Zelig
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Movie Reviews of Zelig
Movie Review: "Your pancakes... Your pancakes are terrible..."
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is perhaps the ultimate in parody-documentary. Some people might find the pace a bit slow, and the humor a bit dry, precisely because it is presented exactly as it would be if it were an actual serious documentary about a real historical personage. It requires a bit more thought and attention on the part of the vewer than does a "conventional" comedy for that reason. At one point the narrator, in his best, serious, Public Television Documentary National Geographic Special voice, describes Zelig's parents and their violent domestic squabbles: "...Even though they lived over a bowling alley, it was the bowling alley that complained about the noise." This sort of thing could go right past you if you weren't really listening.
The reason this film works is that all of the supporting details are meticulous and perfect. All of the 1920's songs about Zelig (such as "The Chameleon Dance" and "You May Be Six People, But I Love You") are written and performed so perfectly in period style that I, watching it the first few times, could hardly believe that they were not actual, real (but obscure) 1920's songs that they found somewhere which happened to fit the movie theme, rather than being modern parodies of vintage recordings. (Speaking as a musician, I can vouch for the fact that that bright, Irish popular tenor sound which was all the rage back then is a rarity these days!)
And all of the film clips are just as carefully executed. I seem to remember, back when this film was just out, an article describing how Allen's production staff took just-shot black and white footage into the parking lot and threw it on the ground and walked all over it, and carefully crinkled the film, so that it would look worn and decades-old. Another tour-de-force was inserting Allen himself, playing the title character, into REAL period footage. The most famous example is a film of Hitler ranting away to a crowd on his Nazi platform, and seated behind him among all of the party officials is... Zelig. This was an amazing technical achievement at the time, long before digital cinematography had become commonplace, and it was brilliantly done.
And then of course, there are all of the present-day intellectual luminary talking heads being interviewed for their two cents, again, just like a true documentary. One that comes to mind of course is the (now late) Susan Sontag. I am sure that all of those "experts" had lots of fun filming this.
The subject of the documentary, Zelig, has an unusual mental/physical affliction due to insecurity. He literally, and physically, becomes just like whoever he is with, in order to blend in and be accepted. This offers the opportunity for plenty of sight gags as Zelig turns into different cultures, occupations, and races -- sometimes more than one at once! He is alternately exploited as a circus freak for profit, and attempted to be cured by his caring psychiatrist. He is alternately proclaimed a hero, a villain, a traitor, and a hero again by a fickle public. Zelig's exchanges with his psychiatrist are some of the funniest dialogue in the film. When she finally manages to get Zelig under hypnosis so that she can find out what the true, non-chameleon person inside really thinks, he launches into a (dreamy, trance-voiced) tirade about her awful cooking. I still joke with my wife to this day about her "terrible pancakes." [grin]
Those who are Woody Allen fans in general will of course probably enjoy this; people who like subtle wit and parody generally will probably enjoy this; people who habitually overdose on PBS and The History Channel but still have enough sense of humor left to laugh at themselves will probably enjoy this. If you prefer jokes with punchlines, or "Gilligan, drop those coconuts!" then Zelig is probably one to avoid.
And might I add in parting: If you have not yet read Moby Dick, don't wait until it is too late!
Movie Review: The best documentary that isn't really a documentary I've ever seen...
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely LOVE that this is called `the thinking persons `Forrest Gump'' because we all know how I feel about that mediocre film, and the fact that this film, while carrying with it similar characteristics, manages to blow that Tom Hanks atrocity out of the water is just so richly rewarding for me. `Zelig' is smart, engaging, unique and unforgettable.
1983 is a weird year for me. There is a lot going on that I really wanted to just love but wound up feeling completely under-whelmed by (I really thought that `Scarface' was supposed to be some great big heap of awesome but it wound up being a well acted heap of sloppy, and `The Year of Living Dangerously' seemed to squander all its potential in a predictable love story) and yet, my personal Best Picture ballot is an odd mix of films I never expected to remotely enjoy. We have a foreign language family drama from Ingmar Bergman (ok, so I really expected to slobber all over `Fanny and Alexander' and I did), an engaging and provoking collection of home movies (`Sans Soleil' is just utterly astonishing), the conclusion to George Lucas's science fiction epic (say what you will, but `Return of the Jedi' is just as perfect as the previous two efforts were), a comedy by Martin Scorsese (`The King of Comedy' changed the way I looked at Martin Scorsese as a director) and this BRILLIANT faux-documentary by Woody Allen.
Narrated by Patrick Horgan (in true documented fashion), `Zelig' tells the story of Leonard Zelig, a man with a strange social disease that causes him to change his physical and emotional makeup in order to adapt to his surroundings. He changes his speak patterns, his life story and his physical appearance in order to blend into his surroundings. Dr. Eudora Nesbitt Fletcher becomes obsessed with uncovering the reasons behind Zelig's condition. Through recorded sessions we learn about an uncomfortable situation where Zelig is asked if he has read a popular novel only to lie to escape embarrassment, thus initiating his conformity.
For me, this film speaks strongly on two subjects; our instinctive desire to fit in and our instinctive desire to shun what we don't understand. Zelig desires to be liked so much that he uncontrollably conforms to his surroundings. As a result he becomes shunned as an even greater outcast by those who uncover his strange ability.
Without ever coming across preachy or saccharine (not in the SLIGHTEST), `Zelig' tells us that it is okay to be different, it is better to be ourselves and it is okay to accept something we personally don't understand.
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow are great here, perfectly adapting themselves into the films genre. I don't know if you can really classify this as acting, since they really appear in a series of photographs (some of which are altered flawlessly) and a few scattered clips, but there is an effortless quality to their work here. What is even more commendable is Woody Allen's direction. The look and feel of this film is so genuine and authentic that you would swear you were watching a real documentary.
It is astonishing, truly.
I am not a huge fan of the documentary (although I am always fascinated by the BBC documentaries because they are so bizarre), and I know that this is not a `documentary' in the literal sense (since it is purely fiction) but this film flows like a documentary, of the most engrossing kind. It's worth noting that this is NOT a mockumentary or a parody in any way shape or form. This is a very serious film despite its comical qualities and should be regarded as such. I applaud Woody Allen, because I really don't think any other director could have pulled this off quite like he did.
Movie Review: Allen Parodies Documentaries. His most unusual film.
Summary: 5 Stars
`Zelig', written and directed by Woody Allen, is a truly, truly odd and unusual film, even for Woody. On the surface, it is very similar to some of the early Woodman films like `Bananas' and `Sleeper', yet it was made after the very important `Annie Hall' and `Manhattan', which marked a change in Allen's movies toward a much stronger concern with characters and story.
One is almost inclined to describe this as a science fiction movie, the classic characterization of which is to set up a hypothesis of `lets imagine such and such is true' and lets see what comes of it. While the classic hypotheses of classic sci-fi are time travel, faster than light travel, colonization of other planets, alien intelligences, and unusual human and artificial intelligences and powers, `Zellig' simply hypothesizes a person who can change to fit the appearance and speech of those in whose company he happens to be. This ability is not limited to normal abilities of impersonators such as Rich Little. This includes changing skin color, gaining or loosing weight, and changing facial features.
All this could easily devolve into a convenient situation for making jokes, and there are jokes aplenty based on this odd premise, yet you still develop sympathy for Leonard Zellig, played by Allen, and his young psychiatrist, played by Mia Farrow. In fact, the acting by Farrow may be some of her very best in bringing this really bizarre material to life.
While my experience with watching movies is pretty broad, it is not exactly encyclopedic, so I am really hard pressed to think of any movie with which this film has any affinity whatsoever. The interspersed interviews with real, notable intellectuals such as Susan Sontag, Saul Bellow and Irving Howe are similar to interviews done in `Reds', the Warren Beatty work on the American journalist who covered the Russian revolution. It may be total coincidence, but this movie also stars former Allen costar Diane Keaton, so I'm thinking some cross-pollination may be going on here. This failure to find an exemplar that Allen is parodying is also strongly against form. Almost half of his movies that are not set in Manhattan are parodies of some other genre. I simply cannot imagine what genre Allen is playing against with this film.
While Allen is not adverse to very large casts (See `Annie Hall', for example), he is typically not big on tricky special effects and photography, yet this movie is a major essay in very subtle, yet very good special effects which place Allen and Farrow into documentary films of New York parades, 1920's jazz performances, and films of Adolf Hitler in Germany. And, this is all done with only a few additions to his most familiar collaborators such as cinematographer Gordon Willis and editor Susan Morse. He does bring in an important composer to do new songs to simulate some early thirties popular music written to celebrate the popular `chameleon' Zelig'.
While one may ultimately not warm to the improbability of the situation, this movie is probably a landmark in Allen's body of work, staking out a direction and genre that few other filmmakers would take on. Remarkably, in the same work, Allen remains true to the reality of human frailties with his stock company of collaborators while creating an essay in filmmaking that rivals some of the more unusual films of the last century.
Like most Allen movies, I give it high marks for rewatchability, even if you must stretch just a bit to appreciate the unusual premise. The consolidation is that there are probably more jokes per segment than any of his films since `Annie Hall'.
Movie Review: "Identity Crisis and Its Relationship to Personality Disorder "
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the most sophisticated, cleverest, funniest, exquisitely shot and edited, scored, and acted movies ever made, "Zelig" is a masterpiece and astounding work even for Woody Allen whose mediocre movies are way above the regular Hollywood fares.
With the modest running time less than 80 minutes, this mockumentary tells the story of a "human chameleon", Leonard Zelig, Leonard the Lizard who possessed an extraordinary ability to transform himself in anyone he met (or should I say, an extraordinary ability possessed him?).
Leonard is a shy, little, meek Jewish man whose rare personality disorder consists of not having his own personality at all and successfully and effortlessly adapting any personality he came close to and fitting perfectly to any surroundings. His skin turns black when he is with the Black people, with the Native Americans, he became one; attending the dinner with the intellectuals, he speaks brilliantly with F.S. Fitzgerald, when on the baseball field, he is Babe Ruth. The meeting with an intelligent and compassionate psychiatrist, Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow) will begin the slow and long process for Zelig of searching and finding his own personality and possibility for love and happiness. The movie provides laughs and smiles but it also makes the viewer think of more serious subjects. Are we all have a Zelig inside? Don't we all want to be liked and try to adapt to our surroundings to feel comfortable? The movie can also be viewed as the meditation on the nature of the acting ability. While watching "Zelig", I kept thinking of a book I read recently. One of the characters was a great actor who had the similar to Zelig's disorder - he had no personality at all until he was given a part to act on stage. That Actor made the best and most convincing and complex Shakespeare's heroes - he was a brilliant reflective Hamlet but his greatest success was tragic Othello. The actor's transformation to Othello was so real that he acted it at home with his wife whom he suspected in cheating - he played his role perfectly with the same as in the play results. He ended up in the asylum where he could not act but he was allowed to read...Dostoevsky's novel "The Possessed" from which he chose to adapt the personality of Nikolai Stavrogin with rather unpredictable results. When his doctor finally realized what happened, he took all books with the exception of "The Idiot". Finally, the actor became a gentle and kind Prinz Myshkin, and that was the end of book.
Both, the book and the movie "Zelig" made me think of the price the artists pay to achieve perfection in their art. Are they vampires sucking the life out of their victims only to use them as characters for their acting roles? Is that the ultimate price the artist is paying for being a great artist? Does he need lives and souls of others to be able to create? This is one of many subjects "Zelig" makes you think about.
Allen seamlessly weds Black and white newsreel footage with his humorous but deep and fascinating tale allowing Zelig to be exactly where and when History was made. Using special lenses to give the movie the old style, mixing his own footage with the real documentaries, including his favorite music, dances, feeling perfectly forever gone era, Woody recreates The Roaring 20Th with breathtaking authenticity.
According to my new grading system, MIWIHSIIT, a Masterpiece, I wish I had seen in the theater
Movie Review: A Unique, Original Film by Woody Allen
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1983-mockumentary from director Woody Allen is one of his most fascinating, unique films. Allen portrays Leonard Zelig, a human chameleon who frequently appears during the course of history. The term chameleon never clicked with me while reading synopsis' of this film, but Zelig is quite literally a chameleon, having the ability to transform into people he's around making it easy to fit in with anyone; black, Jewish, doctors, etc. The plot, told with "old," narrated footage of Zelig and intercut with present-day "interviews," follows Zelig as he gains national attention for his remarkable ability. Doctors are baffled and eventually find themselves giving up on Zelig, with the exception of Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow), who thinks she can help him.
Allen incorporates himself into actual, historical footage throughout the film (the funniest being one involving Hitler) and he does it seamlessly. Considering Allen didn't have the digital technology of today, it's impressive how effortlessly and perfectly he had himself weaved into this pre-existing footage. Equally impressive though are the scenes filmed specifically for the film, which look and feel exactly like footage from the era. While the film sounds like it's driven by a gimmick, Allen never lets you in on the fact that it is a gimmick `cause every shot, every song just feels right.
The film blends Allen's filmmaking styles, with both his witty, subtle humor and some dramatic elements. While it's not exactly more "accessible" than other Allen films, it's experimental nature will appeal to non-Allen fans. There are films that share similar themes and attributes with Zelig, but it's one of Allen's most original films.
Overall, it's a fascinating and amusing entry in Allen's filmography. At only 71 minutes, Woody Allen gives us one of his most memorable creations. I don't think it's a perfect film, but it's so good that the bad isn't worth mentioning.
GRADE: A-