5 of Nora Ephron's best movies (+video)

Writer-director Nora Ephron, who also worked as a producer, journalist and author, died June 26, leaving behind a career of many memorable films, books and other writing. Here are five of Ephron's best films, those she directed and those for which she wrote the script.

Charles Sykes/AP

1. 'Silkwood'

Nora Ephron was born in Manhattan into a family of four sisters, all of whom became writers (sister Delia was a frequent collaborator). Ephron first worked as a journalist, holding down a position as an intern in the John F. Kennedy White House and working with the mail at the magazine Newsweek, and wrote for the New York Post, Esquire and the New York Times Magazine. She broke into screenwriting when her then-husband Carl Bernstein asked her to edit the script for the film adaptation of "All The President's Men," and while her treatment went unused, it led to Hollywood becoming interested in her writing talents.

One of the early films she wrote was the 1983 movie "Silkwood," which was based on the real-life Karen Silkwood who tried to bring to the attention of the public the dangerous working conditions at the nuclear plant where she was employed. The film starred Meryl Streep as Silkwood, Cher as Karen's roommate Dolly, and Kurt Russell as Karen's boyfriend Drew. The movie was nominated for five Oscars, one for Streep as Best Actress, another for Cher for Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay for Ephron and Alice Arlen, Best Director for Mike Nichols and Best Film Editing, for Sam O'Steen.

Great line: "I remember in high school, her saying, 'Now what'd you want to take that science class for? There's no girls in that science class. You take home ec, why don't you? That's the way to meet the nice boys.' 'Mom,' I said, There ain't no boys in home ec. The boys are in the science class.' She hated when I said 'ain't.'" –Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep)

1 of 5

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.