Ombres et brouillard

This is a film in which the director ventured into experimental territory and deviated from the usual intellectual conversations toward an atmospheric homage to old German expressionist films. In the film, the dialogues are not important, although there are a few decent moments here as well, for example, when the protagonist in the form of a nobody with a Jewish name approaches a priest and a police officer as authorities and they clearly engage in compiling a list of inconvenient individuals... On the contrary, the film focuses on playing with shadows, omnipresent fog, dark decorations, and mysterious characters emerging from the alleyways. The problem is that even though the film is teeming with stars, their utilization is very modest, and overall, Shadows and Fog falls into the category of films that evoke a lot of hope but fail to fulfill it over time. It lacks a proper dramatic arc, more humorous dialogues, and some meaningful culmination of individual scenes, as well as a stronger narrative for the main character. Overall impression: 55%. (30/05/2010)

If Franz Kafka had written a humorous novel, it might well have been just like Shadows and Fog. The strangler hunt idea is simply brilliant. Like the protagonist, we don't really know anything from beginning to end, only sometimes we learn that the killer has eliminated someone, and sometimes that the hunters split into factions may soon start killing each other... That's all. There are only two islands of normality in this gloomy, absurd world - the circus and the brothel. Woody Allen (or rather one of the characters) says in the end that man needs illusions to live. And I can sign off on that. (03/02/2014)