The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 20,1992- Page 9
Woody Allen's latest is just another murky mess

Shadows and Fog
dir. Woody Allen
by Austin Ratner
F or a movie called Shadows and
Fog, there is little that is hazy, de-
ceptive or subtle about Woody
Allen's latest heavy-handed experi-
ment with serious themes. This is
not to say that Allen hasn't exam-
ined serious themes in his previous
films - he has, and often quite suc-
cessfully - but those films were
funny.

Fog is a poor imitation of Allen's
former comedic self. The film's at-
tempt at humor fails, leaving its
sometimes interesting thematic dia-
logue stranded. The result is an in-
coherent and not particularly original
exposition of life in modem times.
The story is set in the middle of
the night in an unidentified, dream-
like European city, early this cen-
tury. The haphazard and blatantly
symbolic events of the plot surround
the stalkings of a strangler (Michael
Kirby) and the chaotic paranoia
which ensues in the city's popula-
tion.

Zeigler'9 s festival coup
by Jon Bilik
ith a piece that garnered a "C" in her film class, Noemi Zeigler, a se-
nior in Film and Video Studies, is the only Ann Arbor filmmaker to have
had her work accepted into the Ann Arbor Film Festival. "I think it comes
through if you have something to say and if you're sincere," says Zeigler,
explaining why her film was accepted. "If there's content and a visual
style that works, something that draws you to film as a medium, then peo-
ple will want to see it and it will mean something to them."
Zeigler characterizes her film, "The Primrose Path," as an "expe-
rimental narrative, loosely based on Shakespeare's Ophelia, about a wo-
man on the verge of insanity trying to make choices about which direction
to take amidst a pathological family life." Drawing on her own experience,
Zeigler wanted to make a film about rape.
She began "with the feeling of violation that I wanted to get across,
then I just sort of happened to hook into this imagery with Hamlet and I
created a set of visuals in my mind that had little to do with the text."
While she credits Shakespeare with the influence and the characters, the
film evolved into its own piece. Ophelia's character became her own per-
son.
Zeigler explains that she doesn't begin with a script because - "I'm
not that intellectual," she says - but instead works through visual im-
agery, color schemes and emotional qualities in order to convey states of
mind. She was drawn to Hamlet because of its distinct moods - Hamlet's
depression, Ophelia's madness.
Associating each character with one of the four humors, Zeigler saw
Ophelia as yellow bile, living "in a state of lethargic hopelessness and cry-
ing." From there, she developed her story line.
Zeigler didn't realize she wanted to make films until college, though
she always knew she wanted to be some kind of performer. It was in a
class on Ingmar Bergman that she recognized film's capacities as an ex-
pressive, artistic medium, and her first film was inspired by Bergman's
The Seventh Seal. She made it into the Ann Arbor Film Festival for the
first time last year with her "Breezes in the Dark," an autobiographical
film examining her relationships with men and with her mother.
"The Primrose Path" went under a number of evolutions before it
reached its present incarnation, says Zeigler, a process that took place
purely in the editing, after she pulled herself away from the school envi-
ronment where she felt she wasn't getting the support she needed. "I
knew," she says, "that I had not achieved yet what the film was about, and
I knew I could do it."
In addition to artistic support, Zeigler faced financial obstacles; her film
eventually cost $8,000 to make, a staggering sum for a film 11 minutes
long, especially when one considers the amateur status of the independent
filmmakers whoreceive most of their money from grants and foundations.
Zeigler herself contributed $4,000, making up the difference with help
from others in her filmmaking group and a grant from the University.
Ziegler would like to make more mainstream films eventually, films
that won't be shown solely in university settings to "liberal types who say
'you're right, you're right, that's exactly what I think,"' she says.
"Because how can you change people if your only audience is people
just like you? I'm not embarrassed to say that I want to make money be-
cause your only way to make films is to compete on that level," Zeigler
adds.
Dismayed by the lack of women's voices in both the mainstream and
independent circuits, Zeigler still sees sexism "on every level for every
women filmmaker I've talked to," she says.
Women's independent films, she notes, lack an attention to the mother-
daughter relationship. This has been overlooked in favor of dramas of fa-
ther and son. In all her own films, says Zeigler, she works through a
mother relationship in testament to her mother's strength.
In "The Primrose Path," Zeigler gives Ophelia a mother, modeled after
Queen Gertrude, in order to examine "a fairy tale and the falsity of the
fairy tale we all grow up with: about Cinderella and the slipper and the
prince coming. That's a big part of what the film's about. This girl's been
set up to lead a fairy tale life and have the prince come and take her away
from all her misery and the pathology of her family and he never comes."
Zeigler is, understandably, pleased to be in this year's festival, but is
waiting for final judgment from the audience. "I want to know what it feels
like to be in a room of people watching my film," says Zeigler. "That's
what I'll gauge my success on."
"THE PRIMROSE PATH" plays tonight at the Ann Arbor Film Festival at
the Michigan Theater.
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Fog begins as Kleinman (Allen)
is awoken by his fellow citizen vigi-
lantes who have a plan to catch the
strangler, but don't tell Kleinman
what it is or what he's supposed to
do. This and other anxiously surreal
circumstances give the story the feel
of a dream. Maybe Kleinman is
dreaming about Ingmar Bergman
films, which could explain the set-
ting, the black and white photogra-
phy, and the weighty symbolism.
Or maybe he's dreaming about
movie stars - Fog is loaded with
them for no apparent reason. Allen
could be flexing his movie-making
muscles by sticking a lot of talent
(and Madonna) into a bunch of mi-
nor roles.
At any rate, the stars don't help
to invigorate the bland script and its
dud jokes. One character (John
Malkovich) describes sleeping with
a prostitute as going to bed "with a
burning desire" and waking up "with
a burning sensation." Such lame el-
ementary school playground stuff
pales beside the Woody Allen of old.
Allen's old self-conscious sar-
castic anxiousness, parody and ab-
surdism - in movies like Annie
Hall, or the earlier, more slapstick
films like Bananas and Love and
Death - rightfully entitled him to
the label comic genius. And through
satire or witty and sensitive portray-
als of life that we could relate to,
Allen was able successfully to ex-
plore serious topics and human feel-
ings. But without a comic medium to
organize his approach to rendering
human experience, the themes fall
out as a jumbled, boring listing.
Fog touches on godlessness, fear
of death, the complications of human
relationships and sexuality, the ten-
sion between chaos and order in so-
ciety, hatred and persecution, the
failure of science before 20th cen-
tury uncertainty, and the redemptive
power of new life. It's a good, im-
portant list, but that's pretty much all
it is: a list, disguised by an hour-and-
a-half of disconnected, pretentious
speeches and obvious symbols in
black in white.
"There's no point to anything,"
muses Jack the student (John
Cusack) on committing suicide. "But
my blood always said live, live, and
I always listen to my blood." Yeah, I
know what you mean, but - oh,
shut up.

In the end of Fog, Woody retreats
to that safest of resolutions, dating
back to Shakespeare - illusion is
the best answer to this mess. Again,
a potentially significant thematic el-
ement, but only a loose end for
Fog's long, muddled list.
The final scene does, however,
present the movie's funniest mo-
ment, in which Kleinman and the
circus magician (Kenneth Mars)
look the strangler - Death - in the
face from inside a trick mirror. For a
second, Allen assumes a goofy self-
deprecating look as he mocks Death
personified, conscious that one can
only do so with illusions, in the
movies. Few of the other scenes
contain any glimpse of that older
comic vitality or the sensitivity
which accompanied it.
With Scenes from a Mall as his
last movie appearance, Woody
Allen's career needs a kick in the
pants. Fog was a good kick in the
crotch maybe, but it won't deter
what seems the gradual decline of a
great comic talent.
SHADOWS AND FOG starts today
at Briarwood.

Scenes from a dog: (top) Woody Allen looks predictably bewildered as
Kathy Bates welcomes him to a brothel; (bottom) Allen and Mia Farrow
gaze into the distance, musing about life, the universe and everything.

i


ANN ARboR 1 &2
TH AVE. AT LIBERTY 761-0
00 DAILY SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM
ALL DAY TUESDAY

The University of Michigan
SCHOOL OF MUSIC

I

Sun. Mar.

22

Mon. Mar. 23
Wed. Mar. 25
Thu. Mar. 26

Guest Artist Recital
Enrique Feldman, tuba
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Music of Feldman, Schubert, Vaughan
Williams and Ritter George
McIntosh Theatre, 2 p.m.
Faculty Recital
Arthur Greene, piano
Wenzel: Sakura Fantasy (U.S. Premiere)
Beethoven: Sonata No.23, op.57 in f minor,
"Appassionata"
Chopin: Nocturne and Ballade
Scrabin: 12 Etudes
School of Music Recital Hall, 8 p.m.
Michigan Youth Ensembles
Michigan Youth Chamber Singers
Jerry Blackstone, conductor
Michigan Youth Band
Dennis Glocke, conductor
Michigan Youth Jazz Ensemble
Christopher Creviston, conductor
Michigan Youth Symphony
Donald Schleicher, conductor
Hill Audtorium, 7 p.m.
U-M Euphonium/Tuba Ensemble
Spring Concert
Fritz Kaenzig, director
Music of Mozart, Gibbons, Villa Lobos,
Elgar, McFarland, Ott, Wagner and
Tchaikovsky
School of Music Recital Hall, 8 p.m.
Jazz Combos
Ed Sarath, director
North Campus Commons, 8 p.m.
MFA Dance Concert
Tickets: $5
Dance Building, Studio A, 8 p.m.
Opera Theatre
Rossini: The Barber of Seville
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Tickets: $12, $9, $6 (students)
(764-0450)
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m.
"Take Me Back"

Thu.
Mar.
Thu.
Mar.

- Sat.
26-28
- Sun.
26-29

Sun. Mar. 29

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