Shadows and Fog

Plot synopsis:
A Kafkaesque story set in a dark, nameless city in a time that might be the 1920s or '30s. A killer (Michael Kirby) walks the alleys and underground passages. He corners a man and strangles him with piano wire.Max Kleinman (Woody Allen) is roused from a sound sleep in the middle of the night by a group of his fellow citizens who want Kleinman to help them catch the killer. Despite his protests of uselessness, the vigilantes tell Kleinman to get dressed and meet them outside. Kleinman's landlady (Camille Saviola) comes in to help him, suppressing his objections as she bustles about. He worries that he might run into his boss, who is considering him for a promotion, and make a bad impression. She suggests that he marry her, which would make him half owner of the rooming house so he would no longer need his job. Before he goes she gives him some pepper and tells him to blow it in the killer's eyes if he needs to get away. When Kleinman comes outside, the vigilantes have gone. He wanders around looking for them.Irmy (Mia Farrow), a sword-swallower with the circus, and Paul (John Malkovich) the clown, her lover, are talking in their caravan after the show. Irmy reminds Paul of their plans to quit the circus, get married and have children. He replies that he's an artist and needs to concentrate on his work until he can make a name for himself. She says that if she doesn't have a baby soon, she might not be able to, and starts to cry. The clown tries to comfort her. Then he says he'll talk to the head of the circus and goes out to find him. On the way he's distracted by Marie (Madonna), the tightrope walker, and goes into her caravan, where her husband the strongman is asleep. But Irmy sees him go in and comes raging to the door, catching the couple in flagrante. She's furious; she pushes Paul around and tells him she doesn't want his baby.Kleinman stops to see the doctor (Donald Pleasence) in hopes of learning where to find the vigilantes. The doctor has performed autopsies on the killer's victims -- apparently there have been several, and some of them are still lying on the doctor's examining tables. He believes that if he can dissect the killer's brain he will be able to identify the physical manifestation of evil. All this makes Kleinman even more nervous than usual, and the doctor gives him a glass of sherry to calm him down. He is surprised and disapproving when he learns that Kleinman doesn't know his part in the plan to catch the killer, and urges him to find out quickly what's expected of him. Kleinman goes back out into the foggy night. Shortly afterward the killer comes in. The doctor gets out of the house, but the killer pursues him and the doctor is caught in a blind alley and strangled.Irmy, carrying a suitcase -- running away from the circus! -- crosses a bridge and comes across a prostitute (Lily Tomlin). They chat and Irmy confesses she has nowhere to sleep. The prostitute offers her a bed at the whorehouse, where the other prostitutes (Kathy Bates, Anne Lange, and Jodie Foster) feed Irmy and make her feel welcome by talking about themselves and their work as they eat. One (Lily Tomlin) explains how she came to be a whore: her husband needed an operation and they were broke, so she sold her body to pay the doctor. When her husband found out how she raised the money, he kicked her out. When the customers arrive, the prostitutes leave the kitchen to greet them. A student called Jack (John Cusack), a regular, catches sight of Irmy and suddenly no one else will do. He offers more and more money, despite being told that she isn't an employee, eventually reaching the huge sum of $700 -- his gambling winnings for the night. Irmy accepts and they repair to a back room.Kleinman goes to the police station to protest the arrest of the Mintz family, who are considered undesirable, on no particular charge (though one of the cops feels that the arrest will be justified post facto if the killings stop while the family is locked up). Kleinman gets nowhere with his protest, but learns that the doctor has been murdered and that the police know the killer entered the doctor's laboratory. They have a glass they believe bears the killer's fingerprints. Kleinman realizes that the prints on the glass are his.Irmy and Jack, having concluded their business, exchange compliments as they dress -- they both enjoyed the experience.Irmy is hauled into the police station; the police have raided the whorehouse and arrested her because she doesn't have a prostitute's license. Irmy loudly protests that she isn't a prostitute, she works at the circus. They don't believe her; if she's not a prostitute, where did she get $700? She pays a $50 fine and is released just after Kleinman, having swiped the incriminating sherry glass, slips out. He offers to escort her. They encounter a vigilante who (after castigating Kleinman for not knowing his role in the plan) insists that Kleinman help him capture a man who is lurking in an alley. Kleinman is unable to wriggle out of it and shamelessly hides behind Irmy when she offers to help. The man in the alley, when captured, turns out to be Kleinman's boss, Mr. Paulsen (Philip Bosco); he was peering through a window at a woman who was undressing, and he's not pleased to be caught. He tells Kleinman he won't be getting the promotion he was hoping for; it sounds likely that Kleinman will lose his job.In search of Irmy, Paul wanders into a bar, where he gets to talking with Jack. He's flabbergasted when Jack confides that he just paid $700 to have sex with a sword swallower -- who is clearly Irmy -- and it was marvelous for both of them. ("I think she's got a lover who doesn't service her too well -- some poor clown... I gave her the best time she's had in years.")As Irmy and Kleinman approach a church, Irmy explains that she wants to donate her remaining prostitution earnings to charity. She asks Max to take the $650 into the church for her. Inside, he finds a priest (Josef Sommer) and a police official (Ira Wheeler) engaged in making a list; they tell him to go away and become irritated when he diffidently calls their attention to his errand. When the priest grasps the size of the donation (and the cash), though, he makes the policeman remove Kleinman's name from the list.Back in the street, Kleinman and Irmy meet a woman (Eszter Balint) who asks them for help. She has a baby (Rebecca Gibson) but no money, no food, and no family or friends to help her. At Irmy's request, Max goes back to the church and takes back half of her donation so they can give it to the destitute woman. The priest and the cop put Kleinman's name back on their list, but he brings out $300 and gives it to the grateful mother.Looking for a place for Irmy to spend the rest of the night, Kleinman takes her to the house of his fiancée Eve (Kate Nelligan) and asks Eve if Irmy can sleep on her couch. Eve, annoyed at being woken up and entirely unsympathetic to Irmy, refuses. She adds ominously that she'll speak to Max about this later. As they walk away, Max admits that Eve is a cold fish. He and Irmy walk to what seems to be a river embankment and stop to look at the stars. An acquaintance of Kleinman's discovers them and reveals that there are at least three vigilante factions, and the leader of the group that rousted Kleinman out of bed has been killed by one of the other factions. The man tries to force Max (at knifepoint) to join his own vigilante group. During the discussion Kleinman's original group shows up, and everyone is suspicious of Kleinman. Irmy is supportive, but can't help much. A crowd approaches, bringing with it a psychic called Spiro (Charles Cragin) who claims to discern secrets by literally sniffing them out. He applies his nose to Max and indicates that Max has something hidden in his suit coat. A cop comes up and extracts the doctor's sherry glass, which the crowd takes as evidence that Kleinman is the killer. Kleinman escapes by throwing his landlady's pepper in his captors' eyes and running off.With the mob in hot pursuit, Kleinman runs to the dressmaking shop of his former fiancée Alma (Julie Kavner), who lets him in reluctantly and throws him out again after a brief review of the circumstances of their break-up (he failed to show up at the wedding and was found having sex with her sister in a broomcloset).Irmy, left on her own, is jumped by Paul, who is furious about her infidelity. As they argue, they hear a woman scream. In an alley, they find the body of the woman with the baby to whom Irmy gave money earlier in the evening. Paul finds the baby nearby. Irmy immediately decides that they must keep her, as she knows the baby has no one to care for her. Paul tries to talk her out of it, objecting (among other points) that they can't afford a baby. Irmy finds her $300 on the corpse. When she tells Paul she's going to raise the baby whether he helps or not, he comes around.Kleinman is welcomed at the whorehouse, where Jack is chatting in a philosophical vein with the prostitutes. He draws Kleinman into the discussion, but one of the women (Jodie Foster) draws him out again to take him upstairs. Kleinman can't get it up and leaves in a hurry when another whore (Lily Tomlin) tells him that some men are looking for him. Dodging the torch-wielding mob still searching the streets for him, he runs into his workplace rival, Simon Carr (Wallace Shawn). Carr tells Kleinman that Mr. Paulsen has given Carr the promotion, and repeats some highly unflattering remarks Paulsen made about Kleinman. Kleinman asks if Carr has seen a woman matching Irmy's description, and Carr says he saw her heading toward the circus with a man and a child.In their caravan, Irmy and Paul are feeding and fussing over the baby. Paul has become very protective of her and is full of plans: he wants her to go to school; he doesn't want her to grow up as a circus gypsy; he wants to have another baby so she won't grow up alone. Irmy is delighted, particularly by the last plan.She goes outside to get some water and is stalked by the killer. Max defends her, giving her time to escape. Then, having drawn the (slow-moving) killer's attention, he runs away, fetching up in the big top. The tent is deserted except for Armstead the magician (Kenneth Mars), who is getting drunk to celebrate the circus's closing performance. Kleinman gushes that he is an amateur magician and Armstead is his idol. When the killer enters the tent, Armstead, saying something about a mirror illusion, calls Kleinman over to a large mirror in the center of the ring. He steps into it and urges Max to follow, but has to pull him through when the killer gets too close. The flummoxed killer can see Kleinman and Armstead in the mirror but can't get at them; Max taunts him. He flips the mirror, turning Max and the magician upside down, then smashes it with a pole. This causes the inmates to appear in another mirror at ringside. Armstead waves his hands and a large cage descends on the killer, trapping him. Max and Armstead throw a cloth over the cage, Armstead waves his hands again, and when Max removes the cloth the killer is gone -- but reappears across the ring, securely shackled to a chair. The arrival of a mob of circus performers led by Irmy leaves Max little time to marvel over this performance. After some shouting, Max and the magician lead the mob to the killer -- who has once again disappeared, leaving his chains empty.As they file out of the tent with the performers, Irmy tells the others that Max saved her, and tells him how brave he was. He replies that he can be brave as long as he doesn't think about it. She says that the circus will be pulling out in a few hours and asks what he'll do. Armstead mentions that he needs an apprentice. Kleinman becomes excited at this prospect and tries several times to demonstrate a trick with a coin, but fails. Armstead is unconcerned by Kleinman's clumsiness and offers him the job. Kleinman objects that he can't just run away and join the circus (though it sounds like the solution to all his troubles); he says he'll go back to real life and marry his landlady. Armstead speaks darkly of "the grey hat of compromise." Max walks Irmy to her trailer, where they shake hands and say goodbye. Max stands thinking for a minute.Max follows Armstead back to the big top, where he accepts the apprenticeship and dismisses Armstead's warning that the pay is very low. One of the performers says that everybody loves Armstead's illusions, and Armstead replies, "Loves them? They need them -- like they need the air." Then he waves his hands and he and Max disappear.

Tags: allegory, psychedelic, dark, murder

Review:
Fortunately, Woody doesn't care what people think he's "supposed" to do.And make no mistake, "Shadows and Fog" is a great film.
Sure, it ends rather abruptly, never solving the mystery, but none of this stopped my thorough enjoyment of this film.As the title suggests the entire movie is designed in shadows and fog.
Shot with beautiful black and white photography, Allen and cinematographer Carlo Di Palma create the look and feel of an unnamed East European city as seen in such films as M and Nosferatu.
Through the fog bumbles Kleinman (Allen is his typical neurotic schmuck role) trying to find his role in a vigilante mob's plan to stop a serial killer roaming the streets.
From dark night until dawn, Kleinman wanders from place to place meeting a wide variety of curious characters (played by an even more curious group of celebrities), the most endearing of which is a desperate sword swallower (Mia Farrow)who is has wandered into a brothel after fleeing her cheating boyfriend/clown (John Malcovich).It is a little unsettling to watch Allen do his normal schtick while the characters around him are murdered, subjected to racial prejudice, beaten by the police and discuss such subjects as love, sex, and meaning.
The black and white moody photography is compelling, modeled after the dark German expressionistic films of Murnau and Fritz Lang, as well as a hearkening back to those delightful old horror and Sherlock Holmes films from Universal Studios.The action is set in an un-named village in an unknown time and place, but it's patterned after the early 20th Century, with a hint of Germany or even London.
Also in small roles are Donald Pleasence in good form as a mad coroner who wants to analyze the essence of the killer's "evil" (possibly playing on his involvement in the HALLOWEEN films) and a wasted turn by Fred Gwynne (don't blink or you'll miss him) as one of the villagers.SHADOWS AND FOG is flawed to be sure (there are a lot of loose ends remaining untied for one thing) but it's visually appealing and rich in atmosphere and the language of the night.
No good has ever come of it, to my knowledge.And incidentally, if you have a predilection for Woody Allen films, and like the look of old black and white expressionist cinema, give `Shadows and Fog' a look.
Note the way light filtering through the spokes of the circus wagons reflects of the fog in a way so beautiful and haunting that it's easy to forget we're watching an 88min comedy shot on sound stages in New York.Setting the mood as such, Allen walks us through the streets and offers a brief glimpse of the characters who inhabit the night.
Shadows and Fogstarring: Woody Allen, Michale Kirby, Mia Farrow, and John MalkovichIn a small european like town, lives a very nervous clerk, who out of nowhere is awaken by a group of Vigilantes who are after a serial killer in the town who strikes in the fog at night.
Of course, this is the most basic level in the film (I won't dig into Philosophy and message in a commentary but by all means it's there and worth musing over) but it's already enough to justify seeing it.The idea of the confusing "shadows and fog" of Expressionist cinema filtered through Allen's off-kilter character world view is exactly what makes the film so hysterical.
Little Man's Night Out. I like Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog" and I think it is seriously underrated.
Allen parodies German Expressionists (Fritz Lang), Franz Kafka, and Ingmar Bergman ("Magician") in this funny, scary, warm, dark, surreal, and dramatic film that he saw as a metaphor for humanity, as we all muddle through the murk and attempt to find meaning.
"Shadows and Fog" is Woody Allen's tribute to German Expressionism, and it's very interesting, often funny, and at times downright strange.
The atmosphere is bizarre, very German - dark, bleak, and foggy, with a scary serial killer out of "M." Big stars float in and out of the film, like Madonna, some with tiny roles.
This so-called comedy is a rethinking of Woody Allen's own short play 'Death' (published in his 1976 collection 'Without Feathers'), transplanted to a weird, Kafka-like Middle European setting and mercilessly padded (at the expense of the humor) to allow room for several high profile guest stars, most of them in roles too small to be noticed.
The effect is not unlike a student film parody of a Woody Allen comedy, following a hapless nebbish (who could only have been played by Allen himself) pressed into service by urban vigilantes hunting a shadowy killer.
On first viewing I wasn't crazy about Shadows and Fog, while the film looked fantastic and was well-directed the characters left me cold, the film didn't seem to know what tone it wanted and the story seemed meandering and dull.
On re-watch however Shadows and Fog fared much better(as was with almost all the Allen films that didn't impress at first apart from Anything Else), it is nowhere near among Woody Allen's best and is around the lower middle of his filmography but I found it a good film and not among Allen's worst that it's often said to be.
The dialogue is both subtle and hilarious(love the brothel scenes) with sharp homages and insight in characteristic Woody Allen vein, but even more impressive was the murder-mystery element while a really chilling atmosphere is created, helped by the visuals and music.
Shadows and Fog has imperfections, Mia Farrow for me overdoes it and comes across as shrill, John Malkovich deserved much more to do and is a little wasted and Madonna is rather out of place.
First of all, the cinematography is brilliant, the use of black & white gives this movie a very 40's look.Woody Allen playing, well, Woody Allen, never fails to amuse and co-starring Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Madonna, Jodie Foster among others, Shadows And Fog is a highly entertaining film.In terms of quality, it lacks essence to be one of Woody's best or most memorable but it's by no means a bad movie.Interesting nonetheless, especially for Woody Allen fans..
I like it a lot, partly for the awesome all-star cast, partly for the blending of comedy (i.e., Woody's usual schlemiel self) with drama (a deranged killer loose on the streets of a fog-shrouded town at night).
For instance, the "Mintz" family is picked up by the police as a convenient scapegoat for the recent murders despite Kleinman's (Woody Allen) assertion that they are "lovely people." Shortly afterwards, Kleinman goes to the local church to make a donation on behalf of Irmy (Mia Farrow) and finds the priest and a policeman making up a list of people that also includes himself.
Allen, Mia Farrow, John Malkovich (who fits well as"the clown"), John Cusack (a great performance as student Jack), Lily Tomlin, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, Donald Pleasence, Madonna (steamy and perfect), Julie Kavner (pre-Marge Marge) and on and on, many of whom have gone on to "iconic star status" since this film, and many of whom have appeared in other Woody Allen ensembles.
Shadows and Fog pairs Woody Allen and Mia Farrow in a shadowy town that hides from a strangler that is on the loose.
As is the usual Woody Allen film, Shadows and Fog is as wonderfully comedic as it is a thoughtful exercise in grappling with life's deepest questions.
Kindred spirits, Kleinman and Irmy attempt to find a purpose for their lives, all the while trying to save them.Shadows and Fog works perfectly as a nod to German Expressionism, with gorgeous imagery reminiscent of the greats of the genre such as Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang.
Shot in black and white, set in one night, the story follows Kleinman (Woody Allen) and Irmy (Mia Farrow).
For me, 'Shadows and Fog' is just as good as any other great Allen movie.
Written and directed by Woody Allen, starring himself, and Mia Farrow, Julie Kavner, Kathy Bates, John Cusack, Willam Macy, Jodie Foster, Fred Gwynne, Madonna, John Malkovich, Kate Nelligan, Donald Pleasance, Lily Tomlin and yet it STILL makes sense!
I could enjoy Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog without really taking it in as being as superior a work as his other 1992 film, Husbands and Wives.
We get Woody Allen as Kleinman (or is it Klienman), who gets woken up in the middle of an ultra-foggy night to find a killer, but then finds himself on the other side of the investigation after the murder of a doctor (Donald Pleasance).
Meanwhile sexual liaisons go on with John Malkovich and Mia Farrow's characters, just not with one another (one with Madonna and one with John Cusack).All the while scenes go in and out, and Allen is without a doubt very much in love with the period, actually the period put to film, and uses style to its excesses.
My fault, which was all my own the first time, is that I expected more laughs- sit back and enjoy it as a thought-provoking and freely structured mood piece- when the humor does come, and it will in several places, welcome it but don't blame Woody that there's not another joke two seconds later.It helps to be familiar with Kafka and early German cinema, it will increase your enjoyment.
Into their midst, the movie drops Mia Farrow, who sounds like she's still playing Hannah, and Woody Allen, who seems to be reprising his nebbish role from Play It Again Sam. Are we supposed to laugh at his stammering and hand-wringing?
The most entertaining element of this film is the recognizable by now established actors that performed in the movie including: David Ogden Stiers (M.A.S.H.), Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby), John Malkovich (In The Line of Fire), Madonna, Donald Pleasence (THX-1138), Lily Tomlin (Laugh-In), Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs), Kathy Bates (Misery), John Cusack (High Fidelity), John C.
Shadows and Fog isn't Woody Allen's most celebrated work, in fact it barely gets a mention but I liked the film.
Hadows and Fog isn't Woody Allen's most celebrated work, in fact it barely gets a mention but I liked the film.
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.
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.
Shot superbly in black and white by Carlo Di Palma, (though you might feel Sven Nykvist would have been more appropriate), and with a phenomenal cast headed by Woody and Mia Farrow, this is a lot funnier than I remember it.Woody is the Joseph K character briefly mistaken for the Peter Lorre character in "M" since a serial killer is lurking in the fog and the vigilantes are out to get him.
With a serial strangler on the loose, a bookkeeper wanders around town searching for the vigilante group intent on catching the killer.For Woody Allen, this film was intended to work off of the German expressionism of such 1920s greats as Murnau and Pabst.
One scene of the Strangler coming out of the fog is a clear homage to "Nosferatu".The casting is fantastic, with some Woody regulars (Mia Farrow) and some unexpected performances from the likes of John Cusack.
Shadows and Fog belongs with the Woody Allen canon of endeavors in other vanguards, along with Interiors, Stardust Memories, Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Another Woman and Alice by the time he made this film.
Nevertheless, it still remains his very darkest film.Allen draws from his own one-act play Death, and defines it and landscapes it into a wandering mystery, much more than any prior film save Stardust Memories, interweaving some expected intermittent Woody gags, romance with Mia Farrow and Kafka-esquire philosophizing with a story about a meek employee named Kleinman, played by Allen of course, being awakened from a deep sleep and coerced by a vigilante mob.
If not that it just has a mind-blowing, immaculate cast---John Cusack, Madonna, in case you ever wondered if Woody would ever work with her for any reason whatsoever, Donald Pleasance, Lily Tomlin, Kathy Bates, Jodie Foster and Daniel Von Bargen appear indefinitely throughout in purely odd roles---it is too hypnotic and cryptic to be just an exercise..
I think this is a great Woody Allen movie, and it has one of the best casts he has ever had in any of his movies.It is short and enjoyable with some very cool comedy, and i just love how he made it black and white.The movie starts off very good and stay's strong for most of the movie, but it kinda had some parts that were not needed, Shadows and Fog could of been a 75 min film.I still like it a lot and think it is very funny and very well done, it has Woody Allen being funny as usual with cast members that i was amazed to see.Like Jodie Foster and John Cusack, these people being in it made the movie really good because they all played there characters perfect.I do not think other people could have played these roles as good, Shadows and Fog is a classic film i think and it's score of a 6.4 is a too low.It should have at least a 7.4, i like Woody and i like this movie very much..
The whole film takes place in shadows and fog as the name says and i thought the set helped the story, gave it suspense which balanced out with great humor.
Shadows and Fog is certainly a different type of Woody Allen film (and another one of his '90s releases to employ a large, all-star cast in cameo appearances).
"Shadows & Fog" is classic Woody Allen: a treat to look at it and listen to, and while it's shamelessly self-indulgent, you can't help but like it..
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.
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.
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.
It seems that often, "Shadows and Fog" has been regarded as one of Woody Allen's lesser movies.
I can't understand why, as I found it very interesting; surely anyone would have to agree that a murder mystery is infinitely more watchable than a story about neurotic rich New Yorkers.The movie blends Allen's personal neurosis with the look of a Franz Kafka novel (possibly taking place in 1920s Germany or Prague).
Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog is just play.
Woody Allen plays a K-like character who is woken up by a lynch mob who want his help in capturing a serial killer, but they never tell him exactly what they want him to do.
This is Woody Allen's attempt at a German Expressionist film, shot in authentically soupy black and white.
The way that when you lose engagement with the main character after ten minutes you just feel you're watching a meticulous pastiche rather than a film that stands by itself.The problem is Woody Allen playing Kleinmann.
Like the title suggests, he makes good use of shadows and fog, with atmospheric black and white cinematography.
And again, what is it about this script or the idea of working with Woody Allen that enables him to get people like Kathy Bates and Jodi Foster and John Cusack to work with him?
Don't you think that after 30 years of making films that never turn in a profit that maybe people don't like Woody Allen films?
However, having said that, it's also a Woody Allen film, so we have the neurotic central character, the unrequited love and the comic vignettes to act as a sort of padding.It seems that Allen really wanted the best of both worlds here, attempting to create a serious expressionist piece, with a dark plot involving murder, corruption, prostitution and the idea of suspicion, but feeling the need to compromise, with the inclusion of witty one-liners, a vague ending and a galaxy of stars, to, I suppose, justify the lavish $20 million budget.
Although I still had plenty of unseen Woody Allen films to choose from, I really wanted for "Shadows and Fog" to be the next one in line.
"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.
Shadows and Fog. I have seen Annie Hall and thought it was really good, and this is second film I have seen from the great actor/director/writer.