Reiner went back into the editing room and had an interlude added featuring New York skyline set to music.
On that note, the covers of jazz classics by a very young Harry Connick Jr. add to the film’s charm: a charm that is both old-fashioned and timeless. Give me the same thing she gives me? And how!
The film When Harry Met Sally is available for sale on Blu-ray and VOD on most platforms.