3) The Purple Rose of Cairo
While Barton Fink is (among other things) about the writer’s relationship with movies and the movie industry, Woody Allen’s 1985 film The Purple Rose of Cairo is primarily about the audience member’s relationship with the films they watch, or more specifically the difference between relationships with fictional characters versus those with people in the real world. As someone who regularly develops unhealthy relationships with the men and women appearing on screen, this movie felt like it was speaking to me personally, as I’m sure was the experience of the many who adore it.
Plenty of films will come up with a terrific premise and then squander its potential (I thought that way of Warm Bodies a little bit). Purple Rose certainly has a superb premise: a waitress who frequents the movies to escape her troubles becomes infatuated with one particular actor, and one day he walks off the screen and declares his love for her. It becomes a great movie when we see the other characters on screen reacting angrily to their castmate’s behavior; it becomes masterful with further logical developments such as the “real life” actor who plays the character in this movie to investigate this strange occurrence, and a bizarre love triangle forms between the three characters. The choice between a fictional character who is without flaws versus a real person is one we should be glad we never have to make in the real world on a literal level, but a fun and interesting perspective on truth in our capacity for relating to other people.
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