The Purple Rose Of Cairo DVD Region 3

In The Purple Rose of Cairo, Mia Farrow plays Cecilia, a shy girl whose only consolation during the Great Depression is the movie theater around the corner. As her marriage to the insincere Monk (Danny Aiello) is very unfulfilling, she constantly escapes to the movies were she can marvel at the stars on the big screen who live a life of glitter and fame. Things seem to be going from bad to worse when she catches her husband drunk with one of his female friends, and she is later fired from her job as waitress. Trying to get over her sadness, she watches the new movie The Purple Rose of Cairo again and again until she is recognized by her favorite movie character on the show, Tom Baxter, who leaves the screen for her sake.

Allen's double illusory movie world that leads to interaction between the theater audience and onscreen actors who can suddenly talk back promises to keep viewers watching in amazement. Tom Baxter, the only character that is able to leave the screen to search for an existence free of fixed dialogue and acting, discovers that the real world also has its limitations. Money that was his to throw around onscreen suddenly loses its value, and fights are not absolved in quite the gentleman-like manner he prefers. As for his newfound love Cecilia from the real world, she is suddenly stuck between the choice of spending the rest of her life with the perfect movie illusion come alive, Tom Baxter, or his real-life lookalike, actor Gil Shepherd. Farrow is convincing in her role as the dream-forlorn Cecilia, while Jeff Daniels shines in his double role as onscreen adventurer Tom Baxter and success-driven Hollywood star Gil Shepherd, and the supporting cast adds the icing on the cake. Finally, Dick Hyman's retro jazz music score complements this celluloid achievement amazingly well and promises to echo in the viewers' minds, together with Fred Astaire's Cheek to Cheek, long after The Purple Rose of Cairo has ended.