Have you ever dreamed of being a movie star? Ever wonder what it would be like to live out one of your favorite stories from the movies? It's an interesting question that I'm sure plenty of people answer in the affirmative. Of course I wanted to be Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, or Wonder Woman. It's one of the reasons why people go to the movies in the first place. To live vicariously through someone else. And The Purple Rose of Cairo digs into those feelings. It is a romantic comedy set in the 1930s. It was directed by Woody Allen and stars Mia Farrow along with a cast of others including Jeff Daniels and Danny Aiello. The film was released in 1985.
The film is set in Depression era New Jersey. The action of the film revolves around Mia Farrow's character's obsession with films. She is a struggling waitress at a diner with Aiello as her abusive, unemployed, drunkard of a husband. Suddenly her life changes when Jeff Daniels' character comes down of a movie screen and declares his love for her. Cecilia is taken aback. Eventually there is a furor over what to do about Daniels' character Tom Baxter. The theater manager, the producer, and Gil Shepard (the guy who played Tom Baxter from the movie) all come together to try to fix the situation. This forces Cecilia to choose between Tom, who is from movie land and Gil who is the actor that played Tom.
I really liked Tom Baxter. The scenes with him caught in the real World and having no idea what to do were very funny. Jeff Daniels did a great job playing both parts of the Tom Baxter/ Gil Shepard character. Mia Farrow did a quality job in showing the hard life that Cecilia lived. I thought it was somewhat hard to believe as she suffers at her waitress job. And the film was so short, it runs only about eighty minutes, that the characters are only mere sketches. The film isn't too deep like a drama it is a short comedy that doesn't go too deep into any of the roles in the film. It just doesn't have a strong character that has an internal conflict to really move the film forward. There is no Alvy as in Annie Hall or Isaac in Manhattan. Even Owen Wilson's Gil was a stronger lead then any characters found in Purple Rose.
The film is like other Woody Allen films. It is minimalist. There is some great use of mise en scene like in the theater when they show people getting their tickets and finding their seats in the movie house. The settings are great. It really seemed like I was in New Jersey in 1935. The row houses, the big factory buildings, and, of course, the movie house with it's posters, marquee and move screen. Those elements create a romanticism for the glory days of Hollywood. When people went to the movies more. Before the rise of TV and the internet.
Infusing the setting and the plot was a soundtrack based around jazz and other classics that fueled the nostalgia for a simpler time in the past when people were mired in unemployment, poverty, and the Depression. It rekindles the feeling of that era. The Jazz Age. The Big Band sound. It was all quintessential Woody. It made the film watchable even if it was a little slow and boring. The montage at the end of the film could have been better. It was rather boring. I'm sure all of the great nightclubs of that era were great, but couldn't there have been a better way to show it? Rather than glossing it over with names in neon and Cecilia and Tom dancing?
The idea of the film was unique. I can't think of a film with a similar setup. And it goes right into the theme of the film. What is the point of watching films? Is it to find love? A better World? Is that why people go to the films? There are many opinions on why people like movies or why there should be movies period. Some people don't like movies. And I think the film shows that side of movies. Filling people up with false expectations. Leading them to dream rather then live life as it is. It's too bad all of us can't be movie stars.
I found the theme of The Purple Rose of Cairo to be similar to the theme in Midnight in Paris. In Midnight Gil wants to leave his boring life as a screenwriter and go back to the Paris of the 1920's. It's a similar dream that Cecilia has in Purple Rose. She dreams of leaving her simple, hard life in New Jersey and becoming a movie star. They both want an exit out of their lives. They wish for something else. And it's a sense of nostalgia and romance that drives them to dream. I suppose the film is a reminder that the Cinema serves a purpose. It allows us to dream. To think there is somewhere or some time which is better then where we are.
I didn't like Purple Rose as much as his early works like Manhattan and Annie Hall. Or even as much as Midnight in Paris or VickyChristinaBarcelona. It just isn't as funny or as romantic. I didn't laugh out loud. I like some of the situations, but they could have been better. I think Purple Rose is a precursor to a film like Midnight in Paris which I thought was one Woody's best. I'd recommend the film, but if you really want to see Woody at his best try another one of his films.
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