Jamie on Nora Ephron and the rambling thoughts that followed

This morning on NPR was a touching tribute to Nora Ephron, who passed away this week. Yesterday when the world was notified, my twitter feed (which is pretty nerdy and includes a number of authors) was filled with quotes and memories of this writer, director, and journalist who gave us some of the most iconic films of the last 30 years. Okay, so perhaps as a Seattleite, I give Sleepless in Seattle a higher rating than most, but you can't tell me that When Harry Met Sally isn't one of the best films of all time. It isn't a dramatic mob film like The Godfather or an epic tale of a galaxy far far away like Star Wars, it's about people you probably know. They are funny and neurotic and real. Ephron gave us characters we could relate to, and put them in films we could enjoy. Recently Meryl Streep blasted film studios at a luncheon for continually preferring to back big budget action movies like the recent Battleship (a huge flop) despite the commercial success of so-called women's films like The Help and Bridesmaids which are a struggle to get made. Ephron was an early leader on this; not only did she write the exact type of film that exemplifies this, but she criticized an industry that refused to figure it out. This, and her tremendous wit and talent, made her a hero to many, especially it would seem, to her fellow female writers.

I wanted to write something after reading all those comments and listening to the post this morning. I think that her legacy of being a pioneer in the world of female screenwriters and directors is a natural place to go, but my mind went more to thinking of my favorite, let’s see, celebrities seems like the wrong word, let’s go with my favorite artists/creators. And sure, I have a top 5/laminated list/free list/whatever you call it (currently: David Wright, Eddie Vedder, John Cusack, Nathan Fillion, & Adam Scott, although it fluctuates), and I gushed over seeing Chris Pine the other week at SIFF. Plus there are a number of talented actors & musicians that I absolutely adore and them being in a film or coming to town increases the chance that I will watch or attend something. But what makes something mandatory for me to view is the writer/director/creator. If it’s got Joss Whedon, Aaron Sorkin, or JJ Abrams in the credits, I am looking up the premiere date. If it’s Kevin Smith, John Waters, Wes Anderson then it’s an in-theatre priority. And not just them, but let’s make sure to include Jane Espensen, Alex Kurtzman (I was as excited to see him at SIFF talking about his new film as I was to drool over the film's star, Chris Pine), & Marti Noxon, who are significantly less known, but whose names are starting to be recognizable because they make all your favorite things. Well, they make all of my favorite things. Check out the credits on Fringe, Buffy, Alias, Once Upon a Time, Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13, Hawaii 5-0, Glee, and many more, and you will see that these talented writers/creators come up over and over again. They make the shows, and more importantly for me, the characters that I love. Listening to people talk about how important Ephron's career was to them made me go automatically to this list of people that I admire above even the talented folks that bring their creations to life (and not just those listed, but also Steven Moffat, Cameron Crowe, Rob Thomas, David Simon, Felicia Day, Bill Prady...I could go on and on).

An anecdote: At Emerald City Comicon last year, a friend & I were discussing the very long signing line for some of the actors in attendance. We are both big fans of the brilliant James Marsters (best known as Spike on Buffy) and he was there. She noted that she had contemplated waiting in line, but didn’t really have anything that she really wanted signed by him. She just purchased the first volume of the Buffy season 8 comic and noted that Spike wasn’t even in that volume, so that didn’t really make sense, and then added, now if Joss (Whedon) were here… And I didn’t even let her finish. I interrupted with, if Joss were here we would already be in line, we probably would have gotten in line first thing in the morning, I’d be carting around my complete set of Buffy DVDs for him to sign and I’d be trying to figure out how not to melt into a puddle like Alex Mack when we got to the front of the line. Now, that was probably a slight exaggeration, I would probably go with a comic or perhaps the Firefly DVDs instead of the complete Buffy set, for practical reasons, and I could probably avoid a full on melting. But the point was that I am far more likely to have a fangirl style freakout over the writer/creator of my favorite show than its lead actor.

This is not to take anything away from the actors, who are clearly incredibly important to the enjoyment of a show, but for me, it’s more about who wrote the words and crafted the story. I am a big John Cusack fan (as noted, he's in the top 5), but I have missed a number of his films because they didn’t really seem like movies I would enjoy. But I would watch a brand new show written by anyone listed above with completely unknown actors with bizaare premises because I completely trust their abilities to create something I love (not to say that they never let me down, but it's rare).

So this turned out to be a little bit more rambling than I intended, but I just wanted to share where my brain went as I listened to all these tributes about Nora Ephron. I’m going to continue to contemplate this while I plan my Nora Ephron movie marathon. I’ll probably stick with the Meg Ryan trilogy, so plenty of Kleenex will be required. And I’ll love every minute of it, cause Nora Ephron gets me every time.

Books read: 31 (You didn’t think I’d really finish a Storm of Swords that quickly, did you?)

Coming Soon: Sarah explains the science behind melting in a puddle, Alex Mack style.