SHADOWS AND FOG (1991)

“I can’t even make a leap of faith to believe in my own existence”

Directed by: Woody Allen
Run time: 1h 39min
1h 25minPG-13

It’s a treat when Woody Allen shoots in black and white. Shadows and Fog isn’t his most beautiful movie, that honor goes to Stardust Memories, and it’s not his most ambitious, that has to be Zelig, but his work here with cinematographer Carlo Di Palma is astonishing in the way it borrows only the best visuals from German Expressionism and classic film noir.

That all sounds so serious, but Shadows and Fog is not serious, it’s a comedy. Our hero, Max Kleinman, is as much of a stuttering, hand-wringing, nervous, anxiety-bundle as any of Allen’s previous characters. From frame one he’s in way over his head. An angry mob wakes him in the middle of the night demanding that he help find a serial killer on the loose. His investigation takes him all over the city, where he meets clairvoyants, sword swallowers, rival factions, and prostitutes. When someone finally asks why he’s in charge of a vigilante commission searching for a maniac he gives the only answer he can: “I don’t exactly know.”

Featuring Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Kathy Bates, and Madonna, Shadows and Fog is the perfect movie when you’re in a black-and-white-expressionist-kafkaesque-comedy mood.