Shadows and Fog (1991)

A Brilliant Conflict

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

If you're a film student, you've got a much better chance of liking this movie. I've read that Woody Allen made this as an homage to German Expressionist filmmakers, like F.W. Murnau. It's a black-and-white movie, utilizing the two elements in the title, Shadows and Fog, to make the scenes extra spooky and European-looking. For the rest of you out there, this probably won't be your favorite Woody Allen movie. The plot is jumbled and hap-hazard, with a bookie in charge of solving a string of murders and a travelling circus coming into town.All in all, this one's a little sinister and confusing, but if you like Woody Allen's darker movies, or you just like renting all his movies no matter how good they are, you might want to rent this one. Just don't expect a joke fest. The famous faces you'll see in this one besides Woody himself and his sweetie-pie at the time, Mia Farrow, are David Ogden Stiers, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, James Rebhorn, John Malkovich, Donald Pleasence, Madonna, Wallace Shawn, Julie Kavner, John Cusack, Fred Gwynne, Lily Tomlin, William H. Macy, Philip Bosco, Kate Nelligan, and John C. Reilly.

Shadows and Fog, one of Woody Allen's best films, is a successful experiment in combining Kafka-like surrealism (Orson Welles' The Trial seems like a clear influence,) typical Allen neurotic comedy, and film noir. The film overcomes its influences to make a profound statement about the human predicament in a way that is not at all pretentious. Allen stars as Max Kleinman (Max = big, Kleinman = small person,) a skittish coward who is drafted by local vigilantes in a plan to catch a murderer (Lang's M is also a clear influence,) but ends up wandering around in a literal and existential fog complaining, "I can't find out my role in the plan." The excellent black and white photography is just right for the mood. The movie gains extra interest from a number of star cameos, including Madonna, Lily Tomlin, John Malkovich, and Jody Foster. I saw it on the adequate MGM Home Entertainment DVD; if there is a better Blu-Ray available, it would be worth looking for.

Over his career, Woody Allen has been hit or miss with the artistic expression that starts off on the page with the benefit of the doubt that he'll come up with something fantastic. Often, his films are unique in style, but empty in substance. "Shadows and Fog" is a mediocre mixture of Allen's best and worst comedies, sometimes stopping dead in its tracks, yet never completely falling into the muck its characters must in this really foggy film.It appears that there is a serial killer about, and Woody, a nebbish paranoiac, mixes up with carnival sword swallower Mia Farrow who discovers her partner boyfriend cheating on her with gypsy fortune teller Madonna. She ends up in Kathy Bates' brothel, eventually meeting up with Woody who ends up being a suspect for being the killer.A film should be more than just art for art's sake, and the way this flows ends up being massively mixed up. There are far too many characters, stunt casted with Allen regulars and one time featured stars, such as Lily Tomlin and Jodie Foster as hookers. You spend more time identifying what celebrity has just popped up and how they fit in. I enjoy the shadowy and foggy photography, as well as the bouncy carousel music. Allen provides just too much of everything, and it ends up just being a messed up piece of art where canvas seems to be holding too much. the

An interesting attempt at sending-up Kafka and German Expressionism (and 1930s filmmakers such as Fritz Lang) by writer-director-star Woody Allen, a patchwork paranoia comedy in black-and-white about a schnook in a small village who is nonsensically drawn into the search for a marauding strangler. Ultimately, however, the picture plays more like a rehashing of "After Hours" from Martin Scorsese--right down to the gimmick of having big-name stars in cameo roles. This hamlet milquetoast roams the gloomy streets, crossing paths with a number of eccentric characters, carnies and whores, few of whom have been really thought out by the writer. Madonna puts off some heat as a circus performer, but a prostitute ensemble featuring Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin, Anne Lange and Jodie Foster falls flat. Mia Farrow is stuck once again with her "Hannah"-like impulses to nurture against all obstacles, but John Cusack brings some nervous angst and passion playing a customer at the bordello. As an actor, Allen is affable as usual (he's a mild neurotic, talkative yet flexible), but cast members John Malkovich, Kate Nelligan and Fred Gwynne--among others--are lost in the shuffle. Too many shadows and too much fog turns the movie into an experiment from the filmmaker, a holding-pattern release; a curious, misfired effort. ** from ****