I can't give a pretentious review of this material, using words I don't understand, like "German expressionism," but even my peers, the general public, hated this movie. I loved it from beginning to end. Woody Allen is playing his usual neurotic self, using self-depreciating humor to create our bumbling protagonist, a low-level office worker named Kleinman. In the middle of the night, a vigilance mob of concerned citizens wakes the sleeping Kleinman up from his bed to enlist his aid in hunting down a serial killer. They send Kleinman out alone on a foggy night without telling him what part he plays in their plan to capture the killer. It tickles me pink how he spends the entire movie wandering aimlessly, completely confused. //// Three storylines run parallel to Kleinman's: a quarreling circus couple, a whorehouse, and a women who cannot afford to feed her baby. We end the film in a "zen" way, which will either upset you or make you smile. I fell on the smiley side of the fence. My guess is you, the reader of this review, like most viewers, will hate SHADOWS AND FOG. After reading the comments of others, I feel like everyone else has watched a different movie than I have. I'm stunned. As much as I want to go along with the crowd, I can't. I adore this film.

An interesting failure. If 70%-80% of the dialogue had been cut out the visual elements would have taken over the narrative which, given the kind of homage this is, would have been more engaging.

I stopped Woody Allen movies movies years ago because I tired of watching him play the same neurotic, self-deprecating lead. That's what he does again in this thinly plotted movie. But, I loved the look of this black and white, German expressionist film and the supporting cast, most given very little, to do is colorful and interesting. If this were in the hands of a writer/director who really cared about developing the story and the characters/cast this would have been a masterwork.

The two main themes found in Woody Allen's movies are summarised in the title of his 1975 comedy – Love and Death. If I was to tentatively suggest a possible third theme that occurs, albeit less frequently, I would propose murder. It is not just that murders occur in Woody Allen's movies. It is rather that three Allen films are specifically about murder. It is the leading subject matter of those films, and not just a device to move the plot along. In Manhattan Murder Mystery, this takes the form of comedy. In Crimes and Misdemeanours, the morality of murder is seriously considered. Shadows and Fog lies between the two. It is essentially an absurdist comedy that falls somewhere between Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, but the film's content can also be examined seriously without the risk of seeming too humourless. The film's ability to be both comic and serious (or possibly neither?) may explain why it was box office poison. This was unfortunate because the film had much invested in it. It had an extraordinarily famous cast appearing in supporting roles. It was made using the largest set ever built in New York, making Shadows and Fog the most expensive film that Allen had made to that point. (The frugal studio later recycled the set for other films.) To summarise the plot of Shadows and Fog is not easy. It seems to be designed to frustrate the casual viewer with a series of episodic setpieces that utterly fail to resolve any narrative point whatsoever. As I said, the plot owes much to Kafka. Even the story's hero is a K, just as in Kafka's most famous novels. This is Kleinman (Allen). As his name suggests, he is a little man. He is a timid clerk hoping for a promotion from his tyrannical boss, whom he calls ‘Your majesty', but we know he will never get it. He has a cold and unloving fiancée, and a landlady who mothers him and thinks he should marry her. There is a bitter ex-girlfriend whom he jilted at the altar. Those incidental details establish our hero as an everyman, if you assume that being weak and spineless is the normal human condition. For many people, perhaps it is. As is often the case in comedies about this type of man, he is thrown into an impossible situation in which nobody could reasonably expect to cope. Kleinman has various difficulties to deal with. He is trying to find the vigilantes to learn what his part is in their plan. He is trying to capture the murderer, or at least prevent himself from falling victim. In an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility, he is trying to prevent himself from being falsely accused, but somehow everyone keeps looking in his direction. Some of the jokes are very funny. There is a splendid music score that includes music from Kurt Weill, setting the right serio-comic note for the film. There is also some beautiful black-and-white photography inspired by the movies of Murnau, Lang and Pabst. The movie can also be read as a metaphor for death, with religion failing to find the answer and resulting in more killings, and only the illusions of art offering some longer claim to posterity. When asked about the audience's love of illusions, the magician Armistead gravely intones, "Loves them? They need them – like the air!" I wrote a longer appreciation of Shadows and Fog on my blog page fully explaining my theory in the last paragraph in more detail if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/shadows-and-fog-1991/

About a bookkeeper wandering in the night streets to join a vigilante mob to capture of a serial strangler, Woody Allen's homage to to German Expressionism, Ingrid Bergman, Franz Kafka and F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu is at best described as shrouded in a stupor of maundering jabberwocky.

An interesting failure. If 70%-80% of the dialogue had been cut out the visual elements would have taken over the narrative which, given the kind of homage this is, would have been more engaging.

Murder mistery, german expressionism, kafkaesque characters, comedy, philosophical questions about existance, love and death. Shadows and Fogs has all this things and even more. A must see for all those who loves great cinema. Chapeau, Woody!

Shadows and Fog is not a bad movie by general standards, but is certainly one of Woody Allen's lesser films in his expansive oeuvre. Kleinman (Allen) is woken in the middle of the night and recruited by a vigilante mob to help capture a killer who is terrorizing the neighborhood. The film becomes a Kafkaesque comedic nightmare as the Alvy Singer-like protagonist makes his way through the darkness and fog in an elevated state of angst to fulfil his obligation to the vigilantes. While the black and white cinematography is stunning and the lighting and sets are spectacular, the film is hurt by an overabundance of sometimes meaningless characters and an ending that leaves you feeling a bit deflated.

The look is kind of illusive and intriguing, which makes the vibe quite on point. Madonna also played a part.

Another typical Allen mess.

Allen's presence in screen is always charming as the neuorotic character, the thing is this movie feels without direction. Some interesting jokes and ideas that don't come together.

According to critic Robbie Collin this is one of Woody Allen's weakest films and having just watched it and having seen 25 of his films I might agree with him. The idea of a loving homage to German expressionist cinema is not a bad one but Allen fails to do much with the genre and wastes a talented and eclectic cast on a weak screenplay. The only real joy in the film comes from a few scenes in which Mia Farrow, playing a mousy sword swallower, encounters a group of brassy prostitutes played by Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin and Jodie Foster. As the working girls discuss their experiences on the job and Farrow stoops in discomfort at the frankness with which they discuss sex and financial transactions was funny. They are later joined by a group of young intellectuals attending a local university and Farrow agrees to have sex with the particularly pretentious John Cusack and surprisingly orgasms. As soon as this brief interlude ends and we return to the tedium of our lead character played by Allen. Other issues with the film include the fact that you never really care about any of the characters and the dreams they are pursuing or the problems they have. Allen's characters can often be difficult to like as he has relationships with women who are too young for him or mistreats the women around him but you feel only apathy for him here. He is a victim of a corrupt system facing mostly mental obstacles, a hallmark of the genre, yet because of the vagueness of all this and a lack of time to develop his character we never feel that we know him. We get scenes of him getting to know a girl as he walks around a location that is foreign to him as often appears in Allen films but there is not the magic of Manhattan (1979) present in this film. This was his second to last collaboration with Farrow and he fails to put her to good use which is unfortunate considering her good work in Alice (1990). Here's to hoping that I enjoy Deconstructing Harry (1997).

It has some interesting points but, as a whole...

Shadows and Fog isn't Woody Allen's most celebrated work, in fact it barely gets a mention but I liked the film. Its setting is a circus in some town in Eastern Europe and the film is brimming with marquee names like John Malkovich, John Cusack and Jodie Foster to even Madonna. The jokes and gags are funny though not in a direct way and there is a bare plot so to speak. The decision to shoot in black and white is sound as the cinematography is a highlight even detractors of this film speak well of.

Shadows and Fog isn't Woody Allen's most celebrated work, in fact it barely gets a mention but I liked the film. Its setting is a circus in some town in Eastern Europe and the film is brimming with marquee names like John Malkovich, John Cusack and Jodie Foster to even Madonna. The jokes and gags are funny though not in a direct way and there is a bare plot so to speak. The decision to shoot in black and white is sound as the cinematography is a highlight even detractors of this film speak well of.

#WoodyAllenRetro Podcast Project wow what an amazing cast is the first thing that needs to be said, then the rest of the movie has it's charm and mood for sure - it is certainly humorous at parts throughout but the atmosphere becomes more of the movie than plot which is a bit disappointing... but then again just watching the cast interact and have such lively conversations is almost worth the movies weight alone - overall not woodys best but a great cast and visual atmosphere makes this one special more than anything else

"- It's true. Everybody loves his illusions. - Loves them. They need them. Like they need the air."

Divertida pero poco interesante y con un extraño tono, aunque bien actuada y con las habituales buenas líneas de diálogo típicas en Allen.

Here's why adapting really short bits of writing into feature films is fraught with difficulty. Allen's short piece "Death" is a funny little parody of Kafka. It would also only account for about 15 minutes of screen time. Adapting it for the screen 20 years later, Allen pads out the material with tons of references to other films, genres and filmmakers. The result is an uneven and slow hodgepodge of material that wears out it's welcome before the first act is over.

Could have been good, but it fell apart in the end. Someone must have been pushing a deadline, but the cast was star studded. Crazy to think how many famous actors there were.