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In 1983, Ephron coscripted the film Silkwood with Alice Arlen. The film, directed by Mike Nichols, stars Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, a whistleblower at the Kerr McGee Cimarron nuclear facility who dies under suspicious circumstances. Ephron and Arlen were nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 1984 for Silkwood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Ephron 3 Film Directors Assignment

Nora Ephron

The research I did on Nora Ephron primarily analyzes her influence as a romantic comedy filmmaker, particularly dissecting the films Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and When Harry Met Sally. Luckily, there is plenty written about her life given her prolific career as a journalist, and her extensive collection of personal essays and interviews. I was surprised, however, that film scholars did not more extensive write about the female characters in her films. This includes Meryl Streep’s character in Ephron’s first film that she co-wrote, Meg Ryan’s characters in the trinity of romantic comedies aforementioned, and the female mentorship offered in Julie & Julia.

Benson-allott, Caetlin. “Mastering the Art of Feminist Mentorship.” Gastronomica, vol. 10, no. 2, 2010, pp. 83–85. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2010.10.2.83.

This essay discusses Ephron’s film Julie & Julia, which is a dual plot about Julia Child in the beginning stages of her career and a modern woman, Julie, who attempts to cook her way through Child’s cookbook. The article primarily analyzes how the mentorship works to empower Julie’s character.

Ephron, Nora. The Last Interview : And Other Conversations. Brooklyn ; London: Melville House, 2015. Print. Last Interview Ser.. (uri) Http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2012092084 (uri) Http://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/LC|no2012092084.

This book is an anthology of Ephron’s interviews throughout her career, ranging from her time as a journalist to her experience writing scripts and directing films.

Keller, George. “Nora Ephron: Tattling on Academe.” Change, vol. 10, no. 4, 1978, pp. 38–41. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40177053.

This article is about Ephron’s career as a journalist, mainly concerning her work in celebrity profiling. The article has a distinctly male voice from the late 1970’s, which insinuates that the article has undertones of sexism throughout.

Kimmel, Daniel M. I'll Have What She's Having : Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2008. Print.

This book discusses Ephron’s romantic comedies. The book delves into Ephron’s processes in making the film, the influence the films had, and Ephron’s challenges with Hollywood during the filmmaking process. The book also details each film and theorizes how the films contextually work with Ephron’s feminist filmography.

MORE SOURCES 3/4 ASSIGNMENT

Dance, Liz. Nora Ephron : Everything Is Copy. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2015. Print.

Dance wrote a more recent biography about Ephron and her later works as both a playwright, screenwriter, and a director, particularly in regards to her final film as a director Julie & Julia.

Doherty, Thomas. “The Rom-Com Genre and the Shopping Gene.” OAH Magazine of History, vol. 24, no. 2, 2010, pp. 25–28. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25701406.

This article discusses how the rom-com genre (one that Ephron is most notable for) has evolved and its feminist critiques. This source would more likely be used in my final paper than in the Wikipedia article on Ephron.

Dowd, James J., and Nicole R. Pallotta. “The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the Postmodern Age.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 43, no. 4, 2000, pp. 549–580. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1389548.

This article is more of a sociological perspective of how the contemporary romantic comedy functions within postmodern society. This paper would most likely be a resource in my final paper more than the Wikipedia assignment, however, it does reference Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle.

Agnes Varda

Varda has an extensive repertoire of films which have been written about. From her origins as a photographer, to her documentaries in recent years, Varda has plenty to be discussed by an assortment of film theorists. Despite her rich history of filmmaking, her Wikipedia is not as extensive as her male colleagues.

Bénézet, Delphine. “Cinécriture and Originality.” The Cinema of Agnès Varda: Resistance and Eclecticism, Columbia University Press, 2014, pp. 111–138. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/bene16974.9.

This chapter discusses the originality of Varda’s work in both her writing as well as her overall filmmaking techniques.

Conway, Kelley. Agnès Varda. Urbana, [Illinois]: U of Illinois, 2015. Print. Contemporary Film Directors LCNAMES.

This book offers a comprehensive look at Varda’s filmography, including in-depth context and analysis of Varda’s films.

Jackson, Emma. “The Eyes of Agnès Varda: Portraiture, Cinécriture and the Filmic Ethnographic Eye.” Feminist Review, no. 96, 2010, pp. 122–126. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40928100.

This article takes a feminist approach to Varda’s films, including a discussion of how portraiture and photography work in her filmography.

Kathryn Bigelow

Again, Bigelow has a diverse and extensive filmography. Best known for films like Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, Bigelow has been one of the few female directors nominated for an Oscar. Multiple film theorists and critics have discusses the extent to which her ex-husband, James Cameron, has influenced her earlier work. This discourse, however, is of course ridiculous and sexist considering no one asked Kathryn Bigelow about her influence in Titanic or Avatar. In addition, her films are not discussed as extensively on her Wikipedia page.

Benson-Allott, Caetlin. “Undoing Violence: Politics, Genre, and Duration in Kathryn Bigelow's Cinema.” Film Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 2, 2010, pp. 33–43. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2010.64.2.33.

This essay discusses violence in some of Bigelow’s films. This violence contributes to the genre and political influence in the films.

BREGER, CLAUDIA. “DIFFERENTIAL CONFIGURATIONS: In/Visibility Through the Lens of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008).” In/Visible War: The Culture of War in Twenty-First-Century America, edited by JON SIMONS and JOHN LOUIS LUCAITES, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, Camden, Newark, New Jersey; London, 2017, pp. 172–192. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1pv89fv.12.

This essay discusses The Hurt Locker in-depth, including an analysis of its reception in Hollywood as it deals with controversial political topics.

Jermyn, Deborah, and Sean Redmond. The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow : Hollywood Transgressor. London ; New York: Wallflower, 2003. Print. Directors' Cuts. (uri) Http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2002026025 (uri) Http://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/LC|no2002026025.

This book analyzes the earlier films of Kathryn Bigelow (up until Strange Days). The book is a compilation of essays written by film theorists to discuss Bigelow’s individual films and their significance in Hollywood.

Article Draft: Nora Ephron

Early Life:

Her upbringing in this home has been said to shape Ephron’s use of her own life experience to inspire her own work. Ephron was named after the protagonist in the play A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen.

Henry and Phoebe Ephron’s 1944 Broadway play, Three’s A Family, was largely inspired by the birth of Nora. Later on, Henry and Phoebe’s Broadway play from 1961 Take Her, She’s Mine, was written based on the letters Nora sent to her mother when she went to Wellesley College.

Ephron has cited her high school journalism teacher, Charles Simms, to inspire her to pursue a career in journalism. Ephron also cites her hatred of Los Angeles for her not pursuing the movie business initially.

Ephron’s journalistic work has been linked to New Journalism, a movement in which journalists wrote about themselves and their lives in order to tell a story. One of her more famous pieces ran in Esquire in 1973, titled “A Few Words About Breasts.” The piece is a feminist take on the female body, specifically about Ephron’s own relationship with her body. As a journalist, Ephron’s work typically focused on drawing inspiration from her own life. In Ephron’s biography, written by Richard Cohen, Cohen writes that “(he) came to think that Nora’s major secret was that she had no secrets.”

Ephron has largely been grateful for her career in journalism for lending itself to her filmmaking. In an interview with Patrick McGilligan in Back Story 5: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1990s, Ephron claims that her career as a journalist taught her to report and write on a wide range of topics. Ephron advises that "(she) always tell kids who want to go to film school that they should become journalists instead."

Ephron’s work as a filmmaker has been most notable for her work in romantic comedy. With films like When Harry Met Sally…, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail, her films center around strong female leads with hopeless romantic narratives. Ephron has been known for her rather unrealistic romantic comedies given their witty dialogue, charming characters, and unlikely, but funny, situations. Some of her films have also been major hits at the box office, cementing her status in Hollywood.

Career:

In 1983, Ephron coscripted the film Silkwood with Alice Arlen. The film, directed by Mike Nichols, stars Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, a whistleblower at the Kerr McGee Cimarron nuclear facility who dies under suspicious circumstances.[19] Ephron and Arlen were nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 1984 for Silkwood.[20] Ephron and Arlen later co-wrote the script for the 1989 film Cookie directed by Susan Seidelman.

Ephron’s novel, Heartburn, was published in 1982. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of her marriage with Carl Bernstein. The film adaptation was released in 1986, directed by Mike Nicols starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. Ephron adapted her own novel into the screenplay for the film. In the film, Ephron's fictionalized portrayal of herself, played by Streep, is a pregnant food writer when she learns about her husband's affair.

Ephron wrote the script for the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... in 1989. The film, directed by Rob Reiner, starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. The film depicts the decade-long relationship between Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) as they navigate their own romantic relationships. Ephron has claimed that she wrote this screenplay with Reiner in mind as the character of Harry, and herself as the character of Sally. Similarly to Ephron, Sally is a journalist in New York City.The film has become iconic in the romantic comedy genre, most notably for the scene in which Sally pretends to have an orgasm in the middle of Katz's Deli during lunch. Ephron said she wrote the part of Sally having an orgasm into the script per Meg Ryan’s suggestions. Additionally, the comment “I’ll have what she’s having,” said by a deli patron watching the scene unfold nearby, was an idea from Billy Crystal. Ephron's script was nominated for the 1990 Oscar in Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Ephron’s directorial debut was the 1992 film This is My Life. Ephron and her sister, Delia Ephron, wrote the script based on Meg Wolizer’s novel, This is Your Life. The film is about a woman who decides to pursue a career in stand up comedy after inheriting a substantial sum of money from a relative.

In 1993, Ephron directed and wrote the script for the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. The film stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin, a recently widowed father whose son calls into a Seattle-based radio talk show in an attempt to find his father a new partner. After hearing this call, New Yorker Annie Reed, played by Meg Ryan, becomes infatuated with Sam, and sets up a rendezvous for the two to meet. The film overtly references the 1957 film, An Affair to Remember, as Annie plans for their meeting at the top of the Empire State Building.

In 1998, Ephron released the film You’ve Got Mail, which she wrote the script for and directed. The story is a loose adaptation of the Ernst Lubitsch film from 1940, The Shop Around the Corner. You’ve Got Mail stars Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly, an owner of a small, independent children’s bookstore in New York City. Her quiet life is then threatened by Fox Books, a Barnes & Noble-esque book selling chain, which opens near her shop. Fox Books is run by Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks. Joe and Kathleen navigate a tumultuous business rivalry, while unknowingly the form an intimate connection with each other via email.

In 2009, Ephron directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Julie & Julia. The film is based off of Julie Powell’s novel and blog of the same title. The film is about Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep, a famous mid-century American cook and Julie Powell, played by Amy Adams, a New Yorker attempting to cook her way through Child’s cookbook as she blogs her experience. As Powell blogs her experience, the film flashes back to the story of Child’s first stages of her career as she trains in a French culinary school. The film was a financial and commercial success. Streep was nominated for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in A Leading Role.

Julia Cohen - Peer Edit
I really like how you first address the section on Ephron's Early Life. I think something that is lacking across many of the articles for the filmmakers we have been researching is in-depth discussions of their backgrounds and upbringings. I would imagine that for Ephron, hers is even more influential, and thus notable, because both of her parents were also screenwriters. I definitely think it is a good idea to talk more about Ephron's inspiration and early influence, and how her family life and education contributed to her future work. This is actually my second peer review for this article because the first one somehow got deleted--I think we may have actually been editing at the same time, but one thing that I did also notice used to be in your "intentions" for the article updates was a discussion of Ephron's journalistic work prior to her work as a director. I definitely think this is something that should be talked about, and if possible, I would suggest including some information about how she made the transition from journalist to director, as breaking into that world as a female was probably a challenging step. In that vein, I think it would would also be interesting to try to include information that gives some insight into how her work in journalism tied into her work in film, and how it influenced or affected it, thematically, narratively, etc.

You had also mentioned your intention to discuss Ephron's thematic patterns and overall influence on the romantic comedy genre. I definitely think it is important to provide more information on her films in this way, because so many of these articles simply list the years that films were released or who starred in them, but provide little to no information that actually discusses important ideas such as why an individual work was significant within the larger body of work of the filmmaker, or how one film affected later work, and so on. One suggestion I did have for this part of the article was a structural one. It might be helpful to include a section about common themes/technical choices in Ephron's work before your discussions of her individual films, so that when discussing individual films, you could reference back to the prior section that discusses these ideas and then pull pieces for your discussions of each individual film from this more all-encompassing section. I would also suggest trying to find information about how each of Ephron's films influenced the next, or how her earlier filmic work influenced her later filmic work, just because it would really help to paint a full picture of Ephron's filmic trajectory and development. Once you finish discussing individual films, you could then close with your discussion of how Ephron influenced the romantic comedy genre, and thus reference your prior discussions of the individual films in this section, which is obviously an incredibly important one as Ephron was a critical figure in the development of the genre. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with the article and reading it when it's finished!

'''Julie- Thank you for your feedback! I appreciate the help. - Sarah'''

Sophie Siegel Peer Review
Looking at Ephron's Wikipedia page, I see that there is a lot of missing information! I think it's important that you are researching how she constructs her female characters and how they interact with each other, because that is definitely something that is very relevant to feminist discourse. I agree that Ephron's early life and influences are important in understanding who she was as a filmmaker. Her beginnings as a journalist are particularly interesting, in that they most definitely shaped how she perceived the world and the events around her. How her journalism and writing background translated and influenced her cinematic storytelling abilities and her subjective lens is an extremely interesting topic that I would personally be curious to learn more about. It would also be interesting to research how she has influenced other female filmmakers, both stylistically and thematically.

The topics that you are researching should be included on Ephron's Wikipedia page, and I think it's important that you are looking into her different films. It could also be interesting if you were to also look at how her portrayal of female characters evolved in her films--possibly, even how they reflected the socio-political climate of the time they were produced.

Overall, I think that your research on Ephron is off to a really good start.

'''Sophie- Thank you for your help! - Sarah'''

Professor Schreiber Feedback
This is a great start, Sarah. I agree with your fellow students' feedback in that you could add a lot more here about Ephron's films and their themes...or even just their plots. There is so little information on her that there are a lot of ways you could take this. I would also make sure that when you do list/discuss her credits that you do so in chronological order.MJSProf (talk) 18:01, 14 April 2018 (UTC)