Institute History
Description
As one of the film industry’s most respected screenwriters, Nora Ephron has built a reputation for comic originality and sparkling invention. Her characters are memorable and fresh, often very different from others you’ve seen on the screen. Her two Academy Award–nominated screenplays,When Harry Met Sally and Silkwood, as well as Heartburn (which she adapted from her novel), resonate with insight and truth. With This Is Your Life, her feature directorial debut, she establishes herself as a remarkably controlled and capable filmmaker. Julie Kavner stars as Dottie Ingalls, who works in the cosmetics department at Macy’s on Queens Boulevard, and lives with her two daughters, sixteen-year-old Erica and ten-year-old Opal, and her Aunt Harriet in a row house in Ozone Park. Dottie’s dream is to become a performer, and the sudden death of Aunt Harriet gives her the nest egg to move to Manhattan and plunge into the late-night comedy scene. Meanwhile her daughters must adapt—to new schools, new friends, and most important, to their mother’s immediate success. As Dottie’s bookings pile up and her dreams begin to come true, Erica and Opal must face a life without the supporting presence of their mom—and what begins as a simple story about one woman’s success becomes a surprisingly complex tale about the complicated issues that affect working mothers and their kids.