The Purple Rose of Cairo

Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is a film that speaks to the heart of anyone who has been mad about the movies. In a now-legendary scene, intrepid explorer Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) steps off a movie screen and into the life of Cecilia (Mia Farrow), an unhappily married, unemployed, movie-lover. Together, Tom and Cecilia brave the complications of the real world, including the arrival of Gil Shepard, the actor who plays Tom.

Farrow is sweet as Cecilia and Daniels is wonderful in his dual role. Brimming with quotable dialogue, "The Purple Rose of Cairo" toys with reality while maintaining a feather-light touch. This is a valentine to the movies, and more so, to movie-lovers.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

There's no way you can't like the ingenuity of the movie, and the fun it has. It's about the joy of life, and love of the movies, and the difficulty to tell the difference sometimes (at least when in the theater).

In some ways this is one of Woody Allen's lightest movies, and certainly lightweight compared to the more serious movies of this period (like the stunning gem, "Another Woman"). It's not zany like his earliest comedies ("Love and Death"). And it's not deeply observant and sometimes downright moving and brilliant like his best movies (like "Annie Hall" or "Crimes and Misdemeanors"). In that way it feels like what some novelists would call an "entertainment" to distinguish from their heavier masterpieces, and sometimes these are the most readable of all. Or the most watchable.

"The Purple Rose of Cairo" is inventive, warm, and touching. It's really high brow hilarious when the people on the screen react to the situation, not only because of the existential reality shift going on, but because they are all high brow types. Then there are the everyday scenes with Mia Farrow, the lead actress in the real world (usually), and support from Danny Aiello, really just a foil for the main romances (two) going on with Farrow (singular). It's not as complicated as it sounds, which might prove the elegance of Allen's writing.

A beautiful, delicate movie without undo weightiness. Joyous, yes, even in its melancholy end.

The only Woody Allen that I hadn't seen. I was waiting for the opportunity to see it on a proper screen in a proper movie theater, with other people you know, like in the previous century. At the end I was convinced to see it in a friend's living room but in one of those super duper mega wide TV screens. What a delight! A movie about the love of something not quite real but that it becomes the more real thing in our lives. The transportation that Mia Farrow goes through while sitting in the movie theater brought tears to my eyes - my friend turned to me in disbelief "Are you weeping? He asked. Well yes, I was. I can't explain it. Have you seen the movie? Sometimes I felt I wanted to sit next to Mia Farrow in see the movie she's watching all the way through. Why not, Jeff Daniels, Mia Farrow, John Wood, Zoe Caldwell, Van Johnson, please! It's so much better in here than out here. You can bet I will see this again. Top notch.

THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO is a lovely, funny, and heartbreaking entry from Woody Allen that still remains one of my favorites. This romantic fantasy tickles your funny bone and tugs at your heartstrings at the same time and I go through a myriad of emotions whenever I watch it. Mia Farrow stars as Celia, a depression era housewife, trapped in a dead end marriage to a pig (Danny Aiello) whose only escape comes from going to the movies. She goes to see the movie of the title several times and then at one show, the main character in the movie (played by Jeff Daniels)speaks to Celia directly from the screen saying, "You must really love this movie, don't you?" The character then walks off the screen and into Celia's life, claiming that he loves her and wants to be with her forever. Meanwhile, the actors in the movie on the screen are stuck and don't know what to do because they can't finish the movie without Daniels' character and they are seen conversing with each other about what to do and to the audience in the theater, who for some reason, sit and watch the actors on the screen trying to figure out what to do. Further complications arrive when the character starts walking off the screen in other theaters around the country and the actor who played the character (also Daniels) arrives in town to try to convince his character to go back in the movie. Woody doesn't delve into the territory of fantasy too much, but this one totally works with one of his most intelligent screenplays and winning performances from Farrow and Daniels and the ending is a heartbreaker. A must-see.

Woody's stories are often derivative, but he's forgiven that, usually, because the results are good and ultimately do deserve his signature. For PURPLE ROSE, he swipes Buster Keaton's gimmick in SHERLOCK, JR., then lets his imagination run free as he did in the best of his NEW YORKER stories. We wind up with the most fascinating and realistic meditation regarding what it is to be an audience, a viewer's relationship to art, art's relationship to reality. The triumph is amazing, because, despite the depth of the symbolism, PURPLE ROSE can also be seen as sheer entertainment; on its surface, it is still one of the most entertaining pictures Woody has ever made.

Farrow and Aiello are marvelous here; Mia, who is quite underrated, has only been as good once -- in BROADWAY DANNY ROSE. The photography is superb, influenced perhaps by Edward Hopper with generally less obvious light sources.

Splendid, splendid work.