Everything about The Purple Rose Of Cairo totally explained
The Purple Rose of Cairo is an award-winning
1985 film written and directed by
Woody Allen. It tells the story of a film character who leaves the film and enters the real world.
Synopsis
The Purple Rose of Cairo is the name of a
film-within-the-film, with
Jeff Daniels playing the dual roles of Tom, a character in the film-within-the-film, and Gil, the actor who portrays Tom. Tom literally breaks the
fourth wall, emerging from the
black-and-white into the colorful real world on the other side of the cinema's screen. He is drawn out by Cecilia (played by
Mia Farrow), a film buff who goes to the movies to escape her bleak
Great Depression life and loveless marriage to Monk (
Danny Aiello). The producer of the film finds out that Tom has left the film, and he and Gil fly cross-country to the
New Jersey theater where it happened. This sets up an unusual
love triangle involving Tom, Gil and Cecilia. The downbeat ending is noted for Cecilia, having been left without a lover, job or home, sitting in a theater watching
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers dancing to "Cheek-to-Cheek" in the film
Top Hat, forgetting her dire situation and losing herself in the film.
Filming locations
A number of the scenes featuring Tom and Cecilia are set at the
Bertrand Island Amusement Park, which closed just prior to the film's production. It was also filmed at the Raritan Diner in
South Amboy, New Jersey. Today the diner is located in
Ithaca, New York.
Cast
Farrow, Daniels and Aiello play the leading roles. Actors playing significant roles in the film-within-the-film include
Van Johnson,
Zoe Caldwell,
John Wood,
Milo O'Shea and
Edward Herrmann.
Dianne Wiest and
Glenne Headly (among others) play prostitutes whom Tom innocently encounters along the way.
Allen's opinion
In a rare public appearance at the
National Film Theatre in 2001, Allen listed
The Purple Rose of Cairo as one of only a few of his films that ended up being "fairly close to what I wanted to do" when he set out to write it. Allen provided more detail about the film's origins in a comment he made a year earlier, during a
press junket for
Small Time Crooks:
»
»
Box office
The Purple Rose of Cairo opened in North America on
March 1,
1985 in 3 theaters, where it grossed an exceptional $114,095 ($38,031 per screen) in its opening weekend. Box office settled down upon further expansions, and its total gross of $10,631,333 was in line with most
Woody Allen films of the period.
Awards
The film won the
BAFTA Award for Best Film and the
César Award for Best Foreign Film. Allen's screenplay was nominated for several major awards, including an
Oscar, a
BAFTA Award and a
Writers Guild of America Award. It was recognized as one of the "ALL-TIME 100 best films" by
Time magazine.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Purple Rose Of Cairo'.
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