The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo (The Purple Rose of Cairo in Latin America and The Purple Rose of Cairo in Spain) is a 1985 romantic fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Modern Sherlock Holmes and Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, it is the story of a character from a movie who comes out of that movie and enters the world real.

Plot

Set in New Jersey during the Great Depression, the film tells the story of Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a bumbling waitress who goes to the movies to escape her sad life and abusive, loveless marriage to Monk (Danny Aiello)., whom he has tried to leave on numerous occasions.

The last movie Cecilia watches is a fictional RKO Pictures film, The Purple Rose of Cairo. It is the story of a wealthy Manhattan playwright named Henry (Edward Herrmann) who spends an exotic vacation in Egypt with his friends Jason (John Wood) and Rita (Deborah Rush). While in Egypt, the three meet archaeologist Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels). Tom is brought along with them on a "crazy weekend in Manhattan" where he falls in love with Kitty Haynes (Karen Akers), a singer from the famous Copacabana club.

After Cecilia sits through the movie several times, Tom, noticing her, breaks the fourth wall and emerges from the black and white screen into the colorful real world on the other side of the movie screen. Tom tells Cecilia that he is drawn to her after noticing her seeing him so many times, and she takes him around New Jersey town. Later, he takes her to the movie and they have a great night on the town inside the movie. But the character's defection from the movie has caused some problems. In other prints of the film, other characters have tried to get off the screen. The producer of the film learns that Tom has left the film and flies to New Jersey with actor Gil Shepherd (the "real life" actor playing the role of Tom in the film, also played by Jeff Daniels). This sets up an unusual love triangle between Tom, Gil and Cecilia. Cecilia must choose between them and she decides to choose the real person of Gil instead of the fantasy figure of Tom. She gives up the chance to return with Tom to her world, choosing to stay with Gil and have a 'real' life. She then breaks up with her husband.

But Gil's declarations of love for Cecilia were false—he courted her just to get Tom back in the movie and thus save his Hollywood career. Gil abandons Cecilia and is silently haunted by her guilt on his flight back to Hollywood. Left without a lover, job, or home, Cecilia ends up plunging into Hollywood escapism once again, sitting in a theater to watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance to "Cheek to Cheek" in the movie Top Hat, forgetting his plight and losing himself in the film.

Cast

Michael Keaton was originally cast as Tom Baxter/Gil Shepherd, as Allen was a fan of his work. Allen later opined that Keaton, who took a reduced salary to work with the director, was very contemporary and difficult to accept in the role of the time. The two amicably parted ways after ten days of shooting, and Daniels replaced Keaton in the role.

Production

A number of scenes with Tom and Cecilia are set at the Bertrand Island amusement park, which closed just prior to the film's production. It was also filmed at the Raritan restaurant in South Amboy, New Jersey. Woody Allen closed the Kent Theater on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn to film the movie there. This is the movie theater in the neighborhood where he grew up, which he called "one of the great significant places of my childhood."

In a rare public appearance at the National Film Theater in 2001, Woody Allen listed The Purple Rose of Cairo as one of only a few of his films that ended up being "pretty close to what we thought." wanted to do" when he set out to write it. Allen provides further details about the film's origin in a comment he made the previous year, during a press tour for Small Time Crooks:

«Purple Rose It was a movie I just locked myself in a room [to write]... I wrote it and in half I wasn't going anywhere and put it aside. I didn't know what to do. I played around with other ideas. Only when the idea hit me, long after, that the real actor arrives in the city and she has to choose between the actor [on the screen] and the real actor and chooses the real actor and he leaves it, that was the time it became a real movie. Not before. But the whole thing has been manufactured."

Many of the exterior scenes were filmed in Piermont, New York, a small town on the Hudson River 15 miles north of the George Washington Bridge. The store fronts had faux facades to reflect their Depression-era location.

Reception

Fundraising

The Purple Rose of Cairo opened in North America on March 1, 1985 in three theaters, where it grossed a phenomenal $114,095 ($38,031 per screen) in its opening weekend. The box office was supported by other expansions, and its total US gross of $10,631,333 was in line with most Woody Allen films of the time.

Criticism

The Purple Rose of Cairo received much critical acclaim upon its release and currently has a positive 'fresh' rating. 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.8/10.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars, saying "The Purple Rose of Cairo is bold and witty and has plenty of good laughs, but the best thing about the film is the way Woody Allen uses it to play with the very essence of reality and fantasy." Time Out also gave the film a favorable review, opining "how the entranced couple, Farrow and Daniels wow with fantastic emotions, while Allen's direction invests enough focus, wit and warmth to make it truly moving." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote some of the glowing praise for the film, saying "my admiration for Mr. Allen extends to everyone associated with The Purple Rose of Cairo - all the actors, including Mr. Daniels, Mr. Aiello, Dianne Wiest and the performers inside the movie inside; Stuart Wurtzel, the production designer and particularly Gordon Willis, the cinematographer, who has a lot of fun imitating the look of the movie Cecilia falls in love with, as well as creating the right style for the downbeat times that frame the movie inside ». Canby concluded by stating, "I'll venture to say: I can't believe the year will bring something like The Purple Rose of Cairo later in the year." At 84 minutes, it's short but every one of those minutes is joyous."

Awards

The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the César Award for Best Foreign Film. Allen's screenplay was nominated for several major awards, including an Oscar, a BAFTA Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award. It was recognized as one of the "100 Best Films" by Time magazine. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.