Movie Notes: The Purple Rose Of Cairo

June 27th, 2009

= 5 stars

Starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, Danny Aiello
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Waitress Cecilia (Mia Farrow) obsessively goes to movies to escape the dreariness of her marriage during the Great Depression. After watching The Purple Rose Of Cairo several times in one day, the character Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) steps off the screen and into her life.

The Good

• Woody Allen doesn’t appear. As with Interiors, he steps behind the camera completely, giving full reign to Farrow and the rest of the cast, namely Jeff Daniels (playing a dual role, and sings!) and Danny Aiello as the doofus-goomba husband. The film is better without the sometimes overbearing Allen persona.
• The film leverages much of the knowledge Allen gained in previous films — use of black and white is expert, as is the period setting of the Great Depression.
• A love story to the escapism of movies, and a dramatization of some of Allen’s concerns regarding the meaning of cinema in Stardust Memories. The fantasy of film is crossed when a film character enters the real world, but meanwhile, the character’s actor is an already existing, real person. It’s easy to get caught up in the fantasy of film — we fall in love with particular characters — and not the actors behind the persona. The ultimate amusement is all the characters in this very film are fictional. Some fun is had trying to keep the movie within the movie straight from the “real” part, and lines like Danny Aiello’s protestation that this is “real life” — when his character is a fiction as view by our eyes — are doubly ironic.
• After the initial romance of a movie star coming to life passes, Allen doesn’t hide from the idea that it’s all a fantasy. The character has totally unrealistic ideas of their life together, and then the actor who plays the character appears, complicating things further. The ending is therefore, pitch perfect, as a warning of mixing reality and. fantasy. Yet, the love for movies perseveres.

The Bad

• A whorehouse bit goes on a tad long.

Conclusion

I’ve always loved The Purple Rose Of Cairo, but viewing Allen’s films in chronological order highlights how he had to steadily work up to this point. By this time, Allen proves a solid enough director to give Farrow a shining role, plus add commentary on the nature of film fantasy vs. reality amid loving nostalgia for cinema within the frame of an entertaining story. One of Allen’s best.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Hannah And Her Sisters
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Broadway Danny Rose

IMDB: The Purple Rose Of Cairo
Wikipedia: The Purple Rose Of Cairo
Rotten Tomatoes: The Purple Rose Of Cairo 90%