The Ephron Drip

Nora's director chair style

I needed a little inspiration recently, something to get me over the hump. A lot of times what I’ll do is rewatch or reread something rather than watch or read something new. My thinking is that introducing something new to my brain will only complicate my thinking process. I’ll be trying to figure out how to write something or create something and then I'll introduce something new to my already crowded mind and then I’m a step further away from where I want to be. It’s nice to think something new will inspire me, but generally, I find the classics help. I’ll put a movie I’ve seen a thousand times off and just fall into it or I’ll use my Brooklyn Museum membership card and go look at paintings I’ve seen countless times. The metaphor here is that I’m not trying to put new tires on the car; I’m trying to get the tires that are stuck in the mud out.

So last night I did something I’ve done countless times before and I looked to Nora Ephron for guidance. In this case, I didn’t want to watch a movie, so I opted for the 2015 documentary on her life and work, Everything Is Copy. I just wanted to zone out on Nora and the brilliant people that loved her and, yes, it helped. I went to sleep, woke up the next morning and I could work through the problem I had. But then I had a new problem. I couldn’t stop thinking about how cool Nora looked in this shot.

There are plenty of shots where Nora looks great, but I particularly love this one when she’s on set for the first movie she ever directed, This Is My Life. I consider that the most underrated of all her films and sooner or later I’m hoping to write something about it, but in the meantime, I want to just appreciate the look. Peak Auteurcore. She’s not wearing anything with the movie’s name or logo on it, but the big sunglasses and Mets mesh cap that I assume she just had laying around and helped keep the sun out of her eyes is so good. There are some other peak Nora looks, but I got to thinking more about the Nora Ephron thing. That particular look and feel that people especially love to talk about this time of year thanks to the coziness of When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail. I realized I’ve been trying for a long time to a finger on what, exactly, it is about her movies that feels very Nora in the way that you watch, say, a Nancy Meyers film and you’re like “Oh, yeah. Nancy definitely thought and thought and thought about how the kitchen should look before shooting.” And the hat made me understand it a little better. It made me think of this shot from When Harry met Sally:

There’s something about that juxtaposition of clutter meets calm. Of frazzled and having it together. Of lived in and stylish, but also clean and appreciated. Everything in her movies looks real. It looks like it was used beforehand. I’m sure a lot of that is thanks to the set decorators and Nora’s own eye for detail. I remember hearing some story about how she got mad on one of her sets because somebody used a root beer that wasn’t right, like she wanted Dr. Brown’s and they got her a Mug or something. I’m not totally there in unlocking what it is about her movies that I’m so obsessed with. Her writing I understand a little more, but when I grabbed that photo of Meg Ryan as Sally Albright at her desk from the Instagram account Nora Ephron Interiors, and I started thinking of that shot of Nora looking stylish and all business on set, but topping it off with a mesh Mets hat, I think I got a little closer to understanding. Maybe I never will quite get it, and that’s fine. For now, I’m just happy to always have something to go back to when I’m stuck.