I love writing reviews and I'm doing my best to add some interesting comments. I hope to add more r...
I love writing reviews and I'm doing my best to add some interesting comments. I hope to add more reviews whenever I can and get better!
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The Purple Rose Of Cairo was written and directed by Woody Allen and originally released in 1985. The film (which Allen does not appear in as an actor) is a bittersweet fantasy in the vein of Zelig or Broadway Danny Rose with the plot revolving around a lonely depression era housewife called Cecilia, played by Mia Farrow. Cecilia is in an abusive marriage with Monk (Danny Aiello) - an idle gambler who hasn't worked for two years. She supports them both by working as a waitress and her only escape from her sad, humdrum, threadbare life comes when she visits the cinema, films being her great passion and - most importantly of all - a temporary refuge and tranquilliser from real life and harsh reality. When Cecilia is in a darkened theatre watching a high society comedy of the period all of her troubles float away.
One of Cecilia's current favourites is a glitzy, patently absurd romp called The Purple Rose Of Cairo. On her fifth viewing of the film however one of the characters in the film, an 'explorer' called Tom Baxter (played by Jeff Daniels) looks directly at her through the screen and comments that she must really love the picture to keep returning. Tom decides to break the fourth wall and walk out of the film to join Cecilia in the real world where he soon embarks on a romance with her while learning about reality. Meanwhile,
Gil Shephard (Jeff Daniels again naturally), the actor who played Tom Baxter in The Purple Rose Of Cairo, eventually turns up on the scene fretting about the potential harm Tom Baxter could do to his career with his actions! Cecilia is soon involved in a love triangle with Tom and Gil and must make a difficult decision. She must literally choose between fantasy and reality...
The Purple Rose Of Cairo is one of Woody Allen's favourites out of the films he has directed and he's spoken fondly of it in several interviews over the years since it was made. This is high praise indeed because he rarely speaks fondly about any of his films. Technically the film is excellent. It has a great, thoughtful script and a wonderful cast. It's also a very sad and poignant film. A bittersweet meditation on the tension between fantasy and reality and the dream of escape from poverty, boredom and unfulfilled dreams.
Although only 81 minutes long, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, is packed with wonderful visual moments and jokes and interesting themes and plot developments. For the 'film within a film' Allen had great fun recreating a stereotypical thirties RKO style piece of nonsense with grand theatrical performances from the actors and hokey sets. Allen described the film within a film as the type of 'champagne comedy' that he watched as a child where everybody wore a tux, lived in a penthouse and knocked back cocktails at swanky nightclubs. There is a wonderful montage of a 'night on the town' within the film where Tom takes Cecilia into the movie. The other characters are stuck in the film but Tom seems to be able to come and go as he pleases. How he can do this is never explained although Gil's agent comments that "In New Jersey anything can happen."
There are several amusing twists that follow from Tom's actions. The other characters in the film start to lose all discipline without a pivotal characer and audiences start to complain that the film has changed from the last time they watched it! The b/w photography by Gordon Willis is superb in these scenes.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Woody Allen's film here lies in the interactions between the fictional Tom Baxter and the real world. He tries to pay a bill with stage money and is bemused that cars don't start on their own. He also keeps expecting a 'fadeout' whenever he kisses Cecilia. When Tom states that he'll find a job Cecilia reminds him that the entire country is out of work. "We'll live on love," he says. "That's movie talk," replies Cecilia. Later he ends up in a brothel and has no idea of what sort of place he is in because brothels never feature in throwaway thirties comedies!
The innocent Tom faces competition from Gil, the actor who played him in the film. Gil is charmed by Cecilia at first because she knows all his films by heart and can recite his most famous lines but we gradually sense a more calculating aspect to his attentions. Does he really like Cecilia or is he completely wrapped up in saving his career? We know that Tom loves Cecilia because he's a fictional romantic hero. The cast of the film within a film serve as a sort of Greek Chorus later and offer wisecracks and suggestions as to which one Cecilia should choose.
I should mention the cast, which as you'd expect from a Woody Allen film, is exceptional. Mia Farrow is heartbreaking as Cecilia and her performance rates alongside her role in Broadway Danny Rose as one of her very best. Danny Aiello is reliable as ever in a role that made up for him missing out on the part of singer Lou in Broadway Danny Rose. Jeff Daniels is also amazing in the dual roles of Tom and Gil and succesfully manages to give them distinct personalities so we fully believe they are seperate people. Michael Keaton was originally given the Daniels roles but Allen decided he was too streetwise and contemporary for a thirties depression era piece and replaced him with Daniels several days into the shoot. Daniels is probably best known for films like Dumb and Dumber and Arachnophobia but he's a good actor in the right role.
The cast in the film within a film, including John Wood and Zoe Caldwell, are also superb, and one of Allen's favourite actresses Dianne Wiest also features in the film in the brothel scene.
From the moment we hear Fred Astaire singing at the start of the film to the poignant final reel, The Purple Rose Of Cairo is an enchanting and amusing film with a wonderful central premise. It's a sad film in many ways but a moving experience that rewards the viewer with many wonderful moments and twists.
A reminder that the eighties was probably the last vintage decade for Woody Allen as a director.
This being a Woody Alen film you don't get any extras beyond a trailer and a scene selection option.
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"I've just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything." So says ... more
Cecilia (Mia Farrow), the central figure in Woody Allen's lyrically humorousPurple Rose of Cairo. The era is the Great Depression, and she is the bullied wife wh...
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Lonely Depression-era waitress Cecilia (Farrow) is hopelessly addicted to Hollywood ... more
movies. Spellbound by her new favourite The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Cecilia is astonished when the leading man (Daniels) suddenly walks off the screen to meet her. Wooed ...
"I've just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything." So says ... more
Cecilia (Mia Farrow), the central figure in Woody Allen's lyrically humorousPurple Rose of Cairo. The era is the Great Depression, and she is the bullied wife wh...
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[A] Masterpiece! -Time Magazine. One of the best movies about movies ever made (Time ... more
Magazine) Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo slips through the looking glass of cinematic convention to create a magical intoxicating (Cosmopolitan) comic fable...
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![The Purple Rose Of Cairo [DVD] [1985]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78541546.jpg "The Purple Rose Of Cairo [DVD] [1985]")
Apr 15th, 2009
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