| The Purple Rose of Cairo | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Produced by | Robert Greenhut |
| Written by | Woody Allen |
| Starring | Mia Farrow Jeff Daniels Danny Aiello |
| Music by | Dick Hyman |
| Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
| Editing by | Susan E. Morse |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 1, 1985 |
| Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $10,631,333 |
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin', and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real world.
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Set in New Jersey during the Great Depression, the film tells the story of Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a clumsy waitress who goes to the movies to escape her bleak life and loveless, abusive marriage to Monk (Danny Aiello), whom she has attempted to leave on numerous occasions.
The latest film Cecilia sees is a fictitious RKO Radio Pictures film, The Purple Rose of Cairo. It is the story of a rich Manhattan playwright (Edward Herrmann) who goes on an exotic vacation to Egypt with companions Jason (John Wood) and Rita (Deborah Rush). While in Egypt, the three meet archaeologist Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels). Tom is brought back for a "madcap Manhattan weekend" where he falls head-over-heels for Kitty Haynes (Karen Akers), a chanteuse at the Copacabana.
After Cecilia sits through the film 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 cinema's screen. He tells Cecilia that he is attracted to her after noticing her watching him so many times, and she takes him around New York. Later, he takes her into the film and they have a great evening on the town within the film. The two fall in love. But the character's defection from the film has caused some problems. In other copies of the film, others have tried to exit the screen. The producer of the film learns that Tom has left the film, and he flies cross-country to New Jersey with actor Gil Shepherd (also played by Jeff Daniels). This sets up an unusual love triangle involving Tom, Gil and Cecilia. Cecilia must choose between them and she decides to choose the real person of Gil rather than the fantasy figure of Tom. She gives up the chance to return with Tom to his world, choosing to stay with Gil and have a 'real' life. She breaks up with her husband.
But Gil's professions of love for Cecilia were false—he wooed her only to get Tom to return to the movie and thereby save Gil's Hollywood career. Gil abandons Cecilia and is seen quietly racked with guilt on his flight back to Hollywood. Having been left without a lover, job or home, Cecilia ends up immersing herself in the frothy escapism of Hollywood once again, sitting in a theater watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to "Cheek-to-Cheek" in the film Top Hat, forgetting her dire situation and losing herself in the film.
A number of the scenes featuring 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 Diner in South Amboy, New Jersey.
Note: Michael Keaton was originally cast as Tom Baxter/Gil Shepherd as Allen was a fan of his work. Allen felt that Keaton, who took a pay cut to work with the director was too contemporary and hard to accept in the period role. The two amicably parted ways after 10 days of filming and Daniels replaced Keaton in the role.[1]
In a rare public appearance at the National Film Theatre in 2001, Allen listed The Purple Rose of Cairo as one of only a few of his films that ended up being "fairly close to what I wanted to do" when he set out to write it.[2] Allen provided more detail about the film's origins in a comment he made a year earlier, during a press junket for Small Time Crooks:
| “ | Purple Rose was a film that I just locked myself in a room [to write].... I wrote it and halfway through it didn't go anywhere and I put it aside. I didn't know what to do. I toyed around with other ideas. Only when the idea hit me, a long time later, that the real actor comes to town and she has to choose between the [screen] actor and the real actor and she chooses the real actor and he dumps her, that was the time it became a real movie. Before that it wasn't. But the whole thing was manufactured.[3] | ” |
The Purple Rose of Cairo opened in North America on March 1, 1985 in 3 theaters, where it grossed an exceptional $114,095 ($38,031 per screen) in its opening weekend. Box office settled down upon further expansions, and its total gross of $10,631,333 was in line with most Woody Allen films of the period.[4]
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 "ALL-TIME 100 best films" by Time magazine.[5] The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.[6]
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