Purple Rose of Cairo
Woody Allen's film The Purple Rose of Cairo is a Depression-era story about a lonely, daydreaming woman in New Jersey who she seeks refuge from the doldrums of her life at the movies. Mimicking the escapist films produced during the depression, The Purple Rose of Cairo works on two levels, both as a critique of escapist Hollywood films and a lovingly rendered embodiment of those very same films. By approaching its subject matter in this way, the film is able to pay homage to an earlier genre without falling into the uncritical trap of nostalgia.
The film begins on an afternoon like any other when, after her shift at the local diner, the main character Cecilia heads to the local cinema to see for what is evidently the umpteenth time a film called (like Allen's film itself) The Purple Rose of Cairo. The fictional Purple Rose of Cairo is an adventure-romance following the explorer Ted Baxter, as he searches Egypt for an ancient royal tomb allegedly containing within it a wealth of exquisite purple roses. This time, however, as Cecilia looks up wide-eyed at the screen, reciting lines along with the actors, an extraordinary things happens: the dreamy Ted Baxter...
Modernity and Migration Modernity in Manhattan New York City has been the setting, backdrop, and focus of a substantive corpus of films, few of which showcase it as favorably as Manhattan. There are many subplots in the film Manhattan, and one belongs solely to the city itself. The film is an ode to New York City, irresistible even if one is not a fan of urban spaces. In the opening scenes, Woody
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