Shadows and Fog (1991)

Second viewing; first viewed on October 11, 1992.

Based on the play Death, by Woody Allen, first published in 1975.

In a German-speaking European city, a homicidal maniac is on the loose. A modest bureaucratic employee is summoned in the middle of the night to take part in a vigilante group. He spends that entire night in a series of adventures involving, among others, a circus woman.

This is an oddly conceived film, at once heavily theatrical and heavily cinematic, swinging between those two aesthetic poles, or at times combining them into a scene, and not worrying about compatibility or unity. The film's plot also brings together two somewhat disjointed strands (the killer, the circus), with little reason for doing it. It is an easy watch, though, with pleasant enough dialogue and pleasant enough imagery. Allusions to persecution and to accusations of "well poisoning" are casually thrown in, but the word "Jew" is never mentioned.

Rating: 53 (down from 56)