Sunday, March 9, 2008
The Purple Rose of Cairo
For the last of the director posts, I lack a specific theme or thread to write about. Thus, you will probably be as bored with this post as I was with the final film in the project. The Purple Rose of Cairo was released in 1985. After the other Allen films that I have seen, this film was not to par. It was a movie where the idea was cute (at best), and the execution didn't save it. The main character literally walks off the movie screen of an old Depression-era theater in New Jersey. A blase romance blossoms with a woman who leaves her abusive, Depression-era husband. It seemed a departure from the quality of Allen's other films (although this film won a plethora of awards and acclaim). The major characters did not have the wit that I so appreciated in Annie Hall or Bananas. There was nothing unique about the plot besides the "cute" idea on which the film is based. I suppose that I all I have to say. The Purple Rose of Cairo doesn't leave me with alot of material.
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3 comments:
I'm interested in knowing what kind of awards this film won. I think the "cute idea" of the characters walking out of the movie is classic Woody Allen. Remember the Greek chorus in Mighty Aphrodite? I think he often centers his movies around this type of idea. It's interesting to me that you didn't like this one as much considering that this is the only one without Woody Allen in it. I suppose he's one of the more primary sources of wit in these movies because I agree with you that the characters were not as much fun to watch as the other movies. The acting was still good though.
It was nominated for an Oscar, as well as a Golden Globe, and a bunch of obscure awards that no one has ever heard of.
anyway yeah I too was pretty disappointed here. Mr. Allen lost me at the brothel scene where Tom tried to pull off acting like he didn't know what was going on. It was all very elementary. Like the kind of jokes that are aimed at 8th grade boys. Not very appealing to me, especially since Allen usually has the kind of humor that smart sophisticated people will laugh at...
It would be as if the writer of Frasier stooped to the level of Scary Movie 4.
The cute idea is quintessentially Allen, but Allen usually builds from his ideas. This one became a crutch.
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