Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Purple Rose of Cairo Blu-ray Movie Review

"I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 7, 2024

One of Woody Allen's most overlooked films is also one of his best: The Purple Rose of Cairo, a romantic daydream of a delightful romp that drifts far, far into meta waters with a film-within-a-film starring Jeff Bridges in (if my count is correct) three separate versions of his character. I've never been a big Woody Allen fan, even before his alleged crimes dropped him square in the middle of the debate surrounding whether a piece of art inherits the sins of its artist, but this charming, light-footed rom-com is a breezy, effortless treat of a gentle-souled film that offers as much heart as it does heartache, imagination and sad inevitabilities. It's a movie about watching movies, but more so adopting a beloved film as your own; the audience laying claim to the art the moment it leaves the artist's control. We build bonds with these favorites, lifelong relationships with the movies that connect with us the most. Allen aims to explore the space between a theater seat and the screen, and succeeds, delivering a flight of fancy that's both whimsical and touching.

Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a waitress in New Jersey during the Depression, is searching for an escape from her dreary life. Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) is a dashing young archaeologist in the film "The Purple Rose of Cairo." After losing her job and leaving her abusive, out-of-work husband Monk (Danny Aiello), Cecilia goes to see the film to raise her spirits. Much to her surprise, Tom Baxter walks off the screen and into her life. There's only one problem: Tom isn't real, at least not in the sense that he can forever reside off the screen. Or can he? Others can see and interact with the fictional man just fine, calling his magical permanence into question. Meanwhile, Hollywood is up in arms when they discover that numerous Tom Baxters are trying to leave the screen in other theaters. Will Tom return and finish the film or will he decide to stay in the real world with Cecilia?

Click here to read Jeffrey Kauffman's 2015 review of the film, which he says is amazing in "how hilarious it is while also being one of Allen’s most melancholic formulations." Adding, "Allen’s final act of defiance, and one which might bode well for anyone still wrestling with real life intrusions, shows that escape into Hollywood artifice is seemingly inescapable.

The Purple Rose of Cairo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My video score is slightly lower than that of my colleague's impression of the Sandpiper edition's 2015 Screen Archives Entertainment Exclusive counterpart. Both were more than likely minted from the same source, but time, or my personal eye, left me a bit more disappointed, even though Sandpiper's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer still offers a solid presentation of the film. Colors are lovely, as are the black and white tones of the classic film world-within-a-world. Contrast is quite striking, black levels deep, and delineation fairly revealing. Grain is intact as well, and detail is decidedly decent, with (mostly) clean edges and some nice texturing that has been preserved beneath the grain field. The Purple Rose of Cairo is still rather soft, though, on the whole, and the use of artificial sharpening is both a blessing and a curse. Hailing from the mid-2010s, it isn't as invisible a tool as it is now, and underlying detail can grow a touch smeary. Still, there isn't much in the way of banding, artifacting or other issues -- aside from the persistent presence of tiny specks, scratches and specks (some intentional, as in the black-and-white film world; some unintentional, leaking over into the real world) -- and the encode is, by and large, technically proficient.

The Purple Rose of Cairo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Purple Rose of Cairo features a solid but underwhelming DTS-HD Master Audio mono mix that shows its age and '80s pedigree. Thin and canned, its sound design is all at once evocative of the 1930s and lacking when attempting to create a convincing world (or worlds as it were). That would be all well and good in the black-and-white film-within-a-film reality -- imagine the audio switching between mono and 5.1 as Cecilia steps in and out of non-fictional and fictional universes -- but it doesn't do much in terms of enhancing the experience in our world. Still, prioritization doesn't falter, fidelity is decent for a film of the era, and music has welcome energy and presence.

The Purple Rose of Cairo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras sadly.

The Purple Rose of Cairo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a delightful lesser known Woody Allen film that manages to escape association with Allen and makes it easy to separate art from artist (for those who struggle to do so). Farrow and Daniels are excellent, the comedy is on point, and the meta nature of the story is smart enough to avoid "it was all a dream" eye rolls and embrace the fantasy fully to its inevitable end. Sandpiper's Blu-ray, meanwhile, is pretty good thanks to a solid AV presentation. Extras are lacking but that almost always seems to be the case with Sandpiper's catalog releases.