Daily Dialogue — December 11, 2018

“I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

— When Harry Met Sally… (1989), written by Nora Ephron

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Profession of Love, suggested by Mark Furney.

Trivia: For the infamous orgasm scene, the original script called for Harry and Sally to merely talk about women faking an orgasm, until Meg Ryan suggested that Sally actually fake an orgasm at the table. Director Rob Reiner loved the idea and put it into the script.

Dialogue On Dialogue: I’m not a huge fan of romantic comedies, but WHMS is one of my favorite movies from the 80s in part due to Ephron’s incredible dialogue. Witness this scene with Harry’s profession of love.

Here’s a treat: A conversation between the late great Nora Ephron, who wrote the screenplay for When Harry Met Sally…, and its director Rob Reiner. It’s great! A wonderful back and forth about the roots and development of the project. Interesting how Ephron immediately saw the structure of the movie when she first heard the idea. She said, “I can write that.”