The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 film set in 1930s New Jersey, when a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world.
- Directed and written by Woody Allen.
She's finally met the man of her dreams. He's not real but you can't have everything.
Cecilia
[edit]- I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.
Tom Baxter
[edit]- It's so impulsive, but... I'll come. Why not? What's life without a little risk taking? Who knows?
- I don't get hurt or bleed, hair doesn't muss; it's one of the advantages of being imaginary.
- Life's too short to spend time thinking about life. Let's just live it!
Others
[edit]- Moviegoer: I want what happened in the movie last week to happen this week; otherwise, what's life all about anyway?
Dialogue
[edit]- Tom Baxter: Cecilia, it's clear how miserable you are with your husband. And if he hits you again, you tell me. I'd be forced to knock his teeth out.
- Cecilia: I don't think that'd be such a good idea. He's big.
- Tom Baxter: I'm sorry. It's written into my character to do it, so I do it.
- Tom Baxter: [after innocently being invited into a bordello] I was thinking about some very deep things. About God and his relation with Irving Saks and R.H. Levine. And I was thinking about life in general. The origin of everything we see about us. The finality of death; how almost magical it seems in the real world, as opposed to the world of celluloid and flickering shadows.
- Hooker [to another hooker] Where did you FIND this clown?
- Gil's Agent: Tom Baxter's come down off the screen and he's running around New Jersey!... Nobody knows how it happened, but he's done it.
- Gil Shepherd: How can he do that? It's not physically possible!
- Gil's Agent: In New Jersey anything can happen.
- Tom Baxter: [to Cecilia] I love you. I'm honest, dependable, courageous, romantic, and a great kisser.
- Gil Shepherd: And I'm real.
- Tom Baxter: [pauses after kissing Cecilia] Where's the fade-out?
- Cecilia: What?
- Tom Baxter: Always when the kissing gets hot and heavy just before the lovemaking, there's a fadeout.
- Cecilia: Then what?
- Tom Baxter: Then we're making love in some private, perfect place.
- Cecilia: That's not how it happens here.
- Tom Baxter: What, there's no fade out?
- Cecilia: No, but when you kissed me, I felt like my heart faded out. I closed my eyes, and I was in some private place.
- Tom Baxter: How fascinating. You make love without fading out?
- Cecilia: Yes.
- Tom Baxter: Well, I can't wait to see this!
- Tom Baxter: I guess I have to get a job.
- Cecilia: That's not gonna be so easy either - right now the whole country's out of work.
- Tom Baxter: Well, then, we'll live on love. We'll have to make some concessions, but so what? We'll have each other
- Cecilia: That's movie talk.
- Theater Manager: Cecilia, what are you doing here?
- Cecilia: Meeting Gil Shepherd.
- Theater Manager: They all gone.
- Cecilia: Th - whaddaya, whaddaya mean?
- Theater Manager: They went back to Hollywood.
- Cecilia: Gil too?
- Theater Manager: Mr Shepherd, yeah. Soon as Tom Baxter went back up on the movie screen - couldn't wait to get outta here. He said this was a close call for his career. I think he's gonna play Charles Lindbergh. [pause] Don't forget, Cecilia, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers start today.
Cast
[edit]- Mia Farrow - Cecilia
- Jeff Daniels - Tom Baxter/Gil Shepherd
- Danny Aiello - Monk
- Edward Herrmann - Henry
- John Wood - Jason
- Deborah Rush - Rita
- Zoe Caldwell - The Countess
- Van Johnson - Larry Wilde
- Karen Akers - Kitty Haynes
- Milo O'Shea - Father Donnelly
- Dianne Wiest - Emma
