Groundbreaking in its departure from its predecessors, When Harry Met Sally… (1989) established classic romantic comedy themes and tropes still being employed today. Following the relationship between its title characters, Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan), and their best friends Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher), the film unfolds as a series of episodes, from Harry and Sally's prickly car journey from Chicago to New York City to a momentous encounter on New Year's Eve twelve years later.
Tamar Jeffers McDonald's insightful study explores how writer Nora Ephron and director Rob Reiner used structure, filmic devices, music and classic romcom concepts in innovative new ways. In her afterword to this new edition, she reflects on the movie's continuing influence on the romcom genre, and its relevance in a more turbulent era, where the question at the movie's heart - "Can men and women ever just be friends?" takes on fresh nuance in the age of #MeToo.
A new edition of Tamar Jeffers McDonald's study of the classic romcom
When Harry Met Sally ... (1989) in the BFI Film Classics series.
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A new edition of Tamar Jeffers McDonald's study of the classic romcom When Harry Met Sally ... (1989) in the BFI Film Classics series.
1. Introduction and Acknowledgments
2. 'When Harry Met Sally...'
3. Afterword to the 2026 Edition
4. Notes
Credits.
Tamar Jeffers McDonald is Dean of the School of Art and Media & Professor in Film History, University of Brighton, UK. She is the co-editor of Stars, Fan Magazines and Audiences: Desire by Design Hollywood and author of Catwalk: Reading Costume and Transformation in American Film (2010) Doris Day Confidential: Hollywood Sex and Stardom (2013).
