SHADOWS AND FOG
[Spoilers]
A film review by Michel Hafner
Copyright 1992 Michel Hafner
SHADOWS AND FOG is the new film by Woody Allen. After being presented at the Berlin festival in February, coming from the shelves of Orion, that put it there some time because they couldn't afford the release, it starts now hitting the screens all over the world. Spoilers following...
SHADOWS AND FOG is not one of Woody's best films. His predecessor ALICE, for example, is better. But it's still a fine film with good moments in it.
Basically it's Allen's homage to German expressionist films of the 20s and Franz Kafka ( and ??? ). He plays a kafkaesque employee named "Kleinmann" ( ~ "unimportant person") who lives in small town of which we only see foggy streets at night, some rooms in houses, the police station, the church, a circus and the brothel. He is awakened in the middle of the night by some citizens who order him to join their posse, that is hunting a mysterious killer on the loose, the "strangler." He obeys, but only to find himself alone in the fog, stumbling through the town in futile search for his purpose as member of the posse.
While wandering around and uttering monologues a la Woody he meets half of Hollywood in cameos and more substantial parts.
- Mia Farrow: Swordswallower in the circus, disappointed girlfriend of - John Malkovich: Clown in the circus, lusting after - Madonna: Trapeze-artist of the circus, and a slut, who would be better off with - Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, Lily Thomlin: hookers in the brothel, receiving guests like - John Cusack: the philosopher-student, whose "blood" tells him to "live", and whose "brains" ask: "What's the point of it all?" Meanwhile - Donald Pleasence: as the scientist, cuts open the victims of the strangler and hopes to localize "pure evil" somewhere under his microscope, maybe between the liver and the heart, but he is just as helpless as almost everybody else, when - ??: the strangler, visits him to perform his choking business. Maybe God can help, but - Josef Sommer: the priest, is busy with maintaining some kind of (hit?) list from which you can ge crossed off when your donations exceed some limit.
Confusing? This is only the beginning. The whole concept is rather interesting, but it fails to satisfy, since Allen, basically, only changes the surroundings for his cast, but the dialogues and monologues center around the same stuff that was chewed over and over again in almost every Allen film the last ?? years. Unfortunately it's all quiet on the Allen front. And since the film lacks the elegance of the script and direction of ALICE, it's not quite up to our expectations. Well, instead you can go reference-hunting ("Wasn't that an allusion to NOSFERATU?? Is he citing FREAKS here?" ... )
M.H. .
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