The Purple Rose of Cairo is an award-winning 1985 film written and directed by Woody Allen. It tells the story of a film character who leaves the film and enters the real world. The Purple Rose of Cairo is the name of a film-within-the-film, with Jeff Daniels playing the dual roles of Tom, a character in the film-within-the-film, and Gil, the actor who portrays Tom. Tom literally breaks the fourth wall, emerging from the black-and-white into the colorful real world on the other side of the cinema's screen.