Web hosting Custom Email SiteBuilder

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a true gem of a movie. Made in 1985, the movie shows Woody Allen at his best. It takes true advantage of nearly all the opportunities motion pictures can present. The movie can fit so many genres and topics it is almost astounding. Yet, Allen, the writer and director of the film, is careful not to bog the audience down with his cleverness. He crafts a wonderful story, and lets the many innovations of the film speak for themselves.

The movie is set in New Jersey, in the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The lead character of the movie, Cecilia, begins the movie as a waitress at a local diner. She is forced into working because her husband, Monk, was laid off two years before the movie began. Monk neglects Cecilia often, opting instead to gamble with his friends. When he is home, Monk abuses Cecilia, who tries her best to please Monk, but, as is the case with most abusive relationships, her best is rarely good enough. Cecilia is understandably miserable in her marriage, and she fares no better at her job at the diner, where she routinely drops dishes and is slow to serve patrons. She finds solace only at a local movie house, where she goes at least once a week and escapes into the lovely fantasy world of the movie she sees.

One week, Cecilia goes to see a new movie, entitled "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and she falls in love with the movie and its glamorous story and characters. When she returns home that evening, she finds Monk with another woman. Inspired by one of the lines in the movie, Cecilia decides she has had enough of Monk and packs a bag and ventures out on her own. However, after a viewing of "The Purple Rose of Cairo," reality soon sets in for Cecilia. She realizes she can’t make it on her own, and she comes back to Monk, who treats her no better than he did before her abortive runaway.

The next day, Cecilia gets fired from her job at the diner. Feeling dejected, she wanders into the local movie house, where she sees "The Purple Rose of Cairo" yet again. The tears streaming down her face soon vanish, as she once again becomes enthralled in the movie. After the first showing, Cecilia still feels unable to return home and face Monk, so she stays and watches the movie again. Then she stays for a third showing, making a grand total of five times she had seen the movie. It is in the middle of this showing when one of the lead characters of "The Purple Rose of Cairo," Tom Baxter, begins to forget his lines and notices Cecilia sitting in the theatre. Much to the shock of his fellow characters in the movie, Tom stops his actions, moves to the front of the screen, and begins addressing Cecilia directly. Cecilia, shocked, cannot believe Tom is talking directly to her. He is, however, and he soon leaps out of the movie screen, grabs Cecilia, and runs away with her. The other "Purple Rose" characters, meanwhile, have no choice but to watch dumbfounded as Tom and Cecilia run out of the theater.

It is important to note that Tom Baxter is only a movie character, and he has no experiences with living in the real world. He only knows movie sets, and God, to him, are the two writers who wrote "The Purple Rose of Cairo." It is up to Cecilia to teach Tom the ways of the real world, and in the process, Tom falls in love with her. While all this is going on, the movie characters sit around the screen over at the movie house, having nothing to do, as the story cannot continue until Tom returns to the screen. The owners of the movie house understandably become concerned, and they contact RKO Studios, the original makers of "Purple Rose." RKO, in turn, tracks down Gil Shepard, the actor who portrayed Tom in "Purple Rose." Gil is sent, along with RKO executives, to New Jersey to try to find Tom and return him to the movie. Gil eventually finds Tom and tries to convince him to return to the movie. Tom won’t budge, as he has fallen in love with Cecilia, and doesn’t want to return to the movie screen. Cecilia is also smitten with Tom, though she does not know yet if it is love.

Meanwhile, Cecilia still lives at home with Monk, and he apparently still believes she has a job. One day while coming to her house, Gil greets her outside. They talk, and she quickly falls in love with him, and he convinces her that he also loves her. All this sets up the climax of the movie, where Cecilia must choose between Tom and life in the movies, and Gil and life in Hollywood. In essence, she must choose between fantasy and real life. It isn’t an easy decision, but she is convinced that Gil really loves her, so she chooses him. Gil promises her a glorious life in Hollywood, and Cecilia returns home to pack for her new life. At the house, Monk tries to get her to stay, but she leaves and returns to the movie house, only to find that Gil has already left for Hollywood without her. He was feeding her lines, just so she would let go of Tom, and Tom would return to the movie. That way, Gil’s life could go on. Heartbroken, Cecilia wanders into the movie house, where a new movie is playing. Cecilia soon becomes enthralled in this movie as well, and she realizes that her life will go on. On this note, the film ends.

The technical aspects of this movie are great. Allen, through use of low-key lighting, shows the audience that Cecilia’s life is really quite miserable. Meanwhile, the movie she sees, "The Purple Rose of Cairo," is abundant in high-key lighting, and very effectively conveys the look of glamour that Cecilia so much looks forward to in a movie. When Tom leaves the movie screen and enters Cecilia’s life, her life also becomes much brighter, as Allen noticeably makes more extensive use of high-key lighting. This is representative of the heretofore unseen happiness that Cecilia is suddenly experiencing. Only when she returns home, and Monk re-enters her life, does the lighting around Cecilia become darker. There is a part of the movie where Cecilia enters "Purple Rose" with Tom, and she experiences the glamorous life of being inside a movie. In this bit, there is a montage of Tom and Cecilia living the nightlife in the spectacular city. The scene looks like something out of a classic 1930s movie. Also very noteworthy are the scenes that have Tom and Gil meeting each other. As Tom and Gil were really portrayed by one lone actor, some neat movie technology is used to have the two characters in the same shot. However, it is necessary in the scene for one of the characters to not have as sharp an image as the other. The fact that it is Gil who gets the sharper image is interesting foreshadowing; it hints at the fact that Gil will ultimately prevail, and Tom will ultimately have to return to the movie.

The acting in this movie is also great. Cecilia is played to perfection by Allen’s then-wife, Mia Farrow. Monk is portrayed with effective sliminess by Danny Aiello. The best performance of the movie, though, is that of Jeff Daniels, who shines in the dual role of Tom Baxter and Gil Shepard. The writing of this movie also stands out. The film focuses a rather large deal of attention on the other characters in "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and what they are doing while Tom and Cecilia are walking around town. Allen reveals that the characters are anxious to break out of the movies and live a real life. In turn, Cecilia and her fellow New Jersey citizens are anxious to jump behind the screen and live the glamorous lives they see the movie characters living.

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a true Woody Allen masterpiece. It is technically innovative, true, but more importantly it is exquisitely written and acted. It is well deserving of the Golden Globe award it received for Best Screenplay, as well as the nomination it received for Best Picture. The film is wonderful from the first scene to the last. The ending is a heartbreaker, true, but it serves as a bittersweet reminder that true, unadulterated happiness exists only in the wonderful world of movies.

Return to my main page.