The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I've always ranked Woody Allen's films amongst my all time favorites because they're the perfect blend of creativity and originality, two qualities that are as scarce as they are important in cinema.The Purple Rose of Cairo is a product of the finest quality, I'd say it's Allen at his best. It tells the story of a woman in his late thirties who works at a restaurant to make a living, coming back to a home where an ape-like, macho husband awaits her. Still, she dreams. She dreams of pictures, explorers, poets, a world fairer and more just. The question that is so rooted in our soul, the one that drags us out of our comfort zone and into the abyss every time we try to come up with and answer is...Where is it? Not in this world because there's so much pain and injustice going in it that one wonders if we shouldn't rip the evil apart from what's pure light to give ourselves a chance to behold the light that should guides through the the darkness, into the Promise Land.Is it, then, in another world? I'm' not a religious person although the previous paragraph might make me look like one, therefore I must rule out a religious answer, but that road is opened for you to take it. The answer is CINEMA. Where else could it be.In an attempt to simplify what otherwise could have been a rather difficult topic, the American director mixes both worlds- real and the one portrayed by pictures- by having movies characters coming into ours, and some of us -the waitress- going into theirs.To me me the originality of the idea goes along way to show that both of them are just to sides of the coin.

The Purple Rose of Cairo is written and directed by Woody Allen. It's a wonderful love letter to the golden age of Hollywood. Mia Farrow plays Cecilia, a softly spoken, introverted woman. Cecilia regularly visits her local to cinema to escape her repressive, abusive husband and her downbeat job, during depression era America.As she gets more and more obsessive with the fictional movie inside this film, entitled The Purple Rose of Cairo, she begins to project what it would be like to be part of that world. She watches the film so often, the fictional side character in the film Tom Baxter(Jeff Daniels) stops the film and addresses her directly from the screen. "You must really love this film" he exclaims. This is the pivotal moment of the film. This level of meta could quite easily lose it's audience. Thankfully Jeff Daniels sincere delivery of the line, and scene all together, completely sells this plot turn. So when he eventually escapes from the cinema screen it feels believable. The fact that the audience is readily accepting of this level of absurdity is a testament to Allen's fantastic writing. The film is also one of his best looking films. The set/costume design is excellent and makes the time period in the film look authentic.The film contains fantastic performances across the board. However it's Farrows and Daniels on screen chemistry that is the highlight of the film. They are both incredibly sweet and likable together without it ever coming across as feeling overblown. The Purple Rose of Cairo is a wonderfully crafted film, that in the hands of lesser skilled directors, could of easily gone awry. Allen manages to create an endearing and poignant film, that takes pleasure in it's retrospective look at classic Hollywood, and what makes cinema so magical. From the moment I saw the RKO title card at the beginning of the fictional film, I was instantly won over. This film is Woody Allen at his best.

Awww I really liked watching this film, Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels were adorable. It's sad to think this was set in the Great Depression era. What was even more depressing, I thought Mia Farrows character clearly wasn't lucky in love. I really wish Cecila and the film character Gil were going to be together towards the end. Although if he had to go back in the film, then she should've been with the real Gil. I found it odd that he didn't appear near the end, sure he loved Cecila too! Seriously in my opinion, I think Woody Allen should've had them both living happily ever after. To be honest, I thought the ending was particularly going back to the beginning. It's just Farrows character was beginning to become poor and like, she honestly deserved better. Unfortunately this was 1985, so we can't be complaining now. It is one of the best films at the same time, I really loved the movie! :)

Yes, it was a depressing time for many who could only find solace in the movies, and for troubled housewife Mia Farrow, the only way out is her regular visits to her local cinema. One of the characters in the movies notices her repeat visits after she walks out on her husband (Danny Aiello) and is fired from her job, and before you can say, "Action!", he is walking off the screen and grabbing her so he can find life on the outside of the celluloid closet. Jeff Daniels, one of the brightest finds of the 1980's, has such an innocence and spirit in his acting, that after playing the wise-cracking husband of Debra Winger's in "Terms of Endearment" seemed perfect for these types of wide-eyed roles. Of course, he's playing two characters: the character in the movie ("The Purple Rose of Cairo") and the actor, Biff Baxter, who played him, and it must be up to Biff to get his character to return to the screen so his career isn't ruined."Do you really want another guy walking around?" someone asks, while one of the movie characters makes a comment about men who walk around wearing pith helmets. Director and writer Woody Allen kept himself off of the screen for this one classic 80's vehicle, and ends up with one of his very best movies, practically perfect. It is a throw-back to the type of romantic films of the 1930's where the poor girl going through a bad time could find sudden adventure, dream about living a more glamorous life, and yet somehow have a bitter-sweet ending that could bring the hardest of New York audiences to tears, as is the case here. Farrow and Daniels are surrounded by a great supporting cast which includes Dianne Wiest as a big-hearted hooker (in her Woody Allen debut), Zoe Caldwell as a genuine countess with a lot of dough, and Van Johnson as her hanger- on social climber husband. The last two are part of the movie which also includes the typical Jean Harlow hard-boiled not so dumb blonde and a sassy black maid who once she has the freedom to escape from the script questions which one of the wealthy white characters is trying to sucker her. Annie Joe Edwards, who plays this part, would later get some good lines in on Jennifer Tilley in Allen's brilliant "Bullets Over Broadway". There's also nightclub/Broadway performer Karen Akers as the singer who is supposed to end up with Daniels on screen, Milo O'Shea as a priest, Edward Hermann as one of the dashing on-screen characters and that cute little old lady who played around with the Fruit of the Loom underwear boys, Loretta Tupper, playing a music store owner who doesn't say a word but steals a brief scene when Daniels and Farrow come in to her shop. This is filled with a great 30's feel, some fantastic jazzy background music and a finale that is heartbreaking. When Fred and Ginger start dancing as Farrow looks on, you begin to hope that somehow they'll come off the screen as well. Stage legend Caldwell gets some of the wittiest lines in the screenplay, telling one of the audience members to "Stop yapping because we've got problems of our own", and insulting someone else with, "If that's your wife, she's a tub of guts!" Give yourself a little romance, Woody style, because beneath all that bad publicity surrounding his personal life with Farrow in years to come, he had a truly romantic heart which at least got to escape from his brain thanks to his pen.