The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo (2008, Woody Allen)


Johan kindly reminded me that there are other films being shown other than Woody Allen's. The wonderful La Filmothèque du Quartier Latin is doing a retrospective on Woody, and it is now ending. I really want to see Annie Hall on the big screen, but I am afraid with this kind of weather and the dark, I would not want to go out at 20h.

So this film is new to me. And it is funny, sad, and pretty much crazy. That's the true Woody Allen, I suppose. Only he will come up with things like this: ulterly crazy, silly but harmless: one of the characters from the film The Purple Rose of Cairo walked out of the screen because he fell in love with Cecilia, a disappointed housewife who's obsessed with the cinema so as a way to get away from her unloving husband and unfulfilling waittress job.

The film ended on a rather sad note: Cecilia being deceived by the actor Gil and sent Tom, the perfect lover, back into the screen, while she later realized that she has lost everything. Was she to be blamed? She started off as a very naive woman, romanticizing about perfect love in the films, and lacked the courage to leave her husband who obviously no longer loved her. She was quite an annoying character actually. And then she met this perfect guy, walked out straight from the screen, and was completely devoted to her. But she actually fell for the real actor Gil, because he is 'real'. In the final confront, when she had to choose between Gil or Tom, the actress from The Purple Rose of Cairo (it's very complicated, you will have to watch the film to understand) told her that Tom is perfect, and she shouldn't choose 'reality' to 'perfection'. But Cecilia picked Gil, and told Tom that she has to be practical and realistic. I would have chosen Gil too, but then right after, I remembered that this was a trap: I actually did not realize this until Tom walked back onto the screen, that Gil was talking about finding a 'strategy' to make Tom go back to the film before Gil comicly, coincidentally also fell in love with Cecila.

So Gil was a good actor. He played it well and deceived Cecilia. But wait a minute: isn't this just a film anyway? With this film-within-film, this film is nonetheless a film as well. And to make it even funnier, Woody used the same name for both of the 'films'; what are they to talk about being fictional or realistic, when the characters in the film are merely talking about some other characters in another film-within-film? And who am I to judge, because I am merely talking to the characters of another film I happen to see last night?

It is all very bizzare, if you really think about it. The film is making fun of us! And Woody Allen is of course laughing when we respond and so on, even when he is making it so obvious, we (or at least me) still get tricked.

Fun little Woody (3.5)