User reviews

Was this the first "mockumentary"? I checked out IMDb and it predates Guest, Reiner and co.'s This Is Spinal Tap by a year. Not only was it a fake documentary, it sustained the format throughout, never once breaking into an enacted scene. Allen told his story, set in his favorite time period, The Roaring 20's, using special lenses to create the old style newsreels. Using photo stills, mixing real footage with his, and providing exposition via modern-day "historians" and aged characters, he gave this innovative film such an authenticity that if one didn't know any better, you would swear there had been an actual Leonard Zelig.

Allen plays Leonard, a man so devoid of identity, so eager to assimilate, that he literally takes on the appearance or, at least, the attributes of anyone he comes in contact with. Mia Farrow plays his psychiatrist, Dr. Eudora Fletcher, and taken in smaller doses, she actually is perfect in this role. There are a few moments when you get to see an extended dialogue between the two, most notably when her brother is filming "The White Room" sessions at her country estate. This is the only time that Allen's shtick gets to flex, as he cracks jokes about teaching a Masturbation class. Advanced. I also loved Zelig groaning about Eudora's terrible cooking under hypnosis. Eventually, Dr. Fletcher is able to cure him, and with his newfound personality, he and Eudora fall in love.

Allen also introduces the idea of Zelig's story being filmed as a movie, so he inter cuts some of the news sources with scenes from the film (very funny). The one thing that really stood out for me, though, was this revelation towards the end of the film. Woody as Leonard Zelig was smiling. A lot. It was kind of weird to see, but his happiness actually imbued the film with positive emotion and charmed the pants off me (not literally, of course) to such a degree that I will undoubtedly be repeating my viewing pleasure many more times.

I'll be honest. There were moments early on that I perhaps wondered if he was going to be able to sustain my interest. I thought he might be playing this conceit a little too long. What had, in the first 20 minutes, been enchanting and amusing seemed to dwindle in the middle of the film. Would he really succeed at telling an engaging story in this method? Well, I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. He layers so many meanings into his character's transformations, and all of his historians offer different interpretations. The importance of being yourself. How Zelig's journey was America's journey during the tumultuous and wild 20's. He also has a great running gag about Moby Dick that lampoons the Great American Novel.

Will Allen ever be this innovative and original again? Well, it appears he's making an attempt with his newest film, Melinda and Melinda, in which he tells the same story twice, with one tone being humorous, while the other is tragic. If nothing else, he at least continues to strive for an authentic voice in this littered landscape of movie franchises and ridiculously insulting comedies. Go Woody.

"Zelig" is a very clever movie, the kind you just know Woody Allen is capable of. In this "mockumentary," Woody plays Leonard Zelig, an insecure man who goes to the ultimate length to fit in. Mia Farrow offers the love interest as Dr. Eudora Fletcher. In "Zelig," we get to see Woody spliced into old footage, including the Nazi rally. This came before the effect became used more often, in movies like "Forrest Gump." I see this as a transition in Woody's movies. It comes somewhere between his early funnier movies, like "Bananas" and "Take the Money and Run," and his later, more introspective ones, like "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Husbands and Wives." It makes a statement about individuality, and produces laughs in the process.

This could well be a review of 90% of Woody Allen's oeuvre. The film is a smorgasbord of fabulousness - exquisite concepts, very clever lines and very funny ones. No film maker has ever had such a grasp of irony, sarcasm and the ridiculous, and still imbue it with wit and (occasionally) subtlety. But it is the relentless self-deprecation and extant feelings of worthlessness that eventually become wearing after you have watched as many Allen films as I have. This is the film that most impresses you with his confusion over identity however. I could go on about self-analysis for pages but it's unnecessary...just watch any given Woody Allen film. He mellows it out with a rather forlorn sense of romance that becomes endearing rather than pathetic...a skill that is essential to engage with his films. This is a fine film. Oh yeah...and very funny...if you get the references.

Yes, a masterpiece. The entire premise of the movie is wildly original, even coming from WOODY ALLEN who continually cranks out one interesting film after another to this day.

The label of mock-umentary just doesn't do justice to the uniqueness of this film. ALLEN and his amazingly talented staff created a movie that no other director could have made nor even thought of doing. Some of the humor is rather modern like the forward references to self-gratification during the psychiatrist scenes with MIA FARROW. But mostly, it's filled with humor from another time and place which we'll never return.

To me, one of the wonderful aspects of this is the period music dispersed throughout with joyful admiration. We are lucky that ALLEN has continued to use music from the early part of the 20th century. I think no other director has so consistently had such a reverence for this wonderful music. Perhaps no other director has such a strong knowledge of it either.

That WOODY ALLEN normally portrays himself as a nebbishy character in many of his own movies works so well in this movie. A more aggressive person who becomes a chameleon would not have worked as well at all. I am glad that MIA FARROW was still associated with him when he made this film, I think no other modern actress could have pulled this off as well as she did. She has that timeless look that is appealing but has a far-off feeling.

The flavor of the period-looking cinematography and photography is part of the genius of the implementation here. It is so right on the money. The flickering of projectors, the out-of-focus look to so man scenes shot today meld amazingly well with the contrived shots.

THINK ABOUT THIS - this is years before CGI took over Hollywood...years before FORREST GUMP and countless of other knock-offs have proliferated in movies. Gee whiz, there is CGI in so many movies these days. I watched a DVD of a recent movie recently which used special effects in the most unexpected, unlikely and unnecessary parts you'd be surprised.

Yes, ZELIG is a masterpiece and I only feel sorry for those who cannot see the astounding piece of cinema this is.

Woody can be clever. Woody can be funny. And when Woody's clever AND funny, you get "Zelig".

Telling the story of Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen, who else?) who transforms himself chameleon-like into anyone just to get people to like him, he finds himself the object of on-going observation from a kind doctor (Farrow), who eventually falls for him.

But lest you think this is simply a love story, there are also pot-shots at fame, fads, the 1930s (!!), medical conventions, product cash-ins and the joys and pitfalls of celebrity.

Then there's the sheer joy of the technical wizardry that allows Woody's Zelig to stand alongside such figures as Josephine Baker, Brickhouse, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, "Red" Grange, Al Capone, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lou Gehrig and Fanny Brice. This is the same type of FX visible in "Forrest Gump", and eleven years before the fact! Nice going.

But you haven't lived till you've seen Woody trying to blend in at an Adolph Hitler speech.

There's a lot of slapstick but there's also a lot of great lines ("I have to council a group of chronic masturbators", Zelig complains, "and if I'm late they'll start without me.") Classic.

But at the center of it all is Woody himself, just like his Zelig character, wanting only to be liked, if not loved. He succeeds. Once you see "Zelig", you'll love it.

Eight stars, plus one star more for watching Woody be serenaded by Fanny Brice. He's the cat's pajamas!

Zelig (1983)

Amazing concept, diminishing laughs

When this starts, it's astonishing, and funny, and inventive. And very very well done. Starting with Susan Sontag, the real Sontag, is a leap of reality that seems like it'll carry the whole 79 minutes. And there are truly moments that show up throughout that are good for a gasp or a laugh, the Hitler scene for one.

But the concept is the key, and to some extent it's been done before, at least in stills. And once you get it, which might take three minutes or might take ten, you've got it, and it depends more on acting or cleverness from then on. And for me it falters too often to really make it worthwhile (Mia Farrow is really a bore throughout, and even Allen is sometimes straining). I have to say, the first time I saw it I didn't get as tired of it, so if it's the first time you might be thrilled. And if you've seen the 1994 Forrest Gump (and liked it), you owe it to yourself to see Zelig for being first, and in my small view, better, technically.

Because technically this is a complete marvel. The original footage is as authentically 1920s and 30s as anything authentic (an odd post modern truth), and the newly composed music and dance numbers are really fabulous, and funny. The team Allen has during all his films this period (many of them my favorites) is none other than Gordon Willis behind the camera, Susan Morse editing, Juliet Taylor casting, and Santo Loquasto costumes. The music by Allen veteran Dick Hyman, who is now more famous for his ragtime renditions, is key, of course, and really convincing (sometimes convincingly bad, very period).

So whatever my reservations, this is in many ways a fresh, unique, brilliant film, a small one with big brief moments.

Leapin' lizards! This film is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

"Zelig" was a revelation in 1983, an utterly ingenious faux-documentary, without any precedent, at least not on this scale. Hilarious then, it still is today. That quick glimpse you get of the all-Hasidic production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is priceless. It gives renewed meaning to "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

Allen's technique is extraordinary. "Zelig" has the best bogus documentary footage quite probably since "Citizen Kane".

As the film urges, everyone should "Do the Chameleon", by seeing "Zelig". Woody Allen creates a trenchant comment on people's desire for conformity: "Everybody, go chameleon." We all tend to do that to some degree, but it's not usually so amusing. Try to blend in with the crowd rushing out to find "Zelig" on video.

It is probably worth noting that a Jewish Nazi is not as ridiculous a stretch as Woody makes it seem. Reinhard Heydrich, the vicious organizer of the Final Solution, fell into that category. The top Nazis were all misfits in one way or another.

Zelig is first film of woody allen i saw,and i liked parts of a film,i liked that film is represented in a documentry type way since it worked in a unique style and it didnt suffered becase of that,i was impressed also to see that allen is a pretty good actor and that is a rare case considering other directors putting themselfs in films but he suceeded,but considering on seeing how many people find this film funny,i wasnt able to find nothing like that,movie has good potreyed story but it isnt funny one for me,since im not big fan of documentry type films in this one i was able to invest myself in a story and it picked my interest in it

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.

M:IWIHSIIT - according to my new grading system, a Masterpiece, I wish I had seen in the theater

This is a technically brilliant spoof documentary. It starts in the 1920s using grainy silent film and stills, goes through the sound era and ends in colour in the 1980s. It makes clever use of library footage and newsreels so that what you see on the screen is always plausibly what could have been shot at the time. For example, when Dr Fletcher goes to a nightclub it is illustrated by stock footage of a 1920's nightclub plus stills of Dr Fletcher that a nightclub photographer might have taken. The scenes of Zelig's treatment are explained by Dr Fletcher's being an early exponent of the use of film to record a case history. Some of the newsreel is completely faked and some is doctored so that, for example Zelig appears to be at a Hitler rally or appears to be sung to by Fanny Brice. There are also excerpts from a fake 1935 Hollywood biopic based on Zelig's life. All this is intercut with a modern commentary in colour featuring an elderly Dr Fletcher and real personalities such as Saul Bellow and Susan Sontag.

The pastiche musical numbers such as Do the Chameleon, Chameleon Days and Leonard the Lizard, were a joy

That said, the film is not very funny. I sat there thinking: ‘Wow, this is brilliant' but with only a half-smile on my face. Even at 75 minutes I found it a bit too long and repetitive like an idea for a short story that has been stretched too far.

In this mockumentary, "historical" footage is used to tell the story of a man who had a chameleon-like ability to integrate himself into his surroundings. This is a one-joke movie, and that joke is stretched much too thin to produce any laughs. There is also just one message: conformity is bad. The joke and the message are exhausted in the first 15 minutes. However, the film then drags on for another hour of repetitious footage as Allen belabors the point. The main purpose of this film is for Allen to show off the technique of merging new footage with historical footage, something that had never been done on this scale. It's an interesting exercise for a short, not a feature film.

My Rating : 9/10

To ME this is the FIRST EVER Mockumentary that I enjoyed and something that absolutely worked with my sensibilities!

Woody Allen is such a genius fellow, love his art and movies. 'Zelig' is supremely engaging, funny and has that old-world charm about it that makes it a classic.

Loved everything about this and thanks Woody for coming through when I was heavily bored with intellectual mumbo-jumbo movies and just needed the right kick in the teeth!

A brilliant mockumentary from Mr. Allen, it is the zenith of his satirical comedic career. It is the sort of off-beat filmmaking that he should perhaps consider exploring again these days even if he's not able to replicate the success of this one. The world still thirsts for those.

This film is one of the more successful Allen-Farrow collabs that consists of 12-and-a-third films, and in the subcategory of Mr. Allen's filmography where the two actually had screen time together, seven-and-a-third in my count, this tops the bunch in its tenderness and poignancy. Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors only comes as a close second and third in that distinction. It is worth checking out other works having a darker take on the themes addressed in this film regarding psychiatry, etc., the profound dystopic sci-fi films La Jetee by Chris Marker and its cinematic progeny, Twelve Monkeys by Terry Gilliam.

Exceptional cinematography from Mr. Gordon Willis, inserting those faux-newsreel footage with the real ones are just cunning and way ahead of its time. The soundtrack with those uproarious songs such as "Leonard the Lizard," "Doin' the Chameleon," "Chameleon Days" by Dick Hyman blends in as well and passes of a genuine thing of having made in pre WW-Two.

This film is a convergence of Mr. Allen's brilliance of different skills sets that showcases his mastery of the cinematic medium: directing, acting (the most iconic Woody Allen on display here), and writing.

Only criticism that can be thrown in this film is that it would have been better if it ended at the halfway mark, the point where Zelig mutters that pancakes quote under a hypnotic trance. That definite quote already hit the bull's-eye. The pay-off ended already there, sad to say.

My rating: A-flat.

The inventive mind of Woody Allen has little to prove. He has consistently managed to capture our hearts and minds with humorous entertainment of a superb quality for years. In this surprising offering entitled " Zelig " a strange phenomena occurs when Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) a common man is able to morph himself, like a chameleon into anyone around him. This includes resembling Blacks, Orientals or different cultures, nationalities and even professions. What begins as a trick, or illusion becomes a world wide sensation which further transports him into the NEWS of the Day. Zelig comes to the attention of Dr. Eudora Nesbitt Fletcher (Mia Farrow) who decides to dedicate her life to the study and understanding of the unusual man. Using a documentary style Allen captures the sites, sounds and feels of the 20's and 30' with success. With such results, the film becomes another triumph for Allen who wrote, directs and stars in this sure to become a Classic. ****

ZELIG is simply a jaw-dropping sight and sound as a film; hilarious.... out loud. The funny premise is polished to some astonishing level of trickery with editing and matte effects seamlessly blending real 20s with recreated 20s adding Allen and Farrow and dialog and interviews that will have you recalling and roaring with laughter for days. I had not seen it since 1983 and now in 2008 to be reminded how stunning and hilarious this creation is, well, I am just delighted to be back on the wavelength of this genuinely brilliant hoax documentary. Now I can see how FORREST GUMP came about, given that it is a similar 'historic' premise using real footage of events and eras mixed with the lead character. But ZELIG is another perfection altogether; if you know your 20s, silent films, the imagery, the early sound newsreels and all those silly songs, then ZELIG is a superlative treat. It even features Mae Questrel singing a new Betty Boop song and for that alone I cheer this almost perfect film. What a delight. If you also get to see the early Peter Jackson hoax documentary FORGOTTEN SILVER or Stanley Donen's MOVIE MOVIE you will be equally rewarded.

First, I am sorry for my english. I think it's a very funny and very very original film. But I think it's too longe. It would be better with 45 minutes menos

Woody Allen delivered Zelig in the middle of a particularly strong creative patch. He had successfully navigated from pure comedies to more serious comedy-dramas. If anything, Zelig falls into the former category. But it's really quite different to anything else he had directed at that point. It's a pretty experimental movie in many ways, one that uses technical wizardry like no other Allen movie. It takes the form of a mockumentary, and in order to successfully achieve its aims, it blends old and new films such that Woody himself appears seamlessly in old footage depicting various historical figures and scenes. In this sense, it pre-dates the Oscar winning Forrest Gump by a decade.

Its story revolves around a strange figure called Leonard Zelig. He is a man who had a significant effect on world affairs but who is now forgotten. Historians and people who knew him discuss his life in a talking heads format, while we see a variety of stills and clips taken from different parts of his life. It appears that he was known as a human chameleon, in that he was able to change his appearance and personality at will, so that he could blend into any situation; in this way he was, for example, able to turn black, put on excessive weight, speak new languages, etc at will. The premise is of course entirely fantastical but it is treated with sober seriousness by the narrator. This mixture of silliness with a dry academic documentary style is what makes it the film that it is. I guess it has some things to say about conformity and celebrity but in essence it's an amusing inventive docucomedy. It reminded me a little bit of Peter Greenaway's The Falls in it's absurdist humour and documentary realism, except this is a good deal more accessible and, of course, funnier. Having said all that, it isn't among Allen's best works in my opinion. It's neither as funny as his best comedies, nor as emotionally involving as his best dramas. Nevertheless, it is one of his most original. And where else can we see Allen goofing around behind Adolf Hitler at a Nazi rally? Overall, it's a film that once again proves Allen is a highly original talent.

A fascinating pseudo-documentary with an intriguing premise, the footage shown looks very authentic, edited well together, with apt sets and costumes. A number of original songs written especially for the film are included, and they sound exactly like the type of tunes expected in a 1930s musical. The non-original music choices also suit the project. Woody Allen superbly acts out the interesting character that he has written for himself: a very different type of insecure, neurotic person to what he usually plays. Even at less than eighty minutes, the material nevertheless wears thin by the end, but some great ideas are developed along the way. It also feels a bit odd to watch, as the film is not really a comedy, nor a drama - not fitting into any genre - then again, in general real life are not meant to be straight comedies or dramas, are they? With the limitations of the style that Allen has chosen for the film taken into account, he does a pretty good job.

This gem from 1983 pretends to be a documentary following the tale of Leonard Zelig (Allen), a human chameleon writhe ability to become ethnically

and socially similar to whomever he is associating with. Zelig He is exploited by psychiatrists and the media becomes a celebrity due to his ability. The story follows him through from his ignoble beginings, to the height of his popularity to his eventual destruction. The only person who cares for Leonard is Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow), but her concern may not be enough. State if the art editing effectsplace Allen in real newsreel footage with

Josephine baker, Cole Porter, the Yankees and many others.

The technical effects are marvelous. There are old-timey songs about Zelig, and plenty of altered photos. The movie never loses that "This is a true story. This is all real." feel of an actual documentary. Critics who crowed about similar effects in Forrest Gump obviously didn't realize they'd been put to

better use a decade earlier.

The writing is, as always, distinctly Allen. If you like Allen, you'll find him in top form here. While this film avoids zaniness (remember, this is real), it is always clever and witty. The more you know about the early part of last century and about psychology, the more you'll get out of this movie. Most of the humor deals with issues like celebrity, social personae, identity, psychology, the media and, of course, relationships.

I felt trapped in this film, and to me it was a misery to sit through. It's 80 minutes of the exact same gimmick repeated ad nauseum, a gimmick that the audience "gets" in the first 5 or 10 minutes, and then we are ready to move on to another joke. But no other joke is forthcoming -- it's just an endless, mind-numbing repetition of the exact same thing, a joke that wasn't that funny (to me) to begin with. If the fact that certain people are social chameleons is news to some people, then those people may, perhaps, enjoy this film. Otherwise, I'd admonish: Stay away.

I personally advise skipping this film. In my opinion, it's a one-note film based on a joke that isn't funny even the first time you hear it.