Shadows and Fog (1992) is a black and white film directed by Woody Allen and based on his one-act play Death. It stars Allen, Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, John Cusack, William H. Macy, Madonna, and Kenneth Mars. It was filmed on a 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) set at Kaufman Astoria Studios, which holds the distinction of being the biggest set ever built in New York. It was also his last film for Orion Pictures.
Shadows and Fog is an homage to German Expressionist filmmakers Fritz Lang, G.W. Pabst and F.W. Murnau, and to the writer Franz Kafka.
Synopsis
The movie begins with Kleinman (Allen) being awakened from a deep sleep by a vigilante mob. They claim to be looking for "the strangler", a serial killer who strangles his victims. They tell him to get dressed and meet them downstairs in five minutes. In a flurry, he gets dressed. Before he goes down, his landlady who wants to marry him gives him a small paper bag with pepper in it. "If The Strangler attacks you, blow some of this in his eyes!"
Meanwhile, in a circus on the outskirts of town, Irmy (Farrow) and her boyfriend Paul (Malkovich) are having a dispute. They both are performers at a circus: Irmy swallows swords and Paul is a clown. Irmy wants a baby, but Paul says that "a family is death to an artist." He then goes out and over to another tent where Marie, a tightrope artist (Madonna) waits for him. They begin to have sex, but Irmy catches them. She then packs a suitcase and runs away to the city where Kleinman is living. In the foreboding streets she meets a prostitute (Lily Tomlin) who brings her to a house of ill repute, where she is comforted by other prostitutes (Jodie Foster and Kathy Bates). Then, a student named Jack (John Cusack) comes into the whorehouse and is immediately bewitched by Irmy; he assumes she is employed there, and insists on having sex with her, paying $700. They go into the back room.
On the street, Kleinman walks aimlessly around the city, not knowing what to do. He stops at a coroner's house, where the doctor (Donald Pleasence) explains that his role in the hunt is purely scientific. He goes into detail about how he will enjoy opening the killer's chest and head, and being able to understand how his mind works. Kleinman drinks a glass of sherry to calm himself down and leaves. Soon after, the doctor realizes the Strangler has entered the house. They calmly speak, then he murders the doctor.
Kleinman goes to the police station to steal back the sherry glass with his fingerprints on it, so it won't incriminate him. Irmy is there as well, because she has been taken to the police station as well when the police raided the whorehouse. Insisting she is a whore and needs a license, they fine her $50 of the $700 she has, and they allow her to leave. Kleinman follows her, and they walk into the night together. A vigilante shows Kleinman an alley where they think the killer might be. He is told to trap the person. Irmy and Kleinman enter the alley warily, and they jump the person. It turns out to be Kleinman's boss Mr. Paulsen, peeping in a window at a lady. Mr. Paulsen was considering promoting him, but now his mind is changed. Kleinman is accused of incompetence by him and by the vigilante. Ashamed, Kleinman and Irmy move on into the night.
Paul arrives in the city, looking for Irmy. He goes into a bar, where Jack, the student who had sex with Irmy, is having a drink. The student reflects on the wonderful experience he had with "a sword-swallower". Paul is shocked, although Jack does not know why.
Back on the street, Irmy tells Kleinman that she doesn't want the money and asks him to give the $650 to charity in a church. He does, finding two men compiling a list of names. When he gives them the money, they gratefully erase his name from the list. Outside, at the steps of the church, they see a starving mother with a child, and the two run away from parent and child. After some thought, Irmy decides she wants to give half of the money to the woman and asks Kleinman to go back to the church to get it back. Reluctantly, he returns and asks for half the money, the two men not only reinstate his name to the list, but they circle it for good measure! Kleinman exits the church, and they both leave in haste.
Kleinman tries to get Irmy a place to stay by asking his fiancée, but she doesn't let them in. At a pier, they look out at the night, and the feeling is very romantic, until the vigilante mob ambushes them. It turns out that everyone has a "plan". Then, Spiro the Clairvoyant, a man who smells people like a psychic bloodhound, starts to sniff Kleinman. He says that Kleinman "has something in his pocket," and the sherry glass is revealed. Angry, and believing he is the killer, the mob prepares to lynch him. Kleinman blows pepper in their faces and escapes. He tries to find a safe haven in the house of his first ex-fiancée, Alma (Julie Kavner), whom he left standing at the altar while he had a dalliance with her sister. He apologizes, but she throws him out, saying, "Get out and die!"
Meanwhile, Irmy and Paul meet and at first Paul is ready to kill Irmy for sleeping with another man, but they are interrupted when they find a baby on the ground, the same one that she and Kleinman had seen earlier with the starving woman. They decide to keep the child, and leave the city, back to the circus.
Ahead of the mob, Kleinman arrives at the whorehouse where he meets and has an existential conversation with Jack. When he is unable to express his views, a whore (Foster) coaxes him into a back room where he fails to perform, blaming existential angst. The mob arrives, asking after Kleinman. He escapes via the roof where he meets and is taunted by his rival for promotion at work who reveals Irmy has gone back to the circus. Kleinman follows her there.
At the circus Kleinman meets the magician Armstead (Kenneth Mars), whom he greatly admires. Then, the Strangler arrives, and is about to kill both of them when the magician mesmerizes him with a mirror trick, and chains him up, but while they are congratulating each other, somehow the Strangler escapes. The angry mob arrives on the scene, and, thwarted, gives up for the night. The movie ends with Kleinman accepting Armstead's invitation to become his assistant, and Irmy and Paul continuing their careers as circus performers, while raising their newfound child. As Armstead and Kleinman prepare to leave, the magician sums it all up by saying, "They need illusions like they need the air." And with a gesture, the two disappear in a mirror and a puff of smoke.
Box office
Shadows and Fog opened on March 20, 1992 in 288 North American cinemas. In its first three days, it grossed $1,111,314 ($3,858 per screen). It finished its run with $2,735,731.[1]
Its production budget has been estimated at $14 million.[1]
References
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