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Zelig Details

1983

70
from 4051 members

Starring	Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, Michael Jeter, Mary Louise Wilson
Director	Woody Allen
Genres	Comedy

Zelig

Leonard Zelig, the human chameleon, is profiled in this mock-documentary. Director Woody Allen appears as Zelig in scenes that purport to be vintage newsreel clips of the 1920s and 1930s, but are actually clever recreations, aged and scratched-up Citizen Kane-style by special-effects maestros Joel Hynick, Stuart Robinson and R. Greenberg Associates. An appropriately pompous narrator details the life and times of Leonard Zelig, whose overwhelming desire for conformity is manifested in his ability to take on the facial and vocal characteristics of whomever he happens to be around at the moment. He shows up at batting practice with Babe Ruth, among William Randolph Hearst's guests as San Simeon, side by side with Pope Pius at the Vatican, and peering anxiously over the shoulder of Adolf Hitler at the Nuremberg Rally. Becoming a celebrity in his own right, Zelig inspires a song, a dance craze, and a Warner Bros. biopic. Mia Farrow plays Dr. Eudora Fletcher , a psychiatrist who tries to reach Zelig and ultimately falls in love with him (all of Farrow's scenes are in black-and-white and allegedly culled from archive footage; Ellen Garrison, whose resemblance to Farrow is uncanny, plays the older Dr. Fletcher in the interview sequences). In the manner of Reds, the influence of the fictional Leonard Zelig on popular culture is discussed by such real-life notables as Susan Sontag, Irving Howe, Saul Bellow and Dr. Bruno Bettenheim.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Starring	Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, Michael Jeter, Mary Louise Wilson
Director	Woody Allen
Studio	MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 16 mins
Certificate
Genres	Comedy
Language	DVD: English
Dubbed	French, German, Italian, Spanish
Hearing-impaired	English, German
Subtitles	DVD: Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish
Released	Production year: 1983 To Rent: DVD: 19 Aug 2002

Critic's review of Zelig
View all (1)
- One of Allen's miniaturist exercises in style, Zelig is a one-joke movie about a man so self- effacing that he takes on... read more on Time Out
- 45094
- - Time Out
  - 04 Nov 2008 at 00:15
Most helpful member's review of Zelig
View all members' reviews (33)
- - 9
  - 0
  Overlooked Allen Classic
  
  A fake documentary about a fictional person who has a very unusual mental disorder that's exceptionally difficult to explain by typing. The film marks a ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 111660
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  
  [Highly rated reviewer]
  - McClennan
  - 424 reviews
  - St Helens
  - 07 Jun 2005 at 09:37
Most recent members' reviews of Zelig
View all members' reviews (33)
- - 0
  - 0
  An Absolute must
  
  Allen meets Wells. The only down side was that it wasn't longer. This is a hilarious mockumentary, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Snappy, fresh, cool, can't ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 997702
- - plopnbetty
  - 2 reviews
  - 27 May 2011 at 21:07
- - 0
  - 0
  Satire Well Executed
  
  Woody Allen combines a satirical view of the popular personal-documentary form with a statement about the pressure to conform in modern society. The documentary... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 966161
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  - Seedyvee
  - 121 reviews
  - Grantham
  - 20 Feb 2011 at 20:14
- - 0
  - 0
  Grainy Delight
  
  Clever and witty one-joke film. The really clever bit is how Allen managed to keep the single theme of someone who adopts and absorbs different personalities ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 953701
- - born2run
  - 76 reviews
  - Isles of Scilly
  - 14 Jan 2011 at 21:12
View all members' reviews (33)
News and features
View all
Whatever Happened to Woody Allen?
- 21 May 2008
He's made (at least!) a film a year since 1970, a record that's all the more remarkable when you realise that he's written and directed all of them, and starred in most. They include some of the best-loved and most quoted comedies in cinema history: Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters take some beating, and that's to ignore "the early, funny ones" (Sleeper, Love and Death, Bananas); the lovely miniatures from what I consider his finest period (the early 80s gave us Broadway Danny... Read more
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- Zelig
  
  Leonard Zelig, the human chameleon, is profiled in this mock-documentary. Director Woody Allen appears as Zelig in scenes that purport to be vintage newsreel clips of the 1920s and 1930s, but are actually clever recreations, aged and scratched-up Citizen Kane-style by special-effects maestros Joel ...