"Don't Turn the Projector Off!"

Classic Movie of the Week
Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo

Yesterday, I was contemplating what a middling movie year it's been up to this point. Thinking about how many outright awful films I've sat through recently (see sidebar) in my attempt to get my celluloid communion on, I decided on a surefire cure for my movie blues. I went and saw The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) again. It was playing at the Museum of Modern Art and their timing couldn't have been better. They cured my summer movie blues.

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a delightful comedy about a fictional character who steps right off the screen to woo a lonely woman in the audience. He can't resist meeting her after he notices her sitting, day after day, watching the movie in which he appears. Naturally comedic chaos ensues once he makes this spontaneous transition. The other characters in the movie don't know what to do (he's a plot engine) audiences don't know what to make of (they talk back) and Hollywood starts sweating. What if more characters start leaving their movies?

The lonely moviegoer, Cecilia, is played by the perpetually underappreciated Mia Farrow. Her screen suitor is "Tom Baxter" from the film within this film (also called "The Purple Rose of Cairo"). He's played by an actor named Gil Shepherd who also appears later in the film. Both of them are played by Jeff Daniels --are you still with me?

Cairo is a silly and brilliantly concise Allen confection. It runs less than an hour and a half yet it holds more ideas and laughs than this whole summer's worth of comedies put together, including Woody's latest, Scoop. Cairo arrived during that genius stretch from Annie Hall (1977) to Crimes and Misdemeanors(1989) when Woody mastered his unique collision of dramatic concerns and inspired funny business. Oscar voters didn't notice it aside from the witty screenplay but the film was a hit with the Golden Globes, scoring Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels richly deserved nominations for their touching duet.

There are several classic films about the movies but what makes The Purple Rose of Cairo so endearing is that it's really about moviegoing. It addresses what it means to sit in the dark and fall in love and what the movies do for their audiences. And in a bittersweet way, especially for cinephiles, it's also about what the movies can't do for us; the great chasm between fiction and reality. I love this movie. It was the first movie I ever saw which made me realize I was more connected to the cinema than anyone I knew (at that point in my life at least). Cecilia, that avid moviegoer, felt like a soulmate. I recognized myself in her so clearly, daydreaming about the movies to the point where I'd completely forget whatever it was I was doing, slowing down when walking past movie theaters eyes wide to take in new movie posters (what would this one be like?), and finding myself jabbering away about film stars whenever anyone asked me a movie question.

I also love the semi-divisive ending so much more as an adult than I did as a teen. I love that it means different things to different people (so do the movies). I love the song choice from the Fred & Ginger film "Heaven... I'm in Heaven" I love watching Cecilia settling into her seat and seeing her go into that new movie trance, again leaving her reality behind. You know that she will always be returning to the movie theater. It's her church.

If you ever have a run of movies so bad that you are considering swearing them off forever, all you need to do to is catch a great one. The brilliant Purple Rose of Cairo is just such a movie for me. It's a healing elixir. Whenever I watch it I fall madly in love with the movies all over again.