Discussion Questions for Women in Film Gathering, September 11, 2012
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1 Discussion Questions for Women in Film Gathering, September 11, 2012: Focal Film: Heartburn (1986; U.S.; Written by Nora Ephron; Directed by Mike Nichols) Nora Ephron (1941‐2012) was a journalist, playwright, novelist, producer, screenwriter, and director. She was one of the most prominent female talents ever to work in American film. Nora Ephron was the eldest of four daughters born to screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron (Belles on Their Toes, Carousel, Desk Set, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Take Her She’s Mine (loosely based on the letters Nora sent home from college)). Growing up in Beverly Hills, Nora had contact with many great Hollywood writers of the 1940s and 1950s (e.g., Charles Brackett, Julius Epstein). At then all‐female Wellesley, she encountered many young women seeking their “MRS” degree; she later claimed that her alma mater had turned out a generation of “docile women.” She chose a career track, working as a journalist for The New York Post and Esquire, and eventually transitioned into novels and screenplays. All four of the daughters of Henry and Phoebe Ephron became successful writers. Nora Ephron wrote the roman à clef Heartburn in 1983, a novelization of her volatile second marriage to Carl Bernstein of Washington Post/Watergate fame. The novel was adapted for film in 1986, with friend and frequent collaborator Mike Nichols directing. Some other Ephron films you might recognize are Silkwood (1983; Screenwriter), When Harry Met Sally (1989; Producer and Screenwriter), My Blue Heaven (1990; Producer and Screenwriter), Sleepless in Seattle (1993; Director and Screenwriter), Michael (1996; Producer, Director, and Screenwriter), You’ve Got Mail (1998; Producer, Director, and Screenwriter), and Julie and Julia (2009; Producer, Director, and Screenwriter). In Heartburn, the main characters are: * Rachel Samstat, Nora Ephron’s alter ego, a food writer (“cookbook author”) (played by Meryl Streep) * Mark Forman, the representation of Carl Bernstein, a “very single” newspaper columnist (played by Jack Nicholson) The rest of the cast includes Jeff Daniels as Rachel’s editor, Richard; Catherine O’Hara, Stockard Channing, Richard Masur, and even director Milos Forman as friends of the couple; and Kevin Spacey as a mugger, in his first film role. 1. Do you identify with the character of Rachel? In what ways, and at what points in the story? 2. Does the fact that the film (and the novel on which it was based) refer to true events in Nora Ephron’s life have an impact on your response? 3. In her book on women in Hollywood, Rachel Abramowitz calls Heartburn “the screed of all women scorned.” She notes Ephron’s antipathy toward certain men, and her acerbic and jealous commentaries 2 about women who take advantage of men (a skill that escaped her, according to Abramowitz). Can these tendencies be detected in our film? 4. Nora’s mother Phoebe Ephron is oft‐quoted as saying, “everything is copy.” Even on her deathbed, Phoebe reportedly told her daughter, “Take notes, Nora, take notes.” Does this give us any insight into how Nora Ephron may have maintained a connection between her life and her art? 5. As noted above, Ephron was one of the most important female creative talents in American film. Think of other female writers in American cinema. How does Ephron’s writing compare to theirs? How was her writing unique? [Hints on other women screenwriters to consider: Early Hollywood screenwriters Anita Loos and Frances Marion; mid‐century screenwriters Jay Presson Allen, Leigh Brackett, Betty Comden, Ruth Gordon, Sally Benson, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala; contemporary writers Diablo Cody, Allison Anders, Sofia Coppolla, Nancy Meyers] 6. Although Nora Ephron did not direct the film we are discussing, she did distinguish herself as one of America’s most prominent female directors. How does her work compare to that of other female directors? [Hints on other female directors to consider (remembering that in post‐silent Hollywood there were essentially only two prior to the 1970s, Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino)‐‐Penelope Spheeris, Penny Marshall, Amy Heckerling, Gurinder Chadha, Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow, Agnieszka Holland, Betty Thomas, Mira Nair] 7. Nora Ephron has often been noted for her “devastating wit,” and even compared to the legendary Dorothy Parker. Although this film is touted as a comedy/drama, the comedy is sometimes obscure, and often cynical. What parts of the film do you find funny, and why? Are there attempts at comedy that fall flat? What types of humor does she tend to utilize (e.g., disparagement, incongruity, dark humor, social humor)? 8. In Tom Brokaw’s book Boom: Voices of the Sixties, he refers to Ephron as a “sharp‐eyed observer or her life and times. a muse and a gold standard of smart thinking.” Can you think of examples from the film that demonstrate this? 9. From Jack Hart’s book Storycraft: “Nora Ephron, one of the most self‐reflective practitioners of the narrative craft, said [that reporters] were the kind of people who seemed most comfortable on the sidelines, hanging back with a certain kind of detachment while they watched others play the game of life. ‘I always seem to find myself at a perfectly wonderful event,’ she wrote, ‘where everyone else is having a marvelous time, laughing merrily, eating, drinking, having sex in the back room, and I am standing on the side taking notes on it all.’” What signs of this approach to observational writing can you see in this work? 10. Nora Ephron was most decidedly a feminist, but one whose work either avoided or transcended that label. Most books and articles about Ephron focus on her writing, screenwriting, or humor. However, Tom Brokaw has examined Ephron’s 1972‐1974 writings about women’s issues, reminding us that at the core, she championed the woman’s view. What aspects of Heartburn demonstrate this? 3 11. Scholar Susan Knobloch writes in the St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia that although Nora Ephron’s “genre of choice is the romantic comedy, her heroines suffer. They generally suggest, in Ephron’s rapid‐fire dialogue, that their tragedy is the inability of men and women to overcome gender differences— differences that the stories nonetheless post as essential to their own structures and thus to the viability of the characters’ love.” Does this description fit our film? 12. The choice of a music track is always a critical component in how a film is received. Here, the recurring theme, “Coming Around Again,” is written and performed by Carly Simon. How do Simon’s music and lyrics help create or reinforce mood in this film? 13. This film uses frequent intertextuality, that is, references to other movies and cultural products. This demonstrates Ephron’s fascination with popular culture connections. Examples: The poor pianist stalls for time while Rachel agonizes over marriage (he plays everything from “Isn’t it Romantic,” to “The Beer Barrel Polka”). When Rachel tells Mark she’s pregnant, they sing all the songs they know “about babies.” And, during Rachel and Mark’s first night together (apparently right after they meet), they watch the B‐movie horror flick, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962). Finally, there is an extended sequence in which Mark sings “Soliloquy (My Boy Bill)” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, the film version of which Nora Ephron’s father produced and for which both parents wrote the screenplay. Does this use of pop culture cues make the characters and their world more accessible to us, the spectators? 14. Going a step further, Nora Ephron’s work may be seen as focusing heavily on adaptations, including a couple of significant “reduxes”—You’ve Got Mail is the second remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s classic Shop Around the Corner (1940), and Sleepless in Seattle borrows its major conceit (the planned meeting at the top of the Empire State Building) from the thrice‐produced Love Affair/An Affair to Remember. However, in his book on American film comedy, Saul Austerlitz contends that Ephron’s best film is not an adaptation at all—2009’s Julie and Julia. With Heartburn, we have Ephron’s screen adaptation of her own novelization of her own life. What are your thoughts? 15. And…For those who have read the original novel Heartburn, how does the film compare? What was left out? Was anything added? Why do you think changes were made, and what effect do they have? (By the way, Carl Bernstein did reportedly take legal steps to try to stop the film from being made.) 16. Are there any particular messages and meanings in this film that have personal importance to you? Are you able to connect with this film on a personal level? Discussion questions by Kim Neuendorf, Ph.D.: [email protected] For an archive of Women in Film discussion questions: http://academic.csuohio.edu/kneuendorf/womeninfilm v. 8/26/12 .