The discussions about transparency and immediacy in Remediation’s chapter about film reminded me of a 1985 Woody Allen movie, The Purple Rose of Cairo. The film, set in 1930s Depression Era America, follows Cecilia who is suffering from the financial and emotional effects of the Great Depression. She goes to the same movie theater daily to watch a movie about the extravagant lives of the movie’s cast of characters. For Cecilia, this fantasy life becomes reality when one of the characters, Tom Baxter, played by Jeff Daniels, steps out of the movie and into the theater, singling her out because she has viewed the movie so many times. Not surprisingly, youtube has a clip of this very scene:
The Purple Rose of Cairo sort of speaks to this idea of immediacy in a very different way. It shows the way many Americans immersed themselves in film during this difficult time period in order to escape the reality of their real world situation. And later in the film, Tom Baxter returns to his movie and takes Cecilia with him such that the story of the film becomes literally transparent for her.
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