10 Best When Harry Met Sally Moments
8. The Morning After Phone Call
When Harry awkwardly leaves Sally after they sleep together, the pair call their respective best friends Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher), who are now engaged, to tell them what happened. After the emotional conflict and the awkward tension, the four-way phone call is a brilliant narrative device to re-inject some comedy into the film.
Both Harry and Sally clearly regret the whole experience, but Jess and Marie attempt to cheer on and console their friends at the same time. There are several threads of dialogue going on at once, but Nora Ephron’s script is so thoughtful and well-timed that it creates a relatable and charming scene.
7. The Documentary Couples
Before we meet our two protagonists, we are introduced to an elderly couple telling the story of how they met and fell in love. The scene is composed to look like a talking heads documentary, as the couple are framed in a two-shot and directly address the camera head-on. The husband recounts the story of how he met his wife.
It is a sweet little anecdote to open the film with, and ensures early amusement through the line, “two weeks later, we were married.” It is a tongue-in-cheek moment that contrasts with the 12-year timespan of the film, showing how fast people used to get married in previous generations versus the 1980s (the decade in which the film is set).
These talking heads scenes are interspersed throughout the narrative, featuring different elderly couples telling the stories of how they fell in love, each offering new perspectives on this film’s primary theme.
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6. When Harry and Sally Become Friends
After running into each other again and confiding in each other about their respective heartbreaks, Harry and Sally finally decide to become friends. We see a montage of the pair going about their respective lives and going out with each other in beautiful, autumnal New York City, whilst a sound-bridge of Harry Connick Jr’s gorgeous jazz score plays over the top as Harry and Sally discuss Casablanca (1942).
Every shot within this montage captures their new lives as single people perfectly, with Harry depressed and Sally keeping busy to avoid any pain. Aesthetically, every shot could be saved to a Pinterest board, with the cosy 80s outfits and grainy film stock adding to the film’s romantic tone.
The montage ends with us placed into the scene where the sound bridge came from: the pair watching Casablanca. As they are in their separate apartments, this is shown through a split-screen, connoting that whilst they are growing closer, there is still a boundary between them.
