Idealism and Subject Identification

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) directed by Woody Allen is a quirky and heartwarming meditation on being a cinephile. Mia Farrow plays Cecelia, a struggling waitress who comes home to an apathetic and neanderthal for a husband, as if the Great Depression wasn't enough of a burden for her. Her only escape from her troublesome life is the cinema. The cinema then returns that love by releasing a fictional character, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), from the screen. This film is a great example of Hollywood's idealistic display of life. It shows the relationships we hold for the characters of a non-existent world that gives a sense of fulfillment even though the cinema is built on illusion.

Cecelia eventually becomes the focus of Tom's love and the two fall immediately for each other. Yet Gil Shepard (Jeff Daniels) comes to town to banish his shadow of a personality back to the screen from whence it came. The love Cecelia shows for Tom becomes the love she shows for Gil, skewering any sense the girl had for real love and illusions. The magic of Hollywood has become so ingrained in her mind that she is unable to tell real love apart from an illusion of love.

Cecelia feels fulfilled when she goes to the movies as does everyone else, yet when Tom's character exits the screen, Cecelia is satisfied while others demand their money back, because the illusion has been destroyed, or at least proven to be real. The audience is aware of the illusion that is the cinema, yet when it becomes truly real, they demand their money back. The fulfillment involved in the cinema is an acknowledgement of the absence of the real in the cinema. When the absence is effaced, the sense of fulfillment becomes denied and the illusion destroyed.