Author: Roger Ebert/rogerebert.com (March 10, 1985)
Proofreading: Issac
The translation was first published in "Iris"
Woody Allen’s new work "The Purple Rose of Cairo" received the best evaluation of his film career so far. On Sunday, after the film was released, Allen put his "Chess Challenger" aside and curled up on the sofa. corner. We were in the projection room of the Manhattan Film Center at the time, which could be reached through the lobby of the Beekman Plaza Hotel. It might also be the only editing room with room service in New York.
"Do you know how to play with that thing?" I asked.
""Chess Challenger"? Of course, I have won several times."
"You kind of play chess?"
"No. I was obsessed for a while when I was young, and I watched championship games, but my level is average."
"Anything inside the championship game?"
Allen's voice became mysterious. "I heard the gossip from the Chess Forum that Karpov was about to collapse and Kasparov's victory was in sight, but the FIDE stopped the game and Karpov kept his title."
"You actually listen to these gossips?"
"That's what I heard."
"Okay," I said. "Your new film has received rave reviews. The New York Times has hailed you as the greatest director in the United States today, and some people call you the only author and director to practice in the United States. What do you think of this?"
Woody Allen coughed twice.
"Is it because the light pierced your eyes? I can turn it off."
"No, it's okay. It doesn't bother me much."
He kept leaning to the left, then he turned and shifted his weight to his right leg.
"Well, good reviews always make people happy, but movies must also break even at the box office," he replied. "Even so, I am also aware of the fact that people are more likely to believe bad reviews in order to attack you, while the help of good reviews is not so obvious. People tend to believe negative things. If the film critics say this movie Very good, they will think, "I will go and see if I have time." Anyway, my films are divided into two categories: One is that I feel that I have made a good film and realized my original intention, so Even if it is unsuccessful, I will not feel too bad. The other is that people like this movie, but I think I failed to shoot, so I’m lucky, they don’t know what I wanted to shoot in the first place. ."
"Can you give me an example of a film belonging to the first category?"
"I don't know if I have ever made a movie that falls into the first category."
"What about the second type?"
"Almost all the works from "The Purple Rose of Cairo", "Manhattan", "Annie Hall" to "Banana" are in the second category. It can be said that the audience likes them more than me. You seem to have fallen into some kind of trap. You Sitting there, thinking of the original idea of the movie, it was perfect. In your mind, everything is perfect, regular and precise. Then once it’s turned on, it’s full of compromises, as Marshall Brickman said. The truck will stop in front of you every morning. I can't think of a movie that would really satisfy me."
But "The Purple Rose of Cairo" seems to be quite close to Woody Allen's ideal work. Mia Farrow plays Cecilia, a waitress from a small town, who is also an avid movie fan. For her, the dream life in the local movie theater is more important than the tedious reality. She watched the same movie over and over again, until one day, in a surprising scene, the hero of the movie looked towards the audience and began to speak to her.
"God, you must really like this movie!" he said.
"Who, me?" she replied.
"I have seen you many times in the audience," he said, then walked out of the screen and walked towards her. And this is the beginning of the romantic story of the movie; Mia and the screen idol (Jeff Daniels) walked out of the theater together, and other characters in the movie (including familiar faces like Van Johnson and Miro Ossi) had no male counterparts. In the case of the protagonist, he was trapped in the screen.
The film explores the meaning of this incident with a cool comedy logic. For example, because a movie star only knows what his role in the movie knows, he knows how to drive a car, but he doesn't know how to make a fire. He knows how to kiss a girl, but his knowledge of sex is limited to what the protagonist of the movie in the 1930s knows-after all, the picture always fades out before the big moment arrives. At the same time, those who stayed on the screen became more and more restless. In Hollywood, the response of the film companies was panic: If all their characters started to leave the screen, the film would not be filmed.
In a way, what happened in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is similar to the dilemma faced by guests at the feast in Luis Bunuel's 1962 masterpiece "Angel of Annihilation." In that movie, everyone enters the living room after the dinner, and then finds that they cannot leave. Nothing can stop them-but they just can't get out of the room. So they chiseled through the wall, found a pipe to fetch water, and spent the night in bed. A few days later, they were still trapped there, chatting aimlessly, just like the characters in Allen's play.
"Some comments say "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is about movies," Allen said. "I don't agree with this statement. For me, this movie is about reality and fantasy. Cecilia may also have fantasies about radio, books, or popular magazines. The choice of movies is just for visual convenience. This movie is about reality and fantasy. The movie is about the fantasy life is very beautiful and attractive, but in the end you have to choose between reality and fantasy. If you choose reality, you have to accept harm. But this is your humanity. Just like the fan in the movie ·What Johnson & Johnson said, choice is the most important attribute of human beings."
"It's very interesting," I said. "You attribute something to Van Johnson, not to the role he played. It's a bit like Cecilia, who is floating between fantasy and reality, confuses the actor with his role."
"Am I talking about Van Johnson?" Allen said. "This is what I mean! This allows you to see the difference between drama and film. In a drama, an actor is playing a role, which is obviously a kind of performance. In a movie, it is a kind of performance. A completely different phenomenon. Movies are really creating myths. John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson-let's go and see them living according to similar myths time and time again. You go to see John Way He was there at the 48th movie of Um, doing basically the same things he did in the other 47 movies.”
"I noticed a strange thing," I said. "When I interview movie stars who have been stars when I was growing up, such as Robert Mitchum, I will feel awe from the bottom of my heart, because to me, they will always be stars. But when I interview those who are When I grew up and became star actors, they were still ordinary people.”
Woody nodded vigorously.
"I feel the same way. If I meet Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep, I will be shocked by their talents, but I will not be in awe. But when I am a kid who likes to watch movies At that time, Van Johnson was already a movie star. When he came to the set and started working, he became part of my personal history. I was too shy to have a conversation with him. I mean, I leave Fan. Johnson & Johnson is only three feet away! When I was a kid, he allowed me to get rid of the tedious life. He used to sit in the cockpit of an airplane or go with Esther Williams Argentina-She is also very likable. Therefore, getting the actor to fully identify with his role is one of the themes discussed in The Purple Rose of Cairo."
That's why Woody Allen is just like that. He was just called one of the most important directors of his time, but he was afraid to talk to Van Johnson. I asked him how he saw himself as a director and who he would compare himself to.
"I think of directors like Ingmar Bergman," Allen said. "Of course I am not comparing our works. God is on top. I mean, Bergman is someone who can make two or three films in a year. Some are great, some are not. He works non-stop. This is what I want to do. I want to get rid of the feeling that every movie is a "big event". I just want to make a movie, do an experiment, if it succeeds, good, if not, then start the next one. "
"There is a phenomenon in the film industry now that a project has become a way of life. Producers and screenwriters meet, fly from New York to Los Angeles, set up offices, build cash flow, accept interviews, and it takes three years to make a movie. I don’t work like that. I have a small dark office. All the money is on the screen. I pay a relatively low salary. My goal is to keep concocting a series of works.”
"This makes you one of the most prolific directors in America."
"Yes. You know, I think they opened the Pandora's Box when they were making "Star Wars." Suddenly, people learned that they could imitate certain rules created by clever directors, and then they could earn money. Millions of dollars. Some film critics and national magazines have also joined this trend, creating a huge trend where everyone is talking about the same movie and promoting it everywhere."
He seemed to be saying that all of this was the exact opposite of the movie he wanted to make in his dim little office.
"Do you know what is really bothering me?" he said. "Today’s Sunday edition of The New York Times has an article about the videotape revolution. People will rent movies to take home to watch instead of going to the cinema. This is a sad thing. I will always miss the red plush Carpet, dressed up, can’t wait to see a new movie. Remember that feeling? The outdoor weather is 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you walk in the dazzling sunlight, and then spend 20 cents to buy a ticket to sit in the cool In the cinema, Louis Hayward is on the screen, and you look up at these gods, as if you have walked from one world to another."
"Yeah," I replied. "I remember." And I was thinking, which one would be the greater miracle? Can movie characters get out of the screen, or can we walk into the movie?
View more about The Purple Rose of Cairo reviews
