David Duneman

Expository Writing

Joe Serio

4/21/13

Not much exciting about the purple rose in Cairo

            The first thing I found interesting about “The Purple Rose in Cairo” was the irony in the beginning of the film. While all the sad things were happening at the beginning of the film, the music that was playing was some of the same music that was used throughout the movie even in the funny parts. So the irony was that they were using relatively happy music to a very sad situation. If this movie were to be summed up in one statement in the film I believe it would be, “The real characters want their lives fictional and the fictional characters want their lives real.”

            There didn’t seem to be much purpose in Tom Baxter coming to life besides the power of the imagination. Also, his two characters could be a metaphor for how most people have different aspects of their personality that could be interpreted as two separate characters. I thought Jeff Daniels should have differentiated playing Tom and Gil a bit more.

            Cecilia is the underdog character, if any woman should be able find their “prince charming” Cecilia should be the one to find him: and she does. Everyone was going through rough times during the depression but people like Cecilia had it rougher than most because of assholes like her husband.

            This was an interesting movie but nothing that special to watch it over again.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo started out slow and not comedic as Joe had warned us.  I wasn’t sure why Woody Allen would have chosen to do this, however, as the themes of the movie started coming through.  I believe the purpose was to make the movie feel like you were actually getting the mood of the Great Depression.  Without inputting laughter or a cheerful bidding really increases the mood of depression and sorrow.   But then as the story continues,  more humor starts coming out and a bunch of it seemed to be situational humor, for instance just the time when Tom tries to pay, he tries to use prop money and they have to flee the scene.  The movie I believe is both plot driven and character driven.  This is because the plot is only occurring because of how the characters have changed the sequence of events .  I feel like this movie was very original and the idea was very fresh in the fact that the movie that the characters were watching in the movie was titled the same as the movie we were watching but each one had very different plots.  The character from the fictional movie, Tom, actually comes out of the screen and interacts with characters of our movie.  I found this extremely funny when the character in our movie that played Tom meets him on the streets their interaction is very intriguing.   Also the way that the color of the fictional movie was black and white, but as he enters the world of the movie he becomes a normally colored person, who can only be noticed he is out of place is that his wardrobe is out of place.   This is also peculiar because it took a character from a black and white movie to bring color and vibrancy to Cecilia’s boring, mundane life.  Overall, I feel like this is a very original movie and has a fantastic story and I would recommend it to anyone except other movies.   If they were informed that they can leave their movie, we would have a number of characters I’m not sure our world could handle.  

Worst Thing I've Written So Far

 This movie was a very interesting movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. How the film simulated a sort of breach in the fourth wall between two sets of characters, was a very interesting dynamic. This film is centered around the viewer knowing film and knowing people who have something in their lives that they use as an escapism. This movie had some diverse characters, but none of them were really proclaimed as “the star” of the film. Like in the actual film “The Purple Rose of Cairo” one character can really have a larger impact on the film as a whole, and not be the focal point. This idea actually pushed one of the themes this film addressed, how one character can make or break a film, even if they are thought to not be necessary to the plot as a whole. Cecilia was a pretty weak main character that was easily swayed by anything that gave her attention, she also represented a person who just wants to get away from real life to be whisked away in a fictional world. Even though she was a weak character, her presence in the film was important to the entire plot. Her character was downplayed and her lack of decision making is what made her the main character for this movie. This is so, because it again fits into the theme of a movie that doesn't need a center star to have a strong presence or plot. 

This movie was a very intriguing movie and there was a lot that was going on, and things that can be interpreted within. Unfortunately, This movie isn't given justice by the horrible garbage I just forced myself to write. 

The Allegory of the Cave and The Purple Rose of Cairo

Woody Allen brings together a masterful work of story telling using both sound and visuals in The Purple Rose of Cairo. The story is told as a meta-film or a dissection of what it is to be the artist looking out at the audience and how that audience relates to the artist and the artist's work.

The film begins and ends with the voice of Fred Astaire singing of his cares that hung around him through the week and seemingly vanish like a gambler's streak as he danced cheek to cheek. The first image shown is Cecilia intensely examining a movie poster for The Purple Rose of Cairo, ripped away from her revery ("...heaven, I'm in heaven..." the song continues) by reality clanging behind her. This reality itself is not immutable, as later, we see the movie character Tom Baxter step in and out of it. The song parallels her gambling husband Monk and her troubles with work, vanishing from her thoughts when she escapes into watching and talking about movies.

Tom Baxter is a prisoner of the inner movie within this movie of the same name. He plays out the life of a the prisoner in The Allegory of the Cave. His introduction is in the flickering shadows of an Egyptian crypt or cave. The Allegory of the Cave is referenced again once Baxter has left the inner film for the outer world. People attempting to see the movie are angry and confused, demanding their money back or saying, “I saw the movie last week, this is not what happens.  I want what happened last week happen this week, otherwise what is life all about anyway?” It is during this scene that there are flickering lights over the patrons as they stand outside the theater, mimicking the flickering projection screen effect. I think this is a cue for both the actual audience and Tom Baxter. For the actual audience, it re-enforces what we are seeing isn’t real. For Tom this world is a projection that he was viewing while repeating his performances on the inner movie. Another irony in this is that the the holiday trip of the inner movie is to avoid doing the same thing over and over and yet is exactly what movie goers want to see, over and over.

When Tom transitions to the outer movie, the two begin to take on a role reversal. In the inner movie, the characters begin to sit around, talk, and provide no more action, much to the complaint of the outer movie audience. Meanwhile the outer movie characters are playing out an action story that the inner movie characters are sometimes witnessing. It is primarily audience members in the outer movie who have "trouble with live humans" who are watching the inner movie avidly.

While it is natural for the inner movie to be black and white, given the time period, this plays directly into the meta-story being told of the perfection of Tom and the world he inhabits. The inner movie characters are impossibly clever and beautiful. Once Tom steps out of the movie, he gains color, but is still impossibly sweet, impossibly loyal and impossible to damage. By having Tom step out of the immutable world of black and white, Allen amplifies and highlights the predicament of the relationship between story telling artist and story hearing audience.  Each has their own view of reality that shadows the other. Tom says, "You're married and old-fashioned and I'm a whole new idea. The truth is, you're unhappily married." The implication is that Cecilia was married to the idea of her reality and should divorce herself from it. Tom is a projection of the artist, who is projecting his "new idea."

If the outer movie audience, including Cecilia, are seeking out the denial of their, as inner movie John put it, "...most human attribute [the] ability to choose..." then it follows that Allen is stating that it is important to keep a distance from the art and story you participate in, lest you lose sight of your humanity. The projection of the new idea is not enough to sustain a person in life outside of the story. Tom is attempting to break out of his character as written, but he is fated to be Tom Baxter and Cecilia recognizes this when she chooses Gil over Tom. Tom pleads with Cecilia, "Look, I love you, I know that only happens in movies." and indeed, it only happens within the inner movie Tom and not the outer movie Gil.

Dull Cecilia

This film did not start out funny, like we were previously warned. I believe this was purposefully created to show the desperation that Cecilia underwent in her life. This desperation made her vulnerable to her made-up lovers. Cecilia has lived a hard life, one without love, friendship, or attention. She chose films to escape her life, to the point of ruining her own life. She cannot do anything right except for go to movies. She cannot even work as a waitress with her sister without obsessing over films. One day, the film becomes real to her and she cannot decide between real life and fake life. She assumes that by choosing Gil Shepherd over Tom Baxter, she is choosing real life over her fake, movie life. However, even her “love” for Gil Shepherd was not real. He liked her because she gave him what he wanted- attention and awe. She fawned over Gil, and that’s what he wanted while being in that small town to save his career. The moment she made Tom Baxter go back into the film was the moment that Gil could finally be through with her. The only choice that Cecilia can make to better her life is to choose between leaving the fantasy world of her films or to fully destroy her life in order to live in her imagination. The films do not help her. She is an extremely weak character that lives internally, instead of fully interacting with the world. She only interacts with the film life, including the film stars such as Gil Shepherd. She can never leave her husband because she is too weak to do so. In the end, I feel like she wouldn’t even leave her husband at all. When she realized Gil wasn’t waiting for her, she went back to the movie theater. She will probably go back to her husband afterward, and get beat again and again. She is a very cyclic character- she leaves the real world for the fantasy world of films, falls in love, leaves her husband, gets heart-broken, and goes back into her fantasy world. She can never leave this cycle because she is not strong enough.

There is a bit of irony in the fact that the film itself was in color, but the film in the film was in black and white. One would think that the film in the movie was dull and not as full of life. However, for Cecilia, this is completely different. The film within the film was full of life for Cecilia, whereas “real life” was dull and flat. She had to escape to the black and white in order to feel anything at all. She feels love in movies, and happiness. In real life, she does not seem as concerned about anything. She does not even seem upset about the fact that her husband hates her or that she has no career or life. She is very resigned about everything in real life. In the movie life, the dullness is rich to her; the fakeness of everything is exciting. She finds fake and dull things exciting.

Purple Rose

Woody Allen with another marvelous masterpiece.  The Purple Rose of Cairo is so lighthearted and honest, that it is just another Woody Allen classic.  He presents his messages in such a simple way, you can't help but grin when the films are over.
I love the overall idea of The Purple Rose of Cairo.  Society today has a skewed perception that life and love are exactly how they are in a movie.  We dream of falling in love when you least expect it, and running off in the distance happily ever after.  Cecilia, who escapes her abusive and loveless relationship by going to the movies alone, is another one of these fairytale love fanatics.  She dreams one day she can have a relationship like the ones in the movies.  I can say honestly that I didn't expect what happened.  I knew there was a twist coming up in this film, however I didn't think it was going to be an actor in the movie breaking the fourth-wall and living in real life.  Usually when society watches hopeless romantic films we, in our minds, break the fourth-wall, and put ourselves in the film.  I think that is why Cecilia went to see this movie so many times.  She had this idea in her mind that she was apart of that life, she escaped the hardships of her life by putting herself in that movie.
Allen does a great job in connecting the ideas of reality and fantasy.  Tom has a charming personality.  He is great at sweet talking to women, kissing, and holding hands.  But when he is faced with real life problems, he gets lost in translation.  There are many little things that Tom can't do.  For instance, he can drive a car because he drives one in the film, but he can't start a car because he never started one in the film.  The overall problem is that Tom is trying to learn the basics of real life, and Cecilia is still hopelessly awaiting the romantic movie life.
I think the underlying theme is--who you want to be in life, and how others want you to be in life.  You have two characters trying to learn to different lifestyles, trying to figure out each others problems.  But in reality you have to get through them together.  That is when the comedy comes to play in this movie.  We laugh at the adversity these characters go through.  When love works you have two people coming together, conquering life and life's problems together.  The sad aspect of this movie is you just have two halves of hopeless wonders.  Tom and Cecilia try to make it together but reality slaps them both in the face.
The Purple Rose of Cairo is so cleverly done that I was thinking about it a couple days after I watched it.  The love triangle between Gil, Tom, and Cecilia is pretty funny to watch unravel.  This movie and Harold & Maude have been by far my favorite movies of the semester.  This was one of the Woody Allen films I have never seen before.  I am super glad I got to watch it, and I am looking forward to discussing it in class.                       

Le purple rose ....of your FACE!

This movie was a great deal of fun, from the intelligent humor to the outrageously creative visual/audio metaphors. This first thing I want to address is breaking the forth wall. This was a huge turning point in the movie and for us as the audience. In the film we see a tired life beaten woman. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Her husband is a monster that occasionally beats her. She can barely hold a job in these hard times.  Finally she is pretty much alone in this world. His she has her friend at the diner but how often does she go to her for help? In breaking the forth wall and Tom jumping of the screen she gets a complete turnaround. This takes her from the land of real life to the land of magic and wonder. Now this whole new world is not only presented to just her but us as well. When Tom jumped out of the screen I stood up out of my chair. This is what I feel the writers had in mind. This first 18 minutes of this movie was so real life that when magic and wonder appeared we were stunned and probably took a double take.

Visual and audio metaphors were abundant in this film. The visual metaphor I found was that of children and adults. When Tom came out of the screen his views on society and how it worked where like that of a child. For example when he went to the brothel he did not see the women as just toys or a tool. No, he saw them for who they really are. This is very important because I feel that children don’t of a judgment tool. Adults judge each other all the time. Life has hardened adults into machines that judge and only think of personal gain. This is where Gil comes in and shows us a perfect example on how adults only think of themselves. He played Cecilia from the beginning just to get Tom back on the screen. The audio metaphor was not as big as the visual one but it was still important. This happened when Tom and Cecilia hopped in the car and he thought it just started driving. She said this is real life cars don’t start without a key. I feel this was a comparison to experience. Life is full of trial and error. What do most of us do when we mess up, we learn from our mistakes. Thomas Edison was stated "I did not fail I found 2000 ways not to make a light bulb." Our tom in the movie was full of hope and wonder but zero on experience. Our world is built on what you know and how well you know it. Look at a college for example; all we do is trial and error. Why do we do this? For experience in a field we might want to enter into.

Please tell me I'm not the only one that laughed out loud when that old lady on screen said you wife is a Tub of GUTS!

The Purple Rose of Cairo: A movie within a movie

      The Purple Rose of Cairo was an interesting movie. At first was difficult to sift through everything to figure out what the movie was about. One of the characters that were within the movie said that this story was about a man and self fulfillment and a woman said it was a true love story. These ideas do play some roll into the film but The Purple Rose of Cairo was about choices and so is life. Life is about choices. These choices can be given through rough choices, logical choices, or easy choices. There is not always an easy answer. In the movie Cecilia had a rough life going through the depression and a terrible marriage. She meets Tom and he is but a fantasy. He is the man every woman dreams of having. In the end she has to choose between the two men. Tom represents the fantasy world (the place of happiness that exists only in her mind) and Jeff represents the real world. One of the characters said, “The most human attribute is the ability to choose.” He is right about that. Life is about the choices that we make. Cecilia needed to choose how she wanted to live her life even though she was in the Great Depression. She still has some freedom to do that. Tom was a fantasy character. He did not really have to ability to choose how he wanted to live his life even though he came out of the screen.

      Logically it was wise to chose Jeff because the fantasy world could never be.   She later finds out that Jeff doesn’t really care about her and this is the reality of like. It is real and deceiving. Everything in the movie foreshadows that she will live happily ever after. I think the ending is a contradiction of what happens in the movie.

      One thing that I found interesting in the film was the film itself. The actual film was in color. The film in the film was in black in white. This was done with some intent. Black and white could give the impression of dullness and color is richer. When Cecilia was in the film that world was so perfect that is was dull but when she was in the real world it was richer. This also means it could lead to deception and disappointed. She found this out with Jeff. But that is where the human ability to choose comes into play to make situations better.

      There was one thing that she did chose out of all of this and that was to live her life. She was going through the depression but she did not go back to her terrible husband at the end of the film. People in the depression needed a fantasy to help them get away from the rough time they were having. The movie is centered on the idea of giving people in the depression something to get away and that was film and cinema.  She also chose to go back into the cinema to escape from everything that happened. She created another fantasy, but this time it did not need to be external. She found that out with Tom. I think the take home message is that happiness is not a set of external circumstances. It is a place in our mind and we can go there anytime we want.

The Purple Rose of Cairo, a Woody Allen film

Holly Reese

4-21-13

The Purple Rose of Cairo

                    First off, I am one of those people who doesn’t care for Woody Allen films. There is always something about his films that I just don’t care for, so generally I don’t consider myself to be a fan. However, The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of the more tolerable Woody Allen films that I have seen. The comedy is subtle and quirky and though it seemed to move very slowly at times, it was a decent film.

                    While this film isn’t really laugh out loud funny, the humor is apparent throughout. The funniest parts involve the on screen characters after Tom has left the film. The interactions between the theater audiences and the characters abandoned on the screen are funny especially when the movie’s characters are insulting the audience members. Allen invites an interesting concept. When an actor brings a character to life on screen, are they then completely separate from the actor? This film would argue that if an actor so convincingly brings a character to life onscreen, that the character is really alive and no longer attached to the actor. This fantasy is accepted in this movie. Its absurdity is what makes it funny. The theater owners, movie executives, and the actor himself all accept that it is totally possible that a movie character can just walk off of the screen and into real life-- if the actor’s portrayal was convincing enough. It is funny that everyone, most notably Cecilia, can instantly accept that this has happened. Some of the theater patrons were skeptical, but for the most part everyone just agreed that this scenario was possible and could potentially happen again.

                    In my opinion, this film is somewhat like a tribute to all cinema. Cecillia finds refuge from her terrible life in the movie theater watching The Purple Rose of Cairo. This is a literal and metaphorical escape that many people can relate to. It is easy for people (ok, especially women) to fall “in love” with the characters they see in films. Cecilia's husband was mean, drunk, and disgusting so its no wonder she fell for Tom on and off screen. When she finally leaves her husband chooses the “real” actor, Gil, over the movie character, Tom, reality hits her hard when she is left alone in the end. While this would be a very sad time in her life, she resorts to her original escape plan. She returns to a movie theater and gets swept away in a new story. This bittersweet ending really exaggerates the power that movies can have on audiences. I think it is done effectively and I appreciate the point that I believe Allen was trying to make with this film.

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.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo


Woody Allen has always been recognized by his imagination and alternative ways in which the plots of his movies express different ideas of the time. The Purple Rose of Cairo exposes the life of ,arguably, average women during the Great Depression in the United States.
Women during the Great Depression not only had to hold family together, but also had to take the frustration of their husbands who were having difficult time finding a job. The character of Cecilia exemplifies this average women who fantasizes about a life of glamour and romance, but works at a cafe and lives with an abusive husband. The film industry becomes a distraction and an unattainable life fantasy for the average women.
The obsession of Cecilia with the fictional movie The Purple Rose Of Cairo exemplifies the need of a society to escape from the reality they lived. Film can be seen in this context as a good place to dream and appreciate other lifestyles, but it can also be a form of art that can take the life of individuals and prevent them to see the reality they live in. Cecilia fantasizes about a better life when she goes to the movies, but fails to do anything that could help her have a better lifestyle.
The group of characters in the fictional film that was playing in the New Jersey theater represent the reality of the upper class in the US during the Great Depression. They experience a very lavish lifestyle and enjoy traveling and arts while millions are unemployed and families across the United States suffer from hunger and poverty.
The development of the plot and specially the end reminds us of the importance of art, but at the same time shows us that we should also do something to better our own lives.

I believe that we experience the same problems today. Media tells us what to believe, what to dream, and what to do. We seem to be numbed out of the reality we live in. We sit down and watch TV and films while the United States goes into another recession. We fantasize about a better life style, watch how others have fun, and forget about the need to acknowledge the reality we live in. Economic crisis, the elimination of privacy, the unnecessary wars, the increase of the cost of education, among other issues should inspire us to learn and create change around us.
We continue to be numbed out just as Cecilia did, but in today's reality, the media has become a biggest part of our lives. Laptops, iPads, cellphones, TV on demand, etc. This devices have become the biggest part of their lives. We look more at a screen that the amount of time we spend talking to our families.
If we continue the example of Cecilia, once we decide to stand up and take charge of our lives it might be late. In the bright side, at least the movies will be there to console us.

purple rose, Zach Pedroncelli

In this week’s film the purple rose of Cairo the film centered around the depression and American way of life in its time. The main character Cecelia lives in an abusive and seemingly bipolar relationship where she settles for below mediocrity with her jerk of a husband and only escapes in the moments of being in the movie theatre. This theme was very similar to that of many people who lived during the great depression. The affordable escape that movies created allowed for people to forget their current life sorrows and enjoy the feeling of being brought into the film alongside the characters. The film takes the unique twist when the character from the movie Cecelia repetitively goes to see decides to enter the real world in order to escape with Cecelia. Tom the escaped character charms Cecilia and beings to experience a set of unexpected adventures until the actual actor who plays tom finds out about his escaped role. This allows for Cecelia to feel the freedom and love from a man which had never happened before in her marriage. There was a strong sense of symbolism in the role of tom and its contrasting role of Gil Shepard. Gil has no thought of anybody but himself and his expected rise to become a star, whereas tom only cares about Cecelia and getting away from the normal life that is forcibly upon him. In the end of the film I was disappointed that Cecelia was left alone when she displayed he desire to experience change. But the film showed her true affinity for film and the movies when she eventually stops hanging her head to sit through another escape of a movie. The overall theme I believe is that no matter how great things seem to be all it is is a distraction from reality and temporary escape that eventually returns to real life suffering. 

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