{"id":11051,"date":"2015-03-10T13:09:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T17:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11051"},"modified":"2017-03-17T03:20:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T07:20:05","slug":"br-purple-rose-of-cairo-the-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11051","title":{"rendered":"BR: Purple Rose of Cairo, The (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"PurpleRoseOfCairo_BR\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 January 20, 2015<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Comedy \/ Romance<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Cecilia’s life is turned upside-down when a beloved character from a movie steps off the screen and whisks her away on an extremely odd, fantastical romance.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 Isolated Stereo Music Track \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively at Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woody Allen\u2019s gem of a fantasy is drenched in nostalgia for the era \u2013 Depression Era 1930s, the elegance of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, warm woody tones, tweed outfits and caps, and the cacophony of street diners \u2013 but it\u2019s probably most beloved for exploring the secret fantasy of many movie lovers: What would happen if a character you adored in a movie came to life?<\/p>\n

The clashing of realities isn\u2019t treated like a terror threat nor a monstrous Godzilla-like appearance, but a giant conundrum spawning a series of mini-conundrums which only Allen could dramatize with a deft lightness and wit.\u00a0Everything goes loopy when waitress Cecilia (Mia Farrow) drops one too many dishes and is turfed from the diner, losing the lone job that\u2019s been keeping the roof over the heads of herself and the gambling bully who happens to be her husband (Danny Aiello), a \u2018fair\u2019 guy who gambles away chunks of her income, and warns Cecilia whenever she\u2019s going to be smacked for being lippy.<\/p>\n

Exhausted from an abusive marriage, Cecilia returns to her only source of joy and escapism \u2013 the neighbourhood movie theatre \u2013 and watches “The Purple Rose of Cairo” multiple times in a row, until explorer extraordinaire Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) stops interacting with the other characters, addresses Cecelia in the audience, and steps off the screen, whisking her away for a short-term romance while everyone in the movie is literally left in limbo of bickering, drinking, and wise-cracking.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s genius has everyone play the event straight: patrons are shocked but soon annoyed the ending they paid for has been put on hold; the cinema manager is in a prolonged kerfuffle, worried his business reputation\u2019s been clobbered; the movie\u2019s producers at RKO fear other characters may get the same idea, and step off the screen throughout America; and there\u2019s actor Gil Shepherd (Daniels again) who may find cinematic clones of himself wandering around the country, ruining what should\u2019ve been his breakthrough film, propelling him to star status.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Being just a screen character, Baxter carries a wad of funny money, remembers only his screen past, and is wholly unfamiliar with things outside of the film\u2019s world \u2013 like hookers (of which one of the ladies is played by Glenne Headley). When rising screen star Shepherd finally meets Cecilia and his screen double, there\u2019s a gentlemanly duel of egos and yearnings, but Allen\u2019s finale is surprisingly bleak, denying the real audience (us) the cinematic happy ending we want, and opting for an ending that resets Cecilia back to the reality of being an abused wife, hiding out in the theatre until she figures out her next step, while Astaire and Rogers perform an elegant routine in the foreground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

END OF SPOILER<\/p>\n

The sweetness that dominates the film is as consistent as Gordon Willis\u2019 warm cinematographic tones, Stuart Wurtzel\u2019s beautiful production design, and Dick Hyman\u2019s bubbly score which Twilight Time\u2019s isolated in bubbly stereo on a separate audio track.<\/p>\n

Allen fans will certainly head-scratch MGM\u2019s reasoning for licensing rather than releasing their own non-limited Blu-ray, but TT\u2019s music track makes this a unique release, since few of Allen\u2019s film contain original scores, and even fewer are preserved as stereo music-only tracks. (Hyman\u2019s music was only released on tape and LP.)<\/p>\n

MGM\u2019s print is in decent shape, and the HD transfer retains the film grain and fine details in this beautiful ode to light comedies and the wise-cracking yet gentler world that existed in dreamy studio productions during the early thirties.<\/p>\n

Woody Allen films released by Twilight Time include Love and Death<\/a><\/strong> (1975), Interiors\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>(1978), Stardust Memories<\/a><\/strong> (1980),\u00a0Zelig<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(1983), Broadway Danny Rose<\/a><\/strong> (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo<\/strong> (1985), Radio Days<\/a><\/strong>(1987), and Crimes and Misdemeanors<\/a><\/strong>(1989), and the Allen starring in the Red Menace satire The Front<\/a> <\/strong>(1976).<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB <\/a>\u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a>\u00a0 — Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody Allen\u2019s gem of a fantasy is drenched in nostalgia for the era \u2013 Depression Era 1930s, the elegance of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, warm woody tones, tweed outfits and caps, and the cacophony of street diners \u2013 but it\u2019s probably most beloved for exploring the secret fantasy of many movie lovers: What would happen if a character you adored in a movie came to life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[3515,3518,3516,1038,3517,2784],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2Sf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11051"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15596,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11051\/revisions\/15596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}