10 Items or Less: "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985)

A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle. 

Woody Allen's fantastical and hilarious The Purple Rose of Cairo has a charming, warm premise with a sneakily profound and thoughtful things to say about fiction and films. When mild-mannered film character Tom Baxter pops out from the titular Depression era film to court mild mannered film lover Cecilia (Mia Farrow), it creates havoc for the characters still stuck in the film, the film studio, and the real life actor who plays Tom, Gil Shepherd. The film really picks up when Jeff Daniels starts playing both Gil and Tom with Allen considering the odd implications of what's taking place to farcical and self-effacing effect, while also questioning the gap between the fiction films sell us and the harsh realities they ignore. Gordon Willis' cinematography really recaptures the Great Depression look and feel with a gloomy, color-drained design. Cecilia's life is all kinds of miserable, even for someone living during this time and place. She's a battered wife, to the obnoxious Monk (Danny Aiello), and works a terrible, minimum-wage waitress job. She gets no respect, affection or happiness anywhere she goes except when she goes to the movie theater. The film is in some ways a homage to the films of the 1930's, especially screwball comedies and the many feel good films of the era that depicted a world far, far removed from the poverty and struggles of reality.

Grade: 4/4 ★★★★