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Example research essay topic: Wanted To Show Fantasy And Reality - 1,544 words

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"A plethora of people have written about Woody Allen", John Last said "and they either like him or dislike him. But no one has yet managed, I think, to interpret him. " Woody Allen has been revered as one of the brilliant artists of the twentieth century and at the same time called a pervert. His works have been called jokes but also masterpieces. Many critics have tried to explain why Allen writes the things he writes but not one has had success.

The drive and brilliance of Allen has not been understood yet. Seeing his movies gives us two opposing views. is obsessed with death and sex while the other is the serious artist commenting on and criticizing our society. The latter view nonetheless there. Through different film techniques Allen mocks our society and film industry without us even realizing. to do this is the film within a film.

In movies such as The Purple Rose of Cairo, Play It Again Sam and Hannah and Her Sisters Allen uses this technique to show us his opinion on a particular subject, and also uses it as a driving force behind his movies. The most notable use of film within a film in Allen's movies occurs in, The Purple Rose of Cairo. The time is The town. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) is the central figure in the movie.

She is married to an abusive gambler and heavy drinker. To cope and escape her problems, Cecilia constantly goes to a nearby movie theater called The Jewel. There she spends hours on end watching movies, sometimes the same one more than three times. When she gets fired one day from her job, she goes to The Jewel and watches a movie called The Purple Rose of Cairo "at least five times" (Blake 117). On her fifth time watching the movie, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) jumps out from the movie and enters the theater telling Cecilia that he has noted her faithful presence and is attracted to her.

As they leave the theater together, the actors in the movie aimlessly wonder around bewildered by what had just transpired. Deeply concerned is the real life actor of Tom Baxter, Gil Shephard because this misfortune could "wreck his blossoming career" (Kauffmann 37). To add to the trouble, other cities have reported that the Baxter character has stepped out of The Purple Rose of Cairo in various theaters and has disappeared. Why would Woody Allen create such a unrealistic movie critics called "the most innovative single film during his period of startling originality"? (Blake 116) Well, in his own words he wanted to show, "the difference between fantasy and reality and how seductive fantasy is and how, unfortunately, we must live with reality, and how painful that can be" (Girgus 70). In making The Purple Rose of Cairo, Allen wanted to show us the way film influences our opinion of real life experiences. This is portrayed through one of Allen's major themes: "the sovereignty of fantasy even in the humblest." (Kauffmann 38).

Cecilia's desire and imagination are so strong that they penetrate the boundary of fantasy and reality to withdraw Tom Baxter from his cinematic world into our real one. "Like a modern-day Pinocchio, Tom is brought to life by the loneliness and suffering of another" (Lee 178). Her imagination is so strong that when Baxter comes out from the screen, he comes out complete, affecting everyone. He doesn't come out as some ghost leaving his shell on the screen. Nor can only Cecilia hear or see him.

More, her fantasy affects the lives of other people including the audience, the manager, the producer and the Even more than fantasy, Allen focuses on the power of movies to create an escape from the real world. It is no wonder Allen picked one of the hardest times to live in American history as a setting to the movie. The power of movies, Allen is saying, is so powerful that it can obliterate the pain associated with something as distressing as The Great Depression, even if only temporarily. As a child, Allen would cut school and spend hours in the movie house lost in the... I lived in Brooklyn, and on these hot, hazy summer days when it was humid andy you couldn't move and nobody had anything to do, there were thousands of movie houses around, and you could walk in for 25 cents.

Suddenly it was cool and air-conditioned and dark, and there was candy and popcorn. You could sit down and there would be two features. And you would see pirates and you would be on the sea. And then you would be in a penthouse in Manhattan with beautiful people. The next day you'd go to another movie house, and you'd be in a battle with the Nazis and in the second feature you'd be together with the Marx Brothers. It was just a total, total joy!

The greatest kind of tranquilizer and embalmment you could think of. (Bjorkman 149) Cecilia parallels this in The Purple Rose of Cairo. We constantly see her trying to find an extra minute to sneak into the theater. At work, she is screamed at by the customers and her boss because she is either daydreaming or fantasizing about movies with her sister. We get the sense that work is an impediment to her movie going. "She is an addict using Hollywood as a substitute for her miserable life" (Girgus 75).

At the theater, Cecilia thoroughly concentrates on the task at hand, the movie. Mesmerized by the movie, only the motion of her hand from her popcorn basket to her mouth gives us evidence that she is still alive. The movie theater is a sanctuary for her not only because it's an escape but also because it gives her hope (Bjorkman 51). When Cecilia sat at the movies, she did not consider what happens to be fictional.

On the contrary, she considered movies as the life of other people, luckier people, people that live far from her poor hometown in New Jersey. This nativity explains her decision at the end by choosing Gil Shepard over Tom Baxter. By picking reality over fiction, she expected to live with a man in reality, though a fictional life. This new choice brings up another theme in The Purple Rose of Cairo, fiction versus reality. Not only does this theme require that the two mediums coexist but also that they oppose and contest each other.

Cecilia wants to live in the fantasy world while Tom wants to come to the real world. When Tom Baxter comes off the screen, he acts with the same personality as he does in the movie. This makes Tom a nave, childlike character. In a scene when Gil Shepard confronts Tom, Tom expresses his opinion about realism. "I don't want to be in film anymore, I love Cecilia." When Cecilia reciprocates Tom's feelings, Gil responds to Cecilia, "How can you love him, he's not real. "I can learn to be real", Tom says, defending himself. "You can't learn to be real", Gil Shepard says, "like you can't learn to be a midget. Some of us are real, some are not. " Like Tom, Cecilia dreams of being on the other side of the screen. At one point, Tom decides to take her on a date into the movie with him. "The first words that come out of her mouth as she enters the screen are, "I feel like I'm walking on fluffy air. " The plot of the inner movie resumes, temporarily, with Cecilia now a part of it.

But shortly after Cecilia enters, Tom decides to forget about the plot and take her for a night on the town. At the end of the night, while they " re at Tom's apartment, Gil shows up at The Jewel. Cecilia exits the movie world to join Gil while Tom follows her. Gil proclaims something new to Cecilia: he has fallen in love with her. Now Cecilia is confused.

A week ago, she led a loveless life but now, two men love her, "and they " re both the same person" (Cecilia, The Purple Rose of Cairo). Everyone, including the movie cast, agree that Cecilia must choose either Gil or Tom. Tom says, "I'm honest, dependable, courageous, romantic and a great kisser. " Gil simply responds, "Yeah, but I'm real. " Cecilia sides with the latter. She now understands that she does not belong in the movie world just as Tom does not belong in the real one. She comforts Tom by saying, "In your world, things have a way of working out right. " At those words, Tom sadly stumbles into the movie while Cecilia goes packing for Hollywood. On her return, she finds that Gil left without her.

Betrayed, she goes back to her abusive life and relationship. The final betrayal is Woody's comment on his view of reality. I think what it boils down to, really, is that I hate reality. And, you know, unfortunately it's the only place where we can get a good steak dinner. It's very seductive, fantasy, but we can't live there permanently. (Bjorkman 50) The last and most intriguing point that Allen wants us to grasp i...


Free research essays on topics related to: fantasy and reality, woody allen, wanted to show, real life, movie theater

Research essay sample on Wanted To Show Fantasy And Reality

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