Woody Allen's films are always filled with this kind of sudden day-break of boundaries, confusing fantasy with reality, like the occasional daydream that viewers occasionally have in front of the screen. Like in "Midnight in Paris", the hero Jill suddenly got on a car leading to the golden age at midnight Paris, met his dream famous writer, artist, critic and even fell in love with one of their lovers, The heroine Cecilia in "Purple Rose of Cairo" also suddenly received the craziest gift from loyal fans: the character on the screen suddenly came out and expressed her love to her.
Cecilia is undoubtedly living in a messed up reality, the economy is depressed, her husband is unemployed all day gambling, cheating and violent towards her, and she herself can't stop looking forward to and discussing the movie for a moment, and she works absent-mindedly, which leads to being fired. She fell into the trough of her life and ran to the cinema all day to numb herself and avoid setbacks, which is why she was favored by the charming male characters in the movie. Tom walked out of the screen without hesitation, came to real life, and even brought Cecilia into the world on the screen for a romantic date. Here, the gap between reality and fantasy is completely broken, and the protagonist can shuttle between the two at will.
At this point in the film, fantasy and reality are once again confused. This confusion is not between virtual characters and real characters, but completely in real life: Tom's actor also came to the town to save his future from being ruined by his own character, and he and Cecilia The conversation was very pleasant, and he even expressed his intentions to her. Cecilia's favorite actor also fell in love with her. This throws Cecilia into complete chaos and she has to make a choice. In the end, she chose the actor Jill in "real life", but did not realize that the so-called "real life" was just an illusion. Jill returned to Hollywood alone after Tom returned to the screen sadly, fully committed to Cecilia. Forget it. Two fantasies in the virtual and real world come to an abrupt end at the same moment. After a brief life in which fantasy and reality were confused, Cecilia once again plunged headlong into tragic reality: she could only go back to the cinema again, still escaping from reality by satisfying fantasy and escaping reality in the film's delicate and elegant plot. Life goes on after the movie ends.
The ingenious plot design of "Purple Rose of Cairo" shows both the virtual in the film and the unreality in reality. The director also asked the actors of "Film in Film" to ask: Maybe the world on the screen is real , the outside is virtual?
What is true and what is false, whether fantasy and reality are really separated, and whether the real world is more magical than the plot on the screen, the next time we sit in the theater, pick up the wine glass and plan to get drunk, and listen to the music. Maybe you can ask yourself when you forget your surroundings in the artwork.
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