I've just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything." So says Cecilia (Mia Farrow), the central figure in Woody Allen's lyrically humorous Purple Rose of Cairo. The era is the Great Depression, and she is the bullied wife who finds escape in romantic movies, falling in love with the explorer hero, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), of the eponymous film. So far, nothing remarkable. But Allen has Baxter spot her in the audience, fall in love with her, and desert the picture, much to the irritation of the other characters. The surreal quality of the... situation develops further when Gil Shepherd--the actor who played Baxter (Daniels again)--seeks out his fictional alter ego to persuade him back into the film and thus save both their reputations. Naturally Shepherd, too, falls in love with Cecilia, and she's left to choose between fiction and reality, chooses the latter and is then cruelly jilted. The message seems clear: fairytales are just that, make-believe. There's no such thing as a happy ending. Dating from 1985 (after Broadway Danny Rose and immediately before Hannah and her Sisters), this is one of the few movies in which Allen doesn't actually appear, though he's recognisable in every line of Farrow's character. It's also a nostalgic tribute to the era that defined movie glamour, the close-up of Cecilia's face at the end a moment of pure Hollywood. At 81 minutes, this is a small but brilliant gem. On the DVD: Aside from the technological improvement of DVD over video, the new format adds little by way of features: you can view the original trailer, scan the film scene by scene, and there's a choice of subtitles in eight languages.--Harriet Smith [show more]
The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of Woody Allen's most dazzling comedic fantasies, on the surface a light and fluid fantasia of dream and imagination, and yet its heart is hard as stone and its message is pure Allen pragmatism. Mia Farrow is great as ever as the shy dreamer Cecilia, who at the height of the Depression is trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage and a dead-end job as a waitress. To escape this suffocating reality, she takes in a movie every day, getting lost in the lush Hollywood fantasies playing at the local theater, taking in a film every day. This dull routine comes to an end when, absurdly, one of the characters in the latest film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, notices Cecilia's dedication to film-going and steps out of the screen to meet her. Typically, Woody handles this moment with utter deadpan humor -- the movie patrons shriek and faint, Cecilia is stunned but kind of charmed, and the other characters in the film are outraged that the plot has ground to a halt. It's all put together to give the scene a kind of oddball reality and matter-of-factness that grounds the experience in Cecilia's romantic perceptions.
Ultimately, the film examines the nature of fantasy and reality, the connections between them, and the importance of choosing reality no matter how harsh the consequences. Cecilia is a basically good person, but her avoidance of reality keeps her locked utterly in her rut. When Tom Baxter (played admirably by Jeff Bridges) steps off the screen to woo her, she's swept up in the fantasy and romance of it all, so that her life becomes a wonderful continuation of her cinematic fantasies. She even goes so far as to step into the screen with Tom, in a wonderful series of scenes which evoke the feel of a genuine 20s/30s glamour film. But while Tom is romancing her, the real-life actor who played him, Gil Shepherd, is also vying for Cecilia's attention, even as he tries to get his doppelganger back onto the screen where he belongs. In the end, Cecilia is forced to choose between Tom and Gil, as though between fantasy and reality -- although, really, her image of Gil is so wound up with ideas of Hollywood ritz and glamour that even this reality is tinged heavily with fantasy. For Cecilia, even reality has something of the movies about it. In examining the ways in which we all retreat into our imaginations, Woody has made a movie of delirious fantasy that simultaneously deflates such fantasies. This is a complex and wonderful film, and its multiple layers of fantasy and reality are handled deftly by a director at the absolute top of his form.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. "[A] Masterpiece!" -Time Magazine. "One of the best movies about movies ever made" (Time 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 about life, love, illusion and hope. Starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello and Dianne Wiest, this Academy Award®-nominated film showcases Allen "at his most imaginative and compassionate, capturing the magic of the cinema" (Screen International) in all of its bittersweet glory! Lonely Depression-era waitress Cecilia (Farrow) is hopelessly addicted to Hollywood movies. Spellbound by her new favorite, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Cecilia is astonished when the leading man (Daniels) suddenly walks off the screen to meet her. Wooed by his charm, Cecilia finds herself falling for him - until she meets the real actor who plays him. Romanced by both a fictional character and a famous star, Cecilia struggles to locate the shifting line between fantasy and reality, only to discover that sometimes it's just a heartbeat away. Actors Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Dianne Wiest, Danny Aiello, Michael Tucker, Glenne Headly, Van Johnson, Edward Herrmann, Milo O'Shea, Stephanie Farrow & Karen Akers Director Woody Allen Certificate PG Year 1984 Screen Widescreen 1.85:1 Languages English ; German ; French ; Italian ; Spanish - Dolby Digital (2.0) Mono Subtitles French ; Italian ; Spanish ; Dutch ; Swedish ; Norwegian ; Danish Duration 1 hour and 22 minutes (approx)
Classic comedy written and directed by Woody Allen. The film follows Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a bored waitress who has a womanising slob for a husband and who regularly visits her local cinema in order to escape from the harsh realities of Depression-era America. One night, while re-watching her latest favourite 'The Purple Rose of Cairo', the film's hero (Jeff Daniels) steps down from the screen and asks her to show him around. A fantasy love affair ensues, but the couple's bliss soon comes under threat from Cecilia's husband, the bemused actor whose fictional alter-ego has gone walkabout, and the studio who want their character back on the screen.
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