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The Purple Rose of Cairo
 
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The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Starring: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels Director: Woody Allen Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Format: DVD
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
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The Purple Rose of Cairo + Broadway Danny Rose + Crimes and Misdemeanors
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  • This item: The Purple Rose of Cairo DVD ~ Mia Farrow

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Editorial Reviews

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One of the high points of Woody Allen's career. Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a depression-era waitress married to a brutish husband (Danny Aiello), finds her only escape at the movies, her current favorite being a light comedy about an explorer among socialites, called The Purple Rose of Cairo. She sees it so many times that the main character, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), falls in love with her and steps off the screen to woo her. When news of this gets back to the movie studio, the producers send the actor who played Baxter (also Daniels) to convince Baxter to get back on the screen. The script is one of Allen's funniest, but underlying the whole story is a current of sadness that gives the movie's ending a surprising impact. Allen himself considers The Purple Rose of Cairo to be his personal favorite of his own films. A gem. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description
Farrow is a depression-era waitress whose fantasy comes true when her screen idol steps off the screen to be with her. The actors are left in a scene they can't escape and the movie-makers are panicked when they try to get the actor back.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
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 (26)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Good As It Gets, June 19, 2003
By sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Take a Woody Allen movie where Woody politely stays BEHIND the camera. Add a perfectly cast Mia Farrow as a waif-like dreamer of a girl, living in the grinding poverty of the 1930's Depression and married to an blustering, brutal man. Top it off with a brilliant dual performance by Jeff Daniels who is a cinematic film hero who steps out of the screen and the actor who plays this hooky playing fictional character.

Cecilia (Mia Farrow) works as a waitress (on the verge of being fired). Her life is grim, living in a tenement with her no-account husband (Danny Aiello). Her one pleasure is the movies that she attends daily. Her favorite is "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and the explorer character "Tom Baxter" brings radiance to her eyes that never leave him. After multiple viewings, one day "Tom" falters in his lines, seems distracted, then steps out of the film and joins Cecilia in the audience. The cast and audience are suitably stunned; the cast enjoining him to get back on the screen so they can finish the movie, and the audience grumbling they didn't pay good money to watch the cast arguing among themselves. "Tom" is resolute, and out they walk, he in his pith helmet and explorer togs, Cecilia radiant. The movie industry is appalled worried about litigation and insurrection if characters start walking off the screen. Gil Shepard, the actor who played"Tom" is sent to the scene to talk "Tom" into getting back onscreen where he belongs. "Tom" clearly is innocent of what the "real" (as opposed to "reel") world is about. He is in love with Cecilia and she allows that he "is the perfect man. Of course, he's fictional." Real life "Gil," Tom, and Cecilia meet. The ending is surprisingly intense.

Jeff Daniels is dazzling as Gil/Tom. He handles both roles to perfection. The interaction among Daniels, Farrow, and Aiello is flawless. Much as I wanted to thoroughly despise Aiello as the low-life husband, he managed to make me laugh and feel sorry for him with his bravado performance. All the jokes and humor work in "The Purple Rose of Cairo," which isn't the case in many Allen movies. I believe this is Woody Allen's valentine to his beloved movies. It couldn't be better. Even if you are a dedicated Allenophobe, see this movie. You won't be disappointed.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of Woody's best, March 28, 2002
By R. Geatz (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Woody Allen has long admired the works of both Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini, and while he has done other movies that intentionally (and not very successfully, in my opinion) mimic those two great directors, I think "Purple Rose of Cairo" is his better homage to Fellini. He captures the same poignant combination of humor and pathos as Fellini does in his earlier masterpieces "La Strada" and "Nights of Cabiria." In fact, the concluding scene of Cecilia (Mia Farrow) staring at the movie screen, her eyes transforming from despair to hope (as her life has just gone down the toilet) is a mirror of the concluding scene in Fellini's "Cabiria." This is also Allen's most loving tribute to "the movies." Movies allow us to escape to a better world and--at least temporarily--to escape our selves. The cast is great--especially the wonderful supporting characters who seem right out of the Depression era, as are those who play the movie characters who get stranded on-screen when one of their colleagues steps out into the real world. While this may not be one of Woody Allen's most popular films, it is a near-perfect little gem.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Miniature Masterpiece, April 10, 2004
By A Customer
If Woody Allen thinks this is his finest film, I'm not surprised. It's flawless. Brilliantly written, brilliantly acted, superbly plotted. Faultless. Daniels and Farrow are perfectly stunning in their parts. Whatever happended to Jeff Daniels? Why is this the only film I've seen him in? He plays this part with the lightest of touches: it's like whipped cream. Farrow is incredible, retaining always the slight reserve of suspicion that things can't be quite what they seem, which just about makes the ending bearable. The real mastery of the writing and direction is that what threatens to be a one-joke plot never topples over and falls flat. The juggling keeps the balls in the air with such delicate skill that the only possible reaction is one of pure admiration.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars "You can't learn to be real. It's like learning to be a midget."
Not quite a great film, per se, but still just about perfect movie.

A square-jawed explorer in a 1930s studio comedy becomes smitten with a woman in the audience and... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Clare Quilty

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Mix Makes This Inventive Film Appealing
This was a unique storyline - a character comes right out of the movie screen to join the "real" world - at the time. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Craig Connell

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the sweetest smells in Woody's rosebush...
If there is one Woody Allen film that I think anyone can enjoy, it is `The Purple Rose of Cairo' (although `Hannah and Her Sisters' is quite universal too). Read more
Published 10 months ago by Andrew Ellington

4.0 out of 5 stars Good movie, poor packaging, and no extras
The original movie is very good. Unfortunately, MGM cares so little for consumers that they didn't provide any extras and left me with tape residue that made the box too sticky to... Read more
Published 18 months ago by K. Collier

4.0 out of 5 stars The Stuff of Dreams
No one has ever doubted Woody Allen's sentimental attachment to the power of the movies to make some strong cultural statements about its place in modern American society. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Alfred Johnson

5.0 out of 5 stars romantic!
this movie touches the heart and proves that dreams can come true. it is funny,sometimes sad but all around a good movie. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Diane E. Rehrer

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Allen's best, but charming and entertaining
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... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Itamar Katz

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever and clean
In a depression era Manhatten setting, Mia Farrow plays a hard working, low pay waitress with an abusive husband. Her outlet is going to movies. Read more
Published 23 months ago by C. J. Leach

1.0 out of 5 stars Not accessable in Australia
I was unable to view the DVD The Purple Rose of Cairo as it is limited to Regions within the USA. I am in Sydney, Australia and the DVD is of no use to me. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Kay Parkinson

5.0 out of 5 stars The Purple Rose of Cairo
Inspired by Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr.," but also very much indebted to RKO's 1930s screwball comedies, "Rose" is a sweet, nostalgic, and appealing fantasy directed with flair... Read more
Published on July 10, 2007 by John Farr

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