Shadows and Fog (1992)

THE CLOWN: "We're not like other people. We are artists. With great talent comes great responsibility." John Malkovich, Shadows and Fog

Shadows and Fog is a small film, and often regarded as one of Woody Allen's least successful. Drawing its most obvious inspiration from the work of Franz Kafka, Shadows and Fog mixes an intelligence sense of Kafkaesque paranoia (a la The Trial) with brief moments of humor, but somehow it ultimately falls flat. That is not to say that the film is without its pleasures - the black and white cinematography is gorgeous, John Cusak and Kathy Bates are both wonderful in their respective roles, and Allen's script provides plenty of humorous quips - it's just that in the end, the film doesn't quite seem successful. I'd be hard pressed to say what exactly didn't work about in the film, but at only 88 minutes, it's still worth watching, if for nothing else than the parade of stars that waltz through the film (Jodie Foster, Mia Farrow, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Madonna, John Malkovich, Lily Tomlin).

Based on a one-act comedy play entitled "Death", which Allen wrote and published twenty years earlier, Shadows and Fog tells the story of Kleinman (Allen), an average man awakened in the middle of the night and forced to confront a dramatic series of events. There is a killer on the loose in the town, and some men have come to Kleinman's house, commanding him to join the search team that is forming to roam the city streets in an effort to catch the killer. Kleinman is confused, sleepy, and worried. He wanders through the night and the film follows him as he takes brief detours through a brothel (where we get the film's single funniest scene), and encounters a couple of circus performers, John Malkovich (a clown) and Mia Farrow (a sword swallower). The various plot lines begin to converge when Kleinman meets up with Farrow's character, but soon Kleinman is mistaken as the killer, and at this point the film begins to lose a good deal of its steam.

Allen once told an interviewer that he and the crew had a lot of fun while shooting Shadows and Fog - and some of this shows through. However, while it may have been fun for him, it's not quite as amusing for his audience.

Release Date: March 20, 1992

Domestic Total Gross: $2,735,731

Distributor: Orion

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