The Paradoxical Rose of Cairo

The film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, is set during the Great Depression and follows a woman named Cecilia who is an avid movie goer. Her whole world is turned upside down when Tom Baxter, the character in a movie whom Cecilia admires, walks right out of the movie screen and into her life. The hilarity that ensues is not only funny it presents an interesting problem: it blurs the line between reality and fiction. It relays messages to its modern audience about selfishness and the disappointment that will result from mixing fiction with reality.

The main character Cecilia is oppressed by her husband and her job. To escape from her life she seeks solace in the movie theater, one of the few affordable pleasures during the Great Depression. I believe that she imagines herself in the situations presented in the movies she watches. Rather than trying to change her life and make a better situation for herself, she simply goes to the movies to escape into imaginary worlds of happiness and idealistic romance. When Tom Baxter suddenly steps out of the movie screen she allows herself to be pulled along hoping that he, and later Gil Shepard, might be able to change her life and allow her to live her dream. Her husband, Monk, also acts very selfishly throughout the film. Monk only acts like he loves Cecilia when he wants something from her, any other time he does whatever he wants. When he says he is working he is really gambling with friends, only pretending to look for work. He makes excuses for his behavior saying that alcohol is what makes him flirt with other women and hit Cecilia. Tom Baxter is just as selfish as anyone else, despite his seemingly kind actions. He steps out of the movie because he believes he is in love with Cecilia. He spends the rest of the movie trying to make Cecilia leave her husband and run away with him. The actor who plays Tom, Gil Shepard, selfishly tries to get Tom back into the movie to save his own career. He tricks and uses Cecilia by trying to win her favor and then leaving without a word when he has gotten what he wants. At the end of the film we see Gil in an airplane on his way back to Hollywood, looking very remorseful. Even though he got what he wanted he still was not happy. The Purple Rose of Cairo teaches that selfishness will almost always end in sadness or disappointment.

Most of the humor in this movie was found in the moments where the real world mingled with the fictitious world. This was also the source of the lesson that only disappointment and unhappiness can come from trying to replace reality with fiction. Cecilia tries to fill her life with interest and happiness, but in the end she always has to return to her dismal, unloving home. Tom tries to escape to the real world, but he quickly finds that he cannot exist there. His money is fake and cars do not just start when he gets into them. He also knows nothing about the real world and almost gets himself into a situation at a brothel. The movie characters are baffled as to what to do while Tom is gone because their show cannot continue without him. Riots break out when Tom leaves the movie, making it very clear that Cecilia is not the only one that attempts to fill the voids in her life with movies. One theater patron runs from the theater and says, “I want what happened in the movie last week to happen again this week, otherwise what’s life all about anyway?!?” People find solace in the reliability of movies to always deliver the same story with the same end, and they are very upset when this particular movie fails to do so. This is a comment on society. People are too caught up in movies, so much so that they allow their lives and views to be affected by them. Ironically the actual audience in the real theater is watching a movie entitled The Purple Rose of Cairo, and in the movie the characters are also watching a movie called The Purple Rose of Cairo. This paradox causes the movie’s commentary to be even more direct and relevant to the real audience, as it is almost like they are laughing at themselves when they laugh at the characters in the movie. In the end the film proves that the fictional world cannot coexist in the same space and time with the real world. 

Ultimately, The Purple Rose of Cairo proves that selfishness will not yield the results desired, and trying to replace reality with fiction will result in disappointment and disillusionment.