The Purple Rose of Cairo
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Movie Reviews of The Purple Rose of Cairo
Movie Review: romantic!
Summary: 5 Stars
this movie touches the heart and proves that dreams can come true. it is funny,sometimes sad but all around a good movie. it stars jeff daniels and mia farrow and they could have not picked a better couple. they have so much chemistry. i would advise any one to watch it and enjoy!Movie Review: Woody Allen at its best
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best Woody Allen movies, coupling the surreal with the sad reality of the depression era. We are what we choose...Movie Review: Realism and the lack of it
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very strong movie, a gem as other reviewers have said. It is Woody Allen entering the world of fantasy, mixing a very large dose of fantasy in with his reality. Characters in the movies relate directly with the audience and in one case, walk off the movie screen and into the theatre to mix with the people. Jeff Daniels of Dumb and Dumber is a small player in a film who walks right off the screen to be with the real life girl he has fallen in love with, Mia Farrow, wife of the loutish Danny Aiello, during the Depression.
Mia is frustratingly weak. She allows herself to be hit by Danny, to be cheated on and ridiculed. She is a sponge and a sap who supports a worthless taker of a husband. When his entreaties and his threats both fail to make her stay with him and continue to support him, he lets her go, knowing she won't last out there alone, knowing she'll return to him in a little while, and he's always right. So Mia is a frustrating character to root for. She never wins.
Danny isn't the most realistic character, or at least I don't think he is. In almost every one of his scenes I am left believing that his words and his behavior are not realistic. A real man wouldn't talk and act that way. Of course a real man might cheat on his wife, lie to her, smack her. I'm not disputing that. But I think every one of his scenes is poorly written and unrealistically played. Woody is dabbling, making it up as he goes along, creating a character who doesn't behave as a cheating, lying, brutish man would. Are you a sensitive enough viewer to pick that up about him and recognize the lack of realism in the lines he is given? Probably not. Most people aren't. But it's there. If you have an ear for realistic dialogue and motivation, Danny Aiello's scenes will all be jarring. His quick changes are all artificial, maybe because Woody doesn't have a feel for how a guy like that would really be. Does the fight scene and its aftermath ring true for you? If so, you don't have a feel for reality either. None of Danny's scenes are very good, and it's Woody's fault, not Danny's.
I suppose he could argue that the whole movie is a fantasy, so what am I looking for reality for. He doesn't really care about realism. He's just painting, like a French impressionist, so enjoy the ride. But I prefer some realism in my characters. Otherwise what's the point.
Still, I was debating between four stars and five, because it is an excellent movie. The reason I settled on only four isn't the lack of reality in Mia's marriage, but the dud of an ending. It didn't have to be that way. Woody didn't have to leave us with a dud ending. He thinks he did have to, I think he didn't.
Look, Mia, you are too weak and stupid, too chained to your circumstances, to do anything about your marriage or your life, and besides that, we will see to it that you don't catch a break anywhere you turn. So just live out your futile life and then die a loser and a sap.
Thank you Woody for that excellent view of life on Earth. For that, I take away one of your stars.
The strongest thing about this movie for me is the way Woody tears away the veil of reality from our present lives. I happen to agree that this world is a stage set, that there really is another, a more real world, call it Heaven, and that everything here on Earth is a stage prop. As Macbeth says, we are poor players strutting and fretting our hour upon the stage, and yes, I think this Earth is nothing but a stage to play out our dramas before we return home to reality, to our home in Heaven. So I like the way Woody strips away the illusion of reality to our lives here on Earth. I don't think Earth is "real", and if you read a modern physics book you will see that our top scientists don't either. Earth is just the view that we are set up to see, based on what we're made of. A tiny subatomic particle would pass right through the space between the atoms of the Earth and not even know a planet is here. And its reality is as "real" as ours.
Movie Review: Not Allen's best, but charming and entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
There's something appealing about those few Woody Allen films in which
he doesn't act, as they give us a chance to catch a glimpse of his
amazing talent from a different angle. The Purple Rose of Cairo is, if
I'm not mistaken, the second time in his career he'd stayed behind the
camera (the previous one was Interiors), and much like he would again
in the 90's with Everyone Says I Love You and Sweet & Lowdown, Woody
has taken the opportunity to examine film and entertainment from a
different angle, and not use the kind of sly dialog and dry humor that
usually character his starring roles.
These films, of course, don't quite have the depth of his earlier, more
personal works - namely and especially, Annie Hall and Manhattan. Nor
is it as daringly original like 1983's underrated masterpiece Zelig.
The Purple Rose of Cairo is closer to it's predecessor of the previous
year, Broadway Danny Rose, and like that film it's, on most levels,
entertainment as pure in form as Woody has ever made. Still, what both
these movies have in abundances is charm and atmosphere, and in my
opinion, Purple Rose is the better of the two. In Purple Rose Allen
revisits his great love-hate relationship with Hollywood, and he
creates a charming ode to Hollywood of the 30's while never neglecting
to point out how naive and out of context it really was. Clearly,
there's no room for a Manhattenite Woody Allen character in there - he
gracefully gives center stage to his spouse and muse Mia Farrow, who
gives one of her most powerful performances in an Allen film. She's
supported by a lovely young Jeff Daniels and a fantastic Danny Aiello,
who both highlight the huge gaps between Hollywood life, small town
life and the movies during the Great Depression.
The Purple Rose of Cairo is neither deep or particularly involving; the
characters and relationships are, for the most part, stereotypical and
symbolic and lack any real intense exploration. What Allen does succeed
in creating in it, and wonderfully so, is atmosphere, an amazing
atmosphere that manages to capture the viewers and transport them. And
so, even if it's neither extremely important nor extremely funny,
Purple Rose is grabbing and entertaining all the way through, and it
manages to blend the comedy, romance and fantasy elements into a
perfectly charming piece of cinema. Purple Rose is a pleasure,
recommended for viewing with a loved one, in a darkened living room, on
a big screen TV, with a big bowl of popcorn.
Movie Review: Reality vs. Fantasy
Summary: 4 Stars
In my humble opinion, Woody Allen is the best movie director that's currently out there practicing the trade. He says more, amuses more, and creates more on a relatively "shoestring" budget than any other director today. His popularity is apparently rather limited to the point that his movies usually don't even get shown in my town. Allen's films get praised by a lot of people "in the know" but, come Oscar time, about the only award handed out for his productions goes for Best Supporting Actress. Well, to each his own but I'll recommend every movie he's ever been involved in (with the lone exception of "What's New Pussycat?"); even the ones I haven't seen yet.
Last night I got my first look at "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and I ended up rating it "4 Star" mainly because I thought it moved along rather awkwardly at times (by Woody Allen standards). The concept is certainly original; an actor in a movie steps out of the screen and into real life (seems they're watching us as closely as we're watching them). I started seeing all sorts of possibilities and, I admit, I was disappointed that some of them didn't emerge. What did emerge was an excellent study of fantasy vs. reality.
The setting for the film was in the midst of the Depression which was a brilliant idea because it gave a readily understood backdrop of gloom and doom. Anyone would love to escape from such an existance. Our main character, played by Mia Farrow, finds her escape in the movie theatre. As the strange events unfold, she finds herself ultimately having to choose between fantasy and reality and we, the audience, find ourselves rooting for one choice or the other. (Even the exasperated screen characters were cheering sides as well). In the end she makes her choice and has to live with the consequences...or does she?
I saw this movie on TCM on a night they were celebrating Van Johnson. I presumed that the "late" Mr. Johnson would somehow be shown in one of his old sceen roles. However, there he was in a fairly small part looking well and doing a credible job. I learned, from Robert Osborne's introduction to the film, that it's still a little early to call Van Johnson "late". Much of the cast is competent to good with top kudos to Ms. Farrow. The ending to the movie was strong and I was almost tempted to give it a "5 Star" rating but I remembered that I had been significantly more impressed with some other Woody Allen movies I've seen lately.