The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Mia Farrow: Cecilia

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Cecilia : I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.

• Tom Baxter : Cecilia, it's clear how miserable you are with your husband. And if he hits you again, you tell me. I'd be forced to knock his teeth out.

  Cecilia : I don't think that'd be such a good idea. He's big.

  Tom Baxter : I'm sorry. It's written into my character to do it, so I do it.

• Tom Baxter : I guess I have to get a job.

  Cecilia : That's not gonna be so easy either - right now the whole country's out of work.

  Tom Baxter : Well, then, we'll live on love. We'll have to make some concessions, but so what? We'll have each other.

  Cecilia : That's movie talk.

• Tom Baxter : [pauses after kissing Cecilia]  Where's the fade-out?

  Cecilia : What?

  Tom Baxter : Always when the kissing gets hot and heavy just before the lovemaking, there's a fadeout.

  Cecilia : Then what?

  Tom Baxter : Then we're making love in some private, perfect place.

  Cecilia : That's not how it happens here.

  Tom Baxter : What, there's no fade out?

  Cecilia : No, but when you kissed me, I felt like my heart faded out. I closed my eyes, and I was in some private place.

  Tom Baxter : How fascinating. You make love without fading out?

  Cecilia : Yes.

  Tom Baxter : Well, I can't wait to see this!

• Tom Baxter : Slip away from your husband tonight. Meet me here. I'll wait. I want to learn about the real world with you.

  Cecilia : I can't.

  Tom Baxter : Well, look at it this way. How many times is a man so taken with a woman that he walks off the screen to get her?

• Cecilia : It's been hard for everyone. You know, living in a world with no jobs and wars. You probably never even heard of the Great War.

  Tom Baxter : I'm sorry. I missed it.

  Cecilia : Yeah. People get old and sick and never find true love.

  Tom Baxter : You know, where I come from, people don't disappoint. They're consistent. They're always - reliable.

  Cecilia : You don't find that kind in real life.

• Tom Baxter : You look so beautiful in this light.

  Cecilia : But you're not real.

  Tom Baxter : [Tom kisses Cecilia]  Was that real enough for you?

  Cecilia : You kiss perfectly. It's what I dreamed kissing would be like.

  Tom Baxter : Come away with me to Cairo.

  Cecilia : Cairo?

  Tom Baxter : We'll live in the desert. Oh, the blue-gold light of sunset falling over your hair...

  Cecilia : I'm sorry. I'm a little tipsy - from the cham -

  [Tom leans in for another kiss] 

• Gil Shepherd : He's fictional. You wanna waste time with a fictional character? I mean, you're a sweet girl. You deserve a human.

  Cecilia : But Tom's perfect.

  Gil Shepherd : Yeah, but he's not real. What good is perfect if the man's not real?

  Tom Baxter : I can learn to be real. It's easy. You know, there's nothing to it. Being real comes very naturally to me.

  Gil Shepherd : You can't learn to be real. It's like learning to be a midget. Its not a thing you can learn. Some of us are real, some are not.

• Cecilia : Last week I was unloved. Now, two people love me - and it's the same two people.

  The Countess : Go with the real guy, honey, we're limited.

  Rita : Go with Tom! He's got no flaws!

  Delilah : Go with somebody, child, 'cause I's gettin' bored.

• Gil Shepherd : Where's Tom?

  Cecilia : Why?

  Gil Shepherd : Well, he's my character. I created him.

  Cecilia : Didn't the man who wrote the movie do that?

• Cecilia's Sister : The one that I liked is "Okay, America!"

  Cecilia : Oh, yeah! I saw that twice. That was great! When she threatens to kill Lew Ayers.

  Cecilia's Sister : I love Lew Ayers looks! Do you think he's married?

  Cecilia : What do you mean married? Are you crazy? Yes, he's married to Ginger Rogers! God! They got married on a boat off the island of Catalina. They live in Beverly Hills and sometimes holiday in Spain. He used to be married to Lola Lane, but, Ginger's better for him. She's so lovely.

• Cecilia : You never pay attention to me any more. So I thought, if we could go to the movies tonight, you know, you could forget your troubles a little.

  Monk : Forget my troubles. Cecilia, you like sitting through that junk, okay? I'm gonna shoot crap, okay? Go to the movie by yourself.

• [first lines] 

  Theater Manager : Oh Cecilia, be careful! You all right?

  Cecilia : Yeah.

  Theater Manager : You're gonna like this one, it's better than last week's, more romantic.

• Cecilia : I hear there's some jobs opening up over at the ice factory.

  Monk : No, there was nothin'. I was there.

  Cecilia : Yeah?

  Monk : Yeah. I was there. Right.

  Cecilia : Harriet Rufus says all you guys do all day is just pitch pennies and make passes at the girls who walk by.

  Monk : Harriet Rufus is a douche bag.

• Cecilia's Sister : So what were you thinking about?

  Cecilia : Oh, a penthouse. The desert. Kissing on a dance floor.

  Cecilia's Sister : So you did go to the movies last night after all?

  Cecilia : The people were so beautiful. They spoke so cleverly and do such romantic things.

• Cecilia : You don't love me.

  Monk : Baby, come on.

  Cecilia : You don't. You treat me bad and you beat up on me.

  Monk : Look, I hit you when you get out of line. I never just hit you, I warn you first. And then if you don't shape up, you get whacked.

• Tom Baxter : ...Here I am now. I'm on the verge of a madcap - Manhattan - weekend. My God, you must really love this picture.

  Cecilia : Me?

  Tom Baxter : You've been here all day. And I've seen you here twice before.

  Cecilia : You mean me?

  Tom Baxter : Yes, you! You! This is the fifth time you're seeing this.

  Rita : Henry, come here, quickly.

  Tom Baxter : I gotta speak to you.

  [walks from the film, through the screen, into the movie theater] 

  Henry : Listen, old sport, you're on the wrong side.

  Rita : Tom, get back here! We're in the middle of a story.

  Tom Baxter : You go on. I want to have a look around. You go on without me.

• Cecilia : Shouldn't you be getting back?

  Tom Baxter : I wanna live. I wanna be free to make my own choices.

• Tom Baxter : It's beautiful. But I'm not sure exactly what it is.

  Cecilia : Oh, this is a church. You do believe in God, don't you?

  Tom Baxter : Meaning?

  Cecilia : The reason for everything, the world, the universe.

  Tom Baxter : Oh, I think I know what you mean. The two men who wrote "The Purple Rose of Cairo." Irving Sachs and R.H. Levine, they're writers who collaborate on films.

  Cecilia : No. No, I'm talking about something much bigger than that. No, think for a minute. A reason for everything. Otherwise it'd be like a movie with no point - and no happy ending.

• Cecilia : You should do a musical, really.

  Gil Shepherd : You know, I did one bit in one once. It's...

  Cecilia : I know. I saw "Dancing Doughboys."

  Gil Shepherd : "Dancing Doughboys." You remembered!

  Cecilia : That was great. I remember you turned to Ina Beasley and said, "I won't be going south with you this winter."

  Gil Shepherd : That's - right! Right! "I won't be going south with you this winter. We have a little score to settle on the other side of the Atlantic."

  Cecilia : "Does this mean I won't be seeing you ever again?"

  Gil Shepherd : "Well, 'ever' is a long time."

  Cecilia : "When you leave, don't look back."

  Gil Shepherd : You remember that perfectly. And then I took her in my arms and I kissed her, knowing it was for the last time. God, you're beautiful, Cecilia.

  Cecilia : Was it fun, kissing Ina Beasley?

  Gil Shepherd : Oh, you know, it was a movie kiss. We professionals can put that stuff on just like that.

  Cecilia : It looked like you loved her.

  [Gil kisses Cecilia] 

• [last lines] 

  Theater Manager : Cecilia, what are you doing here?

  Cecilia : Meeting Gil Shepherd.

  Theater Manager : They all gone.

  Cecilia : Th - whaddaya, whaddaya mean?

  Theater Manager : They went back to Hollywood.

  Cecilia : Gil too?

  Theater Manager : Mr Shepherd, yeah. Soon as Tom Baxter went back up on the movie screen - couldn't wait to get outta here. He said this was a close call for his career. I think he's gonna play Charles Lindbergh.

  [pause] 

  Theater Manager : Don't forget, Cecilia, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers start today.

• Cecilia : Ginger used to be married to Jack Culpepper, who I think took out Ruth Chatterton before she married George Brent.

• Diner Boss : Ladies, there's a depression on. There's a lot of other people that would like this job if you can't handle it.

  Cecilia : I can handle it. It's okay.

• Cecilia : You wanna go to the movies tonight? There's an early show.

  Monk : I can't. I can't.

  Cecilia : How come?

  Monk : The guys are comin' over tonight.

  Cecilia : Again?

  Monk : What, you don't like it?

  Cecilia : Well, all you do is drink and play dice and I wind up getting smacked.

  Monk : I gotta get even, don't I?

• Cecilia : There's a new movie at the Jewel.

  Cecilia's Sister : I didn't even get to see last week's.

  Cecilia : Oh, you missed it? It was wonderful. I love Jane Froman. James Melton plays - first, he's a hotel porter. Then he becomes a radio singer and then an opera singer. The music was just beautiful.

• Tom Baxter : Let's get out of here and go somewhere where we can talk.

  Cecilia : But you're in the movie.

  Tom Baxter : Wrong! Cecilia, I'm free. After 2,000 performances of the same monotonous routine, I'm free.

• Tom Baxter : She's not for me. She's too bony.

  Cecilia : Kitty Haynes, the nightclub singer, is bony?

• Cecilia : Even though you're not the main character, you're the one you look at.

  Tom Baxter : You don't think I'm the main character?

  Cecilia : Oh, no, I didn't mean it that way. No, I think you're positively essential. In fact, every time I saw the movie, I kept thinking "Tom Baxter's so handsome."

• Cecilia : You're not just a pretty face, you're also a peach of an actor. Really. I've seen you. I've seen you a lot. You've got something.

  Gil Shepherd : Is that your opinion?

  Cecilia : Sure, and I see all the movies. You've got - oh, how can I describe it? You've got a magical glow.

  Gil Shepherd : Oh, boy. Oh, oh. To hear that from a real person. That is just - it's not one of those movie colony bimbos, you know, with the fancy dresses, filling you full of hot air.

• Hooker 2 : Don't be offended. I didn't mean to...

  Cecilia : I'm not offended. I'm just confused. I'm married. I just met a wonderful man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything.