Woodyfest

The Purple Rose of Cairo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Film night and more of the "Woody Allen retrospective": This time The Purple Rose of Cairo and Alice. Sleeper might have been more appropriate for the second film, given that both old codgers were filling the air with zeds at some points during Alice, however the pairing made sense as both these films starred the  Woodster's former partner Mia Farrow and were a reminder of what a great actress she was.

There may be SPOILERS BELOW

"Purple Rose" was a film I had great affection for, having seen it in London with my brother many years ago. Going to the pictures with my little bro' is a rare enough pleasure and going to the cinema in London rarer still but the best thing about the jaunt was that we both loved Purple Rose. It is possible that I haven't seen it since and certainly Arthur was claiming this as only his second viewing. Happily the film still lived up to our golden memories of it and we were charmed and impressed all over again.

This is in my, indeed in OUR, opinion a little masterpiece and comfortably earns a place in our Woody Allen top ten. It has charm, laughs, great writing, pathos, good music (including a musical number performed by Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels which I had forgotten) and a central conceit that is at once original and typically Woody.


The story is set in depression America with Cecilia (Farrow) taking refuge from her life, and abusive out of work husband (Danny Aiello), in the picture house. Eventually her dedication to "The Purple Rose of Cairo" attracts the attention of one of the characters, romantic heartthrob Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels in a dual role with Gil Shepherd, the actor who plays Tom).

Tom and Cecilia fall for one another and in a memorable summing up Cecilia says "I'm in love with a wonderful man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything."

The film has a bitter sweet quality which is perfectly complemented by its ending over which Allen refused to compromise, even though he was told that the film could have had much greater success if he changed it. In fact when asked why he didn't give the film a "happy ending" he is alleged to have replied "That IS the happy ending".

After another corking episode of Bilko in the interval, Alice, alas, played to a less than attentive audience now full of beer and pie and dozing. I can only say that on its release I saw it twice so I must have been impressed at the time. Following the current showing, I'm afraid I concluded that it seemed over-long (though only ten minutes or so over the classic hour and a half) and rather disjointed, but both of these could be illusion caused by the snoozing.

Cover of Alice

There are similarities with "Purple Rose" in that there is an acceptance of "magic" which in Alice manifests itself as Chinese herbal mysticism where doses of medicinal herbs (irritatingly, but not surprisingly, pronounced with a silent "h" in the American fashion) this time provide the necessary escape from a less than perfect life and marriage with such side-effects as flying and invisibility.

There are things to like but it seems improbably to me that, even if I hadn't had a nap during the showing, I would still rate it as highly as I did on its release in 1990. Not a patch on "Purple" at any rate. William Hurt plays the husband as a rather unpleasant man so not surprisingly I didn't like him although it may have been a good performance given that that is the appropriate response.

Another excellent film night. Perhaps a pity it follows hot on the heels of games night as an early night might avoid the problem of dozing which beset the post midnight second feature.