Watching all of Woody Allen's films in order: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Then I have a strong suspicion that the first time I watched Tom Baxter step from the screen was at my friend Tris’s flat in the early nineties. It’s funny, I thought I could remember how I've seen nearly every film. I know that Strange Days was at Screen 3 at the old ABC in Leeds. Shakespeare In Love at the Showcase Cinema on the East Lancs Road. But it’s not until now that I’m in the thick of this project that I’m learning quite how ‘nearly’ my memory is. Incidentally I’m about the give away the ending. If you’ve not seen the film yet, look away now …

Now One of the results of my MA Screen Studies dissertation about the esoteric film genre of hyperlink cinema is that I’ve become quite attuned to spotting esoteric film genres in general, outside of the likes of westerns or romantic comedies. One of these days, I’ll get around to writing the great series for this blog in which I list the many that I’ve noticed and The Purple Rose of Cairo offers the opportunity for a pilot.

The Purple Rose of Cairo belongs to a genre of film and television about the “real” and “fictional” worlds colliding, often literary (Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Ship In A Bottle springs to mind in which Moriarty steps onto the Enterprise) but mainly cinematic. I don’t have a name for it yet – it’s not metafictional because most often the so-called “real world” characters internally still aren’t aware that they’re in a film.

There are essentially two subgenres. The rarest examples are those in which the so-called “real world” characters enter the fictional universe – Pleasantville or Star Tuned. The most common feature the fictional character stepping from one reality to another; Last Action Hero and Cairo are the key examples; sadly Enchanted doesn’t count since Giselle views her world as a fairy tale kingdom – it’s the audience that have to deal with the fact that kingdom happens to be animated.

As with all “syntactic” genres (that is genres defined by narrative structure rather than visual clues, which would be semantic), the stories generally follow the same trajectory:

I: Character bridges the gap between realities, one fictional
II: Interacts with the new reality and it has an impact, either on themselves or the new reality, or both.
III: The loss of innocence
IV: Film climax with a cataclysm of the two realities clashing with one another.

I realise that this fits Enchanted too. It’s a grey area. To an extent this structure fits any film with a fish out of water scenario. Capra’s films, especially. But the “loss of innocence” element is important because it shows the fictional characters being irrevocably changed by the experience, shaken from the narrow moorings of their creator into a wider consciousness.

It certainly fits The Purple Rose of Cairo:

I: Tom Baxter leaves the screen
II: Sweeps Cecilia off her feet, causes Gil to visit.
III: The brothel scene mostly. Arguably it’s what leads Tom to take Celia back into the picture, something he swore he’d never do as though he’s returning to the world he knows.
IV: The final confrontation between Tom and Gil over the affections of Cecilia.

It’s less dramatic than The Last Action Hero and Pleasantville and the film ends without anything really changing – Tom returns to the film, Cecilia to her mundane life, Gil to Hollywood – but the tropes are still the same. Of course without dozens more examples it doesn’t really add greater meaning to the films themselves other than to provide an element of verisimilitude in which we wait to see how this film will tackle each part of the story, which is one of the reasons we find some rom coms entertaining.

The film is also an example of Woody’s creative will. Famously as close to the favourite of his films (he rarely thinks that any of his films are any good and he never watches them once they’re completed) this text didn’t happen without something of a struggle Originally Michael Keaton was cast as Tom Baxter but after ten days filming – which on a film of this scale and with the rapidity of Woody’s shooting style is a lot – Woody decided he wasn’t right (too contemporary apparently though Jeff suggests something else in the below video) and recast the character.

Daniels is so perfect in the duel roles of actor and acted, both wide eyed innocents, it’s impossible to work out how Keaton might have played it, two years out from Mr Mom. But it’s impressive that Woody managed to convince the studio that he needed to junk what had already been shot and start again. But it’s not a film in which the wrong actor can be cut around, Daniels is in nearly every scene. Sadly, as with all of Woody’s films, the dvd’s a vanilla so we’re left to imagine what the Keaton scenes were like.



The evocation of the depression era is simple but not simplistic. Unlike Capra who was reflecting back his contemporary society in a hopeful way, Woody is reflecting on an ultimately hopeless landscape. As the unemployed clog the streets and fairgrounds sit silent, the movies are the escape from the trials of the real world and the film within a film is pure escapism of the kind churned out by old Hollywood. The climax is heartbreaking because Gil offered a golden opportunity for Cecilia to escape but she’s stuck with her abusive husband because society offers few opportunities.

In terms of career milestones, this is the first of his films to feature Diane Weist who would become a key member of ensemble in a small but significant role as a prostitute. It’s also arguably a rare occasion when there isn’t an avatar for Allen, a character not unlike him, even though he’s not in the film himself. And it was also the last of his films to be shot by Gordon Willis who had given all of his films their stylistic look since Annie Hall. Willis’s contribution cannot be overlooked and indeed though Carlo Di Palma would photograph almost all of Woody’s films through to Deconstructing Harry my impression is that the visual continuity is seamless.

I expect I’ll be set right on that very, very soon.