When Harry Met Sally… is so much more than a faked orgasm and a punchline. Not only does it offer many more pleasures than these, admittedly fine comic moments, it also stands as a pivotal film that helped reinvigorate the romantic comedy genre. Paradoxically, the film is well loved but also misunderstood and underappreciated: viewers know it is good, funny and poignant, but perhaps do not fully realise how important and influential it is. But When Harry Met Sally… is worthy of a place in a romcom pantheon with other films that introduced or perfected a whole new subgenre, like It Happened One Night (1934) with the screwball, Pillow Talk (1959) with the battle-of-the-sexes comedy and Annie Hall (1977) with the radical romcom; When Harry Met Sally… is similarly transformative.
It needs to be appreciated as a pivotal film in two ways: for stimulating a revival of the romantic comedy after the genre had idled for over a decade, and for reinvigorating the products of that genre in ways that changed what romcom meant and could do.
It was released in a decade in which the romcom was extremely under-represented at the box office. In looking at the increased number of romantic comedies that began to appear after When Harry Met Sally… I am not arguing that these later films were made expressly because of its success, but rather that its popularity indicated audience hunger for such films, and that other directors then began to tap into this with more confidence. Indeed, year on year across the succeeding decade the romcom came back into its own, increasing from 1990’s two romcom hits to five in 1993, eight in 1995, ten in 1997 and so on to a high of 13 in 1999. When Harry Met Sally… had indicated that the romcom could be big business again and, while hardly any of the films that followed could match its combination of traditional conventions and innovative elements, many obviously tried to emulate its success by borrowing directly from it.
Close analysis reveals the film to be carefully and cleverly organised. Along with Nora Ephron’s witty script, adroit direction from Rob Reiner, and performances from principals Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan that are both comic and touching, the film’s structure plays a significant part in its appeal: while it seems to chart in a loose, organic way the haphazard development of the protagonists’ relationship, it takes place within a rigorous framework, enabling a subtle deployment of echoes and parallels across the narrative.
It may seem strange that a film as popular as When Harry Met Sally… now it needs to be dissected to reveal what it does so audaciously and brilliantly, but in order to understand it for the trailblazer it was, I think analysis is necessary.
First, it introduced its central couple and then dropped them for five years – and then did it again. When other romcoms make narrative fodder out of the events of One Fine Day (1996) or one night (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, 2008), one of the Reiner-Ephron film’s most audacious moves is to stretch its story out over 12 years. Richard Linklater might perhaps be seen as responding to this in allowing a real-time gap of nine years to elapse between filming Before Sunrise (1995), its original companion piece, Before Sunset (2004) and its most recent return, Before Midnight (2013).
Second, then, When Harry Met Sally… gave realism back to the genre, which is one reason it is so well loved. The protagonists do not meet cute, fall in love at first sight, know instantly they have met The One and then spend forever loving that person. Like people in real life, they get it wrong, get hurt, get older, get closer, get it wrong again, then finally learn how and when to make amends, and get married. This is a much more credible timeline, which lets us relate to the protagonists and their narrative. And then when they do get together, there is no dramatic deux ex machina, no great reversal of fortune, no car crash or coma, to make them realise, just their separation and then a growing realisation of what they mean to each other. The evident regret that bedevils Harry towards the finale is very realistic, even if he remains largely in denial of it.
Third, the film is beautifully structured, but so lightly that it is perfectly possible just to enjoy the parallels, echoes and returns without closer analysis. And this leads to fourth, which is the movie’s enjoyably complex editing and sound mixes, and its recourse to a range of filmic techniques, such as split-screen, voiceover and montage, which both enrich the film itself and gesture in affectionate tribute to some of the great romantic comedies of the past.
Fifth, When Harry Met Sally… is funny, with not only a great written script but inspired improvisation from a quartet and more of actors who give excellent performances. And again, leading on from this, is sixth: its heroine. This is a film in which the heroine is not a cipher, not a fantasy of a woman (unlike Working Girl’s sexy Cinderella who has ‘a head for business and a bod for sin’) but a character as well rounded as the man she spars with and learns to love. As much popular culture debate about Bechdel Tests and Manic Pixie Dream Girls has shown lately, the concept of the fully rounded female lead character is sadly all too uncommon now.
Seventh and finally, the film has been influential, not only in establishing that the romcom could be profitable at the box office, but that the genre, although one of the very oldest in cinema, could continue to evolve and renew itself.
Extract from When Harry Met Sally… by Tamar Jeffers McDonald (BFI Film Classics; BFI/Palgrave, 2015) Reproduced by kind permission of Bloomsbury Publishing. ©Tamar Jeffers McDonald
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…
Director: Rob Reiner
©: Castle Rock Entertainment
Castle Rock Entertainment in association with Nelson Entertainment present
a Columbia Pictures release
Producers: Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman
Co-producers: Jeffrey Stott, Steve Nicolaides
Associate Producer: Nora Ephron
Unit Manager: Mark A. Baker
Production Manager: Steve Nicolaides
Production Co-ordinators: Linda Allan, Jane Raab, Meng Hwei-Chu
Location Managers: Donna Bloom, Don Garrison
1st Assistant Director: Aaron Barsky
2nd Assistant Director: Michael Waxman
Script Supervisor: Kerry Lyn McKissick
Casting: Jane Jenkins, Janet Hirshenson
Casting Associates: Michael Hirshenson, Robin Allan
Written by: Nora Ephron
Director of Photography: Barry Sonnenfeld
Camera Operator: M. Todd Henry
Assistant Camera: Angelo Di Giacomo, Brian Armstrong, Christopher Duskin,
Thomas Miligan
Video: Video Image, Greg McMurry
Editor: Robert Leighton
Production Designer: Jane Musky
Art Department Co-ordinator: Harold Thrasher
Set Decorators: George R. Nelson, Sabrina Wright-Basile
Scenic Artist: Billy Puzo
Property Masters: David L. Glazer, Dick Tice
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham
Costume Supervisor: Jennifer L. Parsons
Make-up (Meg Ryan): Stephen Abrums, Joseph A. Campayno
Make-up (Billy Crystal): Ken Chase, Peter Montagna
Hairstyling: Barbara Lorenz, William A. Farley
Titles/Opticals: Pacific Title
Special Music Performances/Arrangements: Harry Connick Jr
Orchestrations: Marc Shaiman, Tom Sharp
Music Supervisor: Scott Stambler
Sound Mixer: Robert Eber
Re-recording Mixers: Terry Porter, Mel Metcalfe, David J. Hudson
Supervising Sound Editors: Charles L. Campbell, Louis L. Edemann
Cast
Billy Crystal (Harry Burns)
Meg Ryan (Sally Albright)
Carrie Fisher (Marie)
Bruno Kirby (Jess)
Steven Ford (Joe)
Lisa Jane Persky (Alice)
Michelle Nicastro (Amanda Rees)
Gretchen F. Palmer (stewardess)
Robert Alan Beuth (man on aisle)
David Burdick (9 year-old boy)
Joe Viviani (judge)
Harley Kozak (Helen Hillson)
Joseph Hunt (waiter at wedding)
Kevin Rooney (Ira Stone)
Franc Luz (Julian)
Tracy Reiner (Emily)
Kyle T. Heffner (Gary)
Kimberley Lamarque (waitress)
Stacey Katzin (hostess)
Estelle Reiner (older woman customer)
John Arceri (Christmas tree salesman)
Peter Day (joke teller at wedding)
Kuno Sponholz, Connie Sawyer, Charles Dugan, Katherine Squire, Al Christy, Frances Chaney, Bernie Hern, Rose Wright, Aldo Rossi, Dona Hardy, Peter Pan, Jane Chung (documentary couples)
USA 1989©
95 mins
Digital
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
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