Shadows and Fog

In his ode to German expressionism, Kafka, and the music of Kurt Weill, Woody Allen makes style a delightful end in itself. A funny, unpredictable exercise in mood that allows cinematographer Carlo Di Palma to indulge in one eerily atmospheric image after another, the black-and-white Shadows and Fog lets Allen’s nebbish persona—here named Kleinman—loose in a chiaroscuro maze. Wrongly fingered as a serial killer, Kleinman finds himself on the run from a vigilante mob, his nocturnal journey intersecting with the lives of a succession of circus performers, prostitutes, and magicians. The pleasingly bizarre cast includes Madonna, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Jodie Foster, and Kathy Bates.