Shadows and Fog (1991 Woody Allen)

It's certainly Kafkaesque - being awoken in the middle of the night, not being told the plan you're supposedly part of, being written down on a 'list'... quite how he ends up with a magical ending is down to the talent of the writer, who sketched the beginning of this material in 'Death (A Play)', first published in 1975 in 'Without Feathers' and featuring Kleinman, a doctor, a prostitute, a man who claims he can sniff the identity of the killer, and even identical dialogue.

What it doesn't have though is a kick-ass cast of Madonna, Mia Farrow and John Malkovich, Jodie Foster, John Cusack, Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin, Kenneth Mars (magician) and Wallace Shawn. With Fred Melamed, Fred Gwynne, Julie Kavner, Kate Nelligan, Donald Pleasance, David Ogen Stiers, Philip Bosco.

Features his trademark from this period of characters beginning to start a conversation with someone who is off-screen, e.g. Farrow with Tomlin under a railway bridge.

Santo Loquasto's minimal expressionistic sets (built in Queens) shot by Carlo di Palma in grey.

No one went to see it, of course. It's crazy, unsettling (especially Kurt Weill's music), strangely beautiful and funny.