The Purple Rose of Cairo **** (1985, Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello) – Classic Movie Review 1812

Writer-director Woody Allen’s witty, bitter-sweet 1985 romantic fantasy comedy is a enchanting treat. It won the Bafta award for Best Film and the César Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as  the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.

It stars his then partner Mia Farrow as a 1930s New Jersey film fan called Cecilia, a clumsy waitress who goes to the movies to escape her bleak life and abusive marriage to Monk (Danny Aiello). She’s tried and failed to leave him several times. It’s the Great Depression and, boy, Cecilia is depressed.

But Cecilia’s life suddenly changes when her dashing movie star hero Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) literally steps out of the screen. He leaves the fictitious RKO Radio Pictures film called The Purple Rose of Cairo he’s playing in and enters the real world to romance her.

Inspired by Sherlock Jr, Hellzapoppin’, and Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, this isn’t an original idea, but Allen makes it seems fresh, startling and ultra modern. The clever central idea, the infectiously warm performances and a heartfelt tear-jerking ending help to sustain this charming, funny and emotionally satisfying film. It’s quite the special triumph of cinematography, thanks to director of photography Gordon Willis again, as well as production design (Stuart Wurtzel) and editing too.

And there’s an exceptional ensemble cast, though it’s a shame that, alas this time, there’s no Woody Allen acting appearance. Dianne Wiest, Van Johnson, Zoe Caldwell, John Wood, Milo O’Shea, Edward Herrmann, Michael Tucker and Deborah Rush co-star. Glenne Headly appears as one of the prostitutes.

Daniels replaced Michael Keaton after ten days of filming as Allen felt that Keaton was too contemporary and hard to accept in the period role.

Allen shut down the Kent Theater in the neighbourhood he grew up in on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn for filming. Happily, it’s still open for first run movies in 2014, though now a small triplex. Many exteriors were filmed in Piermont, New York, a village on the Hudson River 15 miles north of the George Washington Bridge. Store fronts had false facades for the Depression-era setting.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1812

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