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 set at Kaufman-Astoria Studios, which holds the distinction of being the biggest set ever built in New York. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Woody Allen (born Allen Stewart Königsberg on December 1, 1935) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, jazz musician, comedian, and playwright. ... Woody Allen (born Allen Stewart Königsberg on December 1, 1935) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, jazz musician, comedian, and playwright. ... Woody Allen (born Allen Stewart Königsberg on December 1, 1935) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, jazz musician, comedian, and playwright. ... Mia Farrow (born Maria de Lourdes Villiers-Farrow on February 9, 1945) is an American actress. ... John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, producer and director. ... Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as simply Madonna, is a six-time Grammy[1] and one-time Golden Globe award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ... William Hall Macy Jr. ... David Ogden Stiers (born October 31, 1942) is an American character actor, voice actor and musician, most noted for his role in the television sitcom M*A*S*H, and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone. ... John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American film actor and writer. ... Lily Tomlin (born Mary Jean Tomlin on September 1, 1939), is an Academy Award-nominated American actress and comedian. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (90th in leap years). ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... This is a list of film-related events in 1992. ... Woody Allen (born Allen Stewart Königsberg on December 1, 1935) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, jazz musician, comedian, and playwright. ... Mia Farrow (born Maria de Lourdes Villiers-Farrow on February 9, 1945) is an American actress. ... John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, producer and director. ... John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American film actor and writer. ... William Hall Macy Jr. ... Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as simply Madonna, is a six-time Grammy[1] and one-time Golden Globe award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ... Kenneth Mars (born April 14, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is a television, movie and voice actor, perhaps best known for his roles in several Mel Brooks films and for playing King Triton in Disneys The Little Mermaid. ...

Shadows and Fog is an homage to Fritz Lang, G.W. Pabst and F.W. Murnau, and the German Expressionists. Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known émigrés from Germanys school of expressionism. ... Georg Wilhelm Pabst (August 25, 1885 - May 29, 1967) was a film director. ... F W Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (December 28, 1888 – March 11, 1931) was one of the most influential directors of the silent film era. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Synopsis

The movie begins with Kleinman (Allen) being woken up 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!" This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ...

Meanwhile, in a circus on the outskirts of town, Irmy (Farrow) and her boyfriend Peter (Malkovich) are having a dispute. They both are performers at a circus: Irmy swallows swords and Peter is a clown. Irmy wants a baby, but Peter 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 Jack (John Cusack) comes into the whorehouse and is immediately bewitched by Irmy—who he assumes is employed there, and insists on having sex with her, paying a high cost of $700. They go into the back room. Tightrope walking is a spectacle activity usually performed for the amusement of an audience. ...

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. Donald Pleasence, OBE (October 5, 1919 – February 2, 1995) was an English actor. ... Sherry solera For other uses, see Sherry (disambiguation). ...

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. She is interrogated by a busy policeman, but, in a careless moment, she slips outside. Kleinman follows her, and they walk into the night together. She tells Kleinman that she doesn't want the money and asks him to give the $700 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.

While they run, Peter arrives in the city, looking for Irmy. He goes into a bar, where Jack, the student who had sex with Irmy, is trying to drink away his sorrow. The student mopes about how he lost the most beautiful woman. The two exchange thoughts about love, and after eloquently describing the woman, Peter figures out that Irmy was his lost love, and leaves the bar.

Kleinman tries to get Irmy a place to stay by asking his fiancée, but she doesn't let them in. They wander some more, until someone walks up to both of them. The person shows Kleinman an alley where they think the killer might be in, and 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, who was considering promoting him, but his mind is changed when Kleinman nearly gives him a heart attack. Ashamed, Kleinman and Irmy again journey into the night. 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 is hiding something in his pocket, and the sherry glass is revealed. Angry, and believing he is the killer, the mob chases him away. Irmy is left on the dock. Alone, she meanders. Kleinman tries to find a safe haven in the house of his first ex-fiancée, Alma (Julie Kavner),who 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!" He escapes ahead of the mob and goes to the circus. Clairvoyance is defined as a form of radio waves). ... Psychic, from the Greek psychikos meaning mental, of the soul (in turn derived from psyche meaning soul, mind), is a term used to describe phenomena or abilities that are said to originate from the brain but which transcend its confines. ... For other uses, see Bloodhound (disambiguation). ...

Meanwhile, Irmy and Peter meet and at first Peter is ready to kill Irmy for sleeping with another man, but they are interupted by a cry, and find a baby on the ground, the same one that she and Kleinman had seen earlier with the starving woman. They decide to keep it, and leave the city, back to the circus.

Kleinman is hiding at the circus, where he meets the magician Armstead (Kenneth Mars), who he greatly admires. Then, the Strangler arrives, and is about to kill both of them when the magician with a mirror trick, mesmorizes him and manages to chain him up, but while they are congratulating each other, somehow the Strangler escapes. The angry vigilante 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 Peter 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.

External links

• Shadows and Fog at the Internet Movie Database
• Shadows and Fog at Rotten Tomatoes