Thoughts on The Purple Rose of Cairo

via IMDB

"It's so beautiful here. ... Oh, the white telephone. Oh ... I've dreamed of having a white telephone."

"Your dreams are my dreams."

"My whole life, I've wondered what it would be like to be this side of the screen."

"You see that city out there waking up? That's yours for the asking."

"My heart's beating so fast."

The Purple Rose of Cairo, written and directed by Woody Allen, was not a movie I was looking forward to revisiting. I remembered it as an effortlessly funny and creative romantic fantasy that tried too hard with its dramatic elements and was ultimately cruel for cruelty's sake.

Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a 1930s waitress, gets her escapism by going to the movies. She can rattle off titles, plot and scene summaries and actor trivia as if all conversations included this information. Naturally, I adore her. No, the thing of it is, Farrow plays Cecilia just right. The performance doesn't demand the audience's pity. When that comes across against an apparent misery gauntlet including the Great Depression, domestic violence* and the fickle finger of fate, it should be celebrated.

*While I'm glad we don't actually see Monk (Danny Aiello) laying a hand on Cecilia, almost every dialogue they share includes mentions of getting smacked, hit, whacked or slapped. It's awkward.

"My God, you must really love this picture."

Freedom through the movies is easy to understand. Freedom from the movies requires a little more thought. It's what motivates "Tom Baxter, explorer, adventurer" (Jeff Daniels), who escapes The Purple Rose of Cairo. Rose's funniest moments involved the abandoned Cairo characters, including a bored playwright (Edward Herrmann) and his socialite friends (Deborah Rush and John Wood).

"Can't you go on? There's an audience."

"How? Tom was the linchpin of the story."
"She's right, whoever you are. You see, sir, although this is basically my story ..."
"Your story? It's not your story. It's a story of a man's quest for self-fulfillment."
"It's a story of a complex, tortured soul ..."
"They don't know what they're talking about. It's a story of the effect of money on true romance. My upbringing. My wealth. My private schools."
"I'm the one who marries royalty. I'm the one."
"Nobody cares."
"A humble kid."
"They wouldn't sell a ticket it if was your story."

Tom is wonderful. It's easy when you don't get hurt or bleed and your hair doesn't muss. Tom is also full of wonder, as Emma (Dianne Wiest) and her fellow prostitutes learn. I want to take a revisionist look at Tom, make claims like that his dashing hero routine is ultimately self-serving, but I can't. He really is the right man for Cecilia. 

"I love you. I'm honest, dependable, courageous, romantic and a great kisser."

"And I'm real."

The Depression, Monk's abuse ... they're window-dressing compared to the real drama in Rose. Is Cecilia strong enough to accept reality? Can she embrace a life that, in the end, doesn't guarantee happiness? Before we get to that question, Cecilia chooses Hollywood actor Gil Shepherd (Daniels) over the character he played, Tom. Gil's no slouch in the seduction department, ultimately claiming he'd like to show Cecilia "what real life can be like if two people really care for each other." I believed it the first time I saw Rose and a part of me believed it this time around. 

"What a shame. It was such a good picture."

Tom, rejected by Cecilia, goes back into the movie. We're a step ahead of the Cairo characters. The projector's going to be turned off. All copies of the film and its negatives are going to be destroyed. Tom Baxter won't exist anymore. Shortly after, Cecilia and the audience are confronted with something we should have anticipated. Gil, his career apparently saved, has abandoned her.

"Look at all the people up there on the screen, they're real funny, and what if the worst is true. What if there is no God and you only go around once and that's it. Well, ya know, don't you wanna be part of the experience?"

I'm sorry for including more dialogue than usual, but it's that's good. The above, actually from Mickey's epiphany in Hannah and Her Sisters, works pretty well against the bravura final scene in Rose. Cecilia has no job, presumably no money or place to stay** and her two princes charming are gone. Still, she's capable of choosing. She's capable of being moved by Top Hat. Her reality is intact.

**She'll likely go back to Monk, but the ukulele from Gil could be used for pawning or panhandling. 

Rose, Allen once said, has a meaning of "life is ultimately disappointing." It's an idea that's hard to accept. Even now, I hear it and think, oh, there Woody went again, getting off on cynicism. That's a shallow interpretation on my part. The movie has a cynical streak, yes. But I found hope. And it's also pretty damn funny.

"Tom Baxter's come down off the screen. He's in New Jersey. I spoke to Raoul Hirsch. Nobody knows how, but he's done it."
"It's not physically possible."
"In New Jersey, anything can happen."

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "If anybody wants me, I'll be in the bathroom. On the floor. Weeping."

-- Box Office: Grossing $10.6 million on a $15 million budget, this came in at No. 78 for 1985.

-- Awards Watch: The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, Saturn, Golden Globe and BAFTA, winning the last two awards. The Oscar went to Witness and the Saturn went to Fright Night. Allen, who received a special Saturn Award, was also nominated for his direction. He lost to Ron Howard for Cocoon. While the movie lost Best Fantasy Film at the Saturns to Ladyhawke, it won Best Film at the BAFTAs and Best Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes. Farrow was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Saturn, losing to Kathleen Turner in Prizzi's Honor, Peggy Ashcroft in A Passage to India and Coral Browne in Dreamchild, respectively. Finally, Daniels was an also-ran with the Golden Globes (losing to Jack Nicholson, Prizzi's Honor) and so were the special visual effects with the BAFTAs (losing to Brazil).

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Delightful from beginning to end," Roger Ebert wrote, "filled with wit and invention." People: "Pure enchantment. ... Pirandello was rarely this much fun." Variety: "For all its situational goofiness, pic is a tragedy, and it's too bad Allen didn't build up the characters and drama sufficiently to give some weight to his concerns." David Denby, New York, was also bothered by how callous the movie is. The ending, to him, plays as a backhanded salute to audience members. "'You people may have drab lives, but at least you've got the dreams that we talented people have generously given you.' It's not the kind of thing a movie director should say, or even imply, out loud."

-- Critic's Corner, the leads: Mia received terrific reviews. Vincent Canby: "glowing, funny." If anyone else was playing Cecilia, Denby wrote, the character would be unbearable. She was "flat-out fabulous in a role that fits perfectly," People raved. The magazine also liked Daniels. He "earns star status here in a difficult dual role." Despite being charming opposite Farrow, Daniels was too tame for Denby. Variety: "He's rather restricted by (the role of Tom's) unavoidable thinness." "If anything, Daniels seems insufficiently ruthless (playing) Gil," Mike D'Angelo wrote for the A.V. Club in 2010.

-- Let's talk a bit about Gil's career. The dialogue when he and Cecilia meet implies he's made six movies so far. Four of them are named: Broadway Bachelors, Honeymoon in Haiti, Dancing Doughboys and, of course, The Purple Rose of Cairo. I laughed at a line I interpreted as Gil saying he tries to do one movie a year. He's a jobbing 1930s actor. Realistically, he'd be making at least three movies annually. To be fair, Gil could have been talking about just the comedies he's made.

-- "This is just disgusting. I'm an heiress and I don't have to put up with this!"

-- Memorable Music: We're at 13-13, yet again tied between songs written for movies and songs used in movies. In the former category, we have "One Day at a Time," written by Dick Hyman and sung by Kitty Haynes (Karen Akers). In the latter, we have "Cheek to Cheek." Honorable mention goes to "Alabamy Bound" and "I Love My Baby, My Baby Loves Me," which Gil performs with Cecilia.

-- Hey, It's ...!: Michael Tucker and Glenne Headly.

-- Hey, It's 1985!: To promote the movie and his run on Broadway in La Cage aux Folles, Johnson appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. This is painful to watch. Van should it have dialed it down by at least 10 notches. David seemed willing to play along at first. Eventually he's just overwhelmed.

courtesy Don Giller

-- Hey, It's 2020!: The Cairo characters waiting for Tom, interacting with the audience, arguing with themselves, etc., not to mention Hirsch (Alexander Cohen) trying to keep the escape and similar problems in other cities under wraps, plays interestingly amid the coronavirus pandemic. Right now, nobody's going to the theaters. If any movie character wanted to see the real world without interference from the powers that be at the studio, this would be the time.

-- Daniels and Herrmann were both interviewed by Will Harris for Random Roles. "We were having a hell of a good time acting '30s," Herrmann said. He and Daniels laughed about the latter's very Michigander way of saying "tomb," which caused them both to crack up while filming and annoyed Woody. Daniels added that it was the line, the absurdity of Herrmann's hat and how Wood played that scene. "I was so glad that we were two months in, because that meant I couldn't get fired."

-- "You know, if it weren't for me, there wouldn't be any you." "Don't be so sure. I could have been played by Fredric March or Leslie Howard." This exchange is interesting in light of the fact that Michael Keaton was originally cast as Tom and Gil. As the story goes, Woody was a fan of Michael's work. I'm assuming he liked Night Shift more than Mr. Mom, but for all I know, Woody's admiration went back to Keaton's days as a stand-up comedian. According to TV Tropes, Kevin Kline was considered for Tom and Gil and Allen himself almost took the roles. It might be too on the nose, but I'm wondering how Harrison Ford would have done.

-- Speaking of what could of been, while Zoe Caldwell was excellent as the Countess, I'll always regret Eve Arden wasn't able to play the role.

-- "All right, well, go. Go. See if I care. Go, see what I care. It ain't the movies! It's real life. It's real life, and you'll be back. You mark my words. You'll be back."

-- Next: Just One of the Guys. On deck: Code of Silence.