Shadows and Fog
by Woody Allen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Ogden Stiers, James Rebhorn, Mia Farrow, Michael Kirby, Woody AllenDirector: Woody Allen
Brand: ALLEN,WOODY
Writer: Woody Allen
Producer: Charles H. Joffe
Producer: Helen Robin
Producer: Jack Rollins
Producer: Joseph Hartwick
Producer: Robert Greenhut
Producer: Thomas A. Reilly
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Shadows and Fog
Movie Review: Developed appreciation of this sleeper classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I original saw "Shadows and Fog" when it first came out on home video in like 1993 or 1994. When I saw this movie for the first time, it is safe to say "I didn't get it". I mean I liked it alright, but I really didn't get it. I think most people felt the same way, since this movie seems like the black sheep of the Woody Allen library.
I also really enjoy Woody Allen's work. I know that many people either love him or hate him. I think that probably works in his favor. I also find it interesting that society picks and chooses which celebrities' personal life will constitute if their body of work is good or not. Since a great deal of controversy has surrounded Woody Allen. Ultimately a person's personal life might have no real influence on the content of their body of work. In other words, Woody's lifestyle and/or relationship choices doesn't mean he isn't a good film maker. If this was the case than all rock stars who do/did drugs don't make really good music and/or sell many ablums, right?
Anyway, since I am a fan of Woody Allen and like many of his movies, I decided to take the risk and attain "Shadows and Fog" on DVD. My brother was kind enough and bought it for me as a gift. After my recent viewing of this film, I have to say that I am very pleased with what I watched. This movie really pays homage to German Expressionism and/or classic horror films of the 1940s/1950s. This is mainly due to the fact that this movie is shot in black and white and has a murky set design and wonderful cinematography. There is also an element of tension set through out the entire film.
Now this movie does have the Woody Allen staples: witty humor (even thought it is more buried than some of his other films), multiple stories, good characterization and philosophical undertones. This is all added to a plot of a serial killer lurking around one night that is shadowy and foggy. There is also a MacGuffin that is present through out the entire film, which really adds the magic of this film.
I suppose the reason I appreciate this movie more now than I did some 13 odd years ago, is because I am not the same person I was back then. My viewing of movies, education and life experiences brought a totally different viewer to the television when I watched this movie for the second time. It is quite interesting that a person can watch a movie at one point in time and have a certain perspective on it and watch it many years later having a totally dissimilar perception. This is exactly what happened during my viewing of "Shadows and Fog". I originally thought it was alright and now I think it is a wonderful movie.
I can also say I had the reverse effect when I watched "The Beastmaster" recently. When I was a kid this movie was awesome and kept me at the edge of my seat. When I saw it again as an adult, I couldn't stop laughing at how cheesy it was. Mind you I enjoyed it, but it was a totally different film. Droll.
Summary of Shadows and Fog
"Lovely, poignant" (The Wall Street Journal) and laugh-out-loud funny, Shadows and Fog confirms Woody Allen's genius with its brilliant portrait of the hopelessbut hilarioustragicomedy of human existence. Boasting a dazzling "galaxy of stars" (Leonard Maltin), including Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, Madonna, Donald Pleasence, Lily Tomlin, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, John Cusack and Julie Kavner, Shadows and Fog delights with "all the fantasy and seriousness,mysterious construction and burlesque complications of a Shakespeare comedy" (Le Monde). Recruited by an inept mob of vigilantes, Kleinman (Allen), a cowardly clerk, is forced to search for a notorious murdereronly to stumble upon a feisty sword-swallower, Irmy (Farrow), runningaway from the circus and her 'clownish' boyfriend (Malkovich). Determined to help Irmy, and eager to escape the vigilantes, Kleinman abandons his search for the killer or so he thinks. Rushing headlong into the odious night, Kleinman and Irmy are launched into a mysterious world of shadows and fog from which they may never emerge.No other Woody Allen film has ever been hustled into oblivion faster than this black-and-white mélange of Mittel-European nightmare, absurdist farce, and homage to German expressionism--sort of Woody Allen meets Franz Kafka in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, set to Kurt Weill's score for The Threepenny Opera. Yet the daft experiment is not without charm and, as the title suggests, oodles of atmosphere.
In a murky, seriously deranged cityscape only a studio art department could create, a giant bald strangler (Michael Kirby) is going around killing people with piano wire. The authorities are powerless (though he stomps about freely, occasionally declaiming speeches), so vigilante posses start roving the streets. For some reason, they dragoon a noisy nebbish named Kleinman (Allen) to assist them. So Kleinman goes into the fog, kvetching, and meets Irmy (Mia Farrow), a circus sword swallower (no double-entendres, please) whose clown of a husband (John Malkovich) is two-timing her with the strongman's wife (Madonna). Add an "et cetera" here, because the big, mostly wasted cast also includes Kenneth Mars as the strongman, Donald Pleasence as a philosophical coroner, John Cusack as a student who mistakes Irmy for a prostitute, and Kathy Bates, Jodie Foster, and Lily Tomlin as the real prostitutes in whose company she happens to be at the time. None of this adds up, and the whole thing moves and feels less like a film than one of Allen's oddball New Yorker sketches. Still, as the fever dream of an art-house addict, it has its moments. --Richard T. Jameson
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