THE PURPLE ROSE OF
CAIRO
1985 / USA / 82 mins
5.45pm/ 28th Dec 2014 / Perks Mini
Theater / Coimbatore
The best
thing about the movie is the way Woody Allen uses it to toy with the very
essence of reality and fantasy. The woman- Cecilia - in the movie is played by Mia Farrow as a
sweet, rather baffled small-town waitress whose big, shiftless lug of a husband
bats her around. She is a good candidate for the magic of the movies. Up on the
screen, sophisticated people have cocktails and plan trips down the Nile and
are recognized by the doormen in nightclubs.
Everything
about Cecilia (Mia Farrow) is tinged with melancholy, including the time - the
depressed 1930's - and the place, a drab little New Jersey town where even the
sunlight looks gray.
One day, after going through a bad patch at the diner and
with her husband Monk, she is sitting in the Jewel Theater, watching something
called ''The Purple Rose of Cairo'' for the umpteenth time, when the film's
handsome, four-square juvenile, a pith-helmeted character named Tom Baxter
(Jeff Daniels), steps down from the screen and into Cecilia's life.
''The Purple
Rose of Cairo'' is pure enchantment. It's a sweet, lyrically funny, multi-
layered work. The movie is so intelligent. No one in the whole movie speaks
with more complexity than your average 1930s movie hero—but the movie is filled
with wit and invention, and Allen trusts us to find the ironies, relish the
contradictions, and figure things out for ourselves. While we do that, he makes
us laugh and he makes us think, and when you get right down to it, forget about
the fantasies; those are two of the most exciting things that could happen to
anybody in a movie. (Source: Internet)
Woody Allen
Woody Allen
is one of the most well known and respected names in the movie industry. His
career of being a writer, director, actor and producer spans over 30 years and
still thrives.Woody Allen was born on December 1, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York,
As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet,
two hobbies that he continues today.Allen broke into show business at 15 years
when he started writing jokes for a local paper, receiving $200 a week. He
later moved on to write jokes for talk shows
Woody's
theoretical directorial debut was in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966); a Japanese
spy flick. His real directorial debut
came the next year in the mockumentary "Take the Money and Run." He
has written, directed and, more often than not, starred in about a film a year
ever since, while simultaneously writing more than a dozen plays and several
books of comedy.
While best
known for his romantic comedies Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979), Woody
has made many transitions in his films throughout the years, transitioning from
his "early, funny ones" of "Bananas," "Love and
Death" and "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were
Afraid To Ask;" to his more storied and romantic comedies of "Annie
Hall," "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters;" to
the Bergmanesque films of "Stardust Memories" and
"Interiors;" and then on to the more recent, but varied works of
"Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Husbands and Wives,"
"Mighty Aphrodite," "Celebrity" and "Deconstructing
Harry;" and finally to his film of the last decade, which vary from the
light comedy of "Scoop," to the self-destructive darkness of
"Match Point" and, most recently, to the cinematically beautiful tale
of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." Although his stories and style have
changed over the years, he is regarded as one of the best filmmakers of our
time because of his views on art and his mastery of filmmaking.
