When Harry Met Sally...
Short description
Harry Burns and Sally Albright meet by chance when they share a long drive from Chicago to New York, and their conversation turns into an argument over whether men and women can ever be just friends. Harry insists they cannot, because attraction always interferes. Over the years their paths cross again, and after both have weathered disappointments in love, they decide to test Harry's theory by becoming friends. The arrangement holds for a while, but the question they keep circling remains unresolved between them.
Rob Reiner directed the film, the fifth of nineteen he has directed and the one that followed The Princess Bride and preceded Misery. Nora Ephron wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Reiner and Andrew Scheinman. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan play the two leads, with Carrie Fisher as Marie and Bruno Kirby as Jess among a credited cast of forty-five.
Made for about 16 million dollars, the film took roughly 93 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. It holds a 7.7 rating on IMDb from some 271,000 votes and a 7.4 on TMDB from a much smaller pool, while its critics' rating stands at 8 out of 10 across 145 reviews, putting professional assessment slightly above the general audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The song "It Had To Be You" appeared in "Casablanca" (1942), which the characters watch and discuss.
- The American Film Institute ranked “When Harry Met Sally…” sixth on its list of the ten greatest romantic comedies.
- The dating stories that couples periodically tell are real. Rob Reiner collected them specifically for the film. However, the husbands and wives are played by actors.
- The voice-over saying "There are 10 seconds left until the New Year" belongs to the film's director.
- Albert Brooks turned down the role of Harry Burns.
- The woman who, after the 'orgasm simulation' scene, says, “I feel the same as she does,” is Rob Reiner’s mother.
- The film also starred Tracy Reiner, the daughter of director Penny Marshall, who took the surname of her stepfather, Rob Reiner.
- The character of Harry is partially based on Rob Reiner’s personality. And Sally’s habit of ordering strange food was taken from screenwriter Nora Ephron.
- Molly Ringwald was offered the role of Sally, but she had to decline due to a busy filming schedule. In 2004, Ringwald played Sally in the West End.
- Before settling on the title “When Harry Met Sally…”, Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron considered the following options: “Just Friends”, “Boy Meets Girl”, “Blue Moon”, “Words of Love”, “Harry, This is Sally”, “How They Met”, “It Had to Be You”, and “The Game of a Melancholy Child”. Nora Ephron later admitted that she doesn't like the chosen title and would gladly go back and change it.
- While Harry and Sally are on the phone, Harry is reading Stephen King's "Misery." The following year, Rob Reiner filmed an adaptation of this novel.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
