Zelig (1983)

One of Woody Allen's most diverse film projects, and coincidentally his shortest film to date, was the pseudo-documentary film he released in 1983, Zelig. The film, which Allen worked on at the same time as A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, is a visual marvel and a miniature gem in Allen's filmography. Though he had used a documentary approach somewhat in his first directorial feature, Take the Money and Run (1967), it was with Zelig that he went "all the way", so to speak. If you were unfamilair with the faces of Allen and Farrow, and were to stumble upon this "documentary" on television, it would take quite some time to figure out that it couldn't possibly be true. This is a testament to the rigorous mimicry of the documentary style that Allen creates and employs for the entire 80 minutes of the film.

Zelig is the completely fictional, highly entertaining documentary of the chameleon-man, Leonard Zelig. Played by Allen, Zelig is a man first noticed at a party by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who has the ability to turn in to other people when surrounded by them. For example, if he is among doctors, he transforms into a doctor, if around overweight people, he quickly becomes heavy himself. I shouldn't say it's an ability, it's more of a coping mechanism for Zelig. As he admits in psychiatric care, he wants to fit in so badly that he literally becomes whoever he is with. It is a typically briliant set-up for a Woody Allen film, yet it never plays like a film (indeed there are only a handful of scenes in the entire film). Instead, he uses pictures, voice-over narration, and interviews with surviving people who knew him to tell this unusual story.

At the same time, Zelig is a bit of a love story, centering on Zelig and the psychologist who attempts to treat and cure his rare disease. The nurse, played by Mia Farrow (in her second Allen film), eventually is able to make breakthroughs through the use of hypnosis and other tools, and begins to catch a glimpse of the "real" Leonard Zelig. The two begin to spend much time together, both in treatment and outside of it, and the press pays them much attention--especially when she appears to have "cured" him. But, as you would expect from a Woody Allen film, just when you think you've had enough of the gag, he pushes it into a completely unexpected direction. As Zelig seeks to marry his doctor, a woman comes forward and claims that Zelig married her years earlier, and is the father of her child. Soon, many women come forward with the same complaint. Zelig's lawyers try to claim that he could not be held responsible for things he did while assuming an alternate personality, but the public doesn't buy it. Soon, the once loved Zelig becomes the outcast, infamous Zelig. Without spoiling the ending for those of you who may not have seen it, I'll stop the plot summary there.

Zelig is a unique film, quite unlike any other I can recall seeing. Though it is completely fictional, it rarely seems to wink at that, choosing to play it as a straight documentary, and allowing the laughs and jokes to arise from this set-up. As I mentioned earlier, this film was made at a particularly busy part of Allen's film career (overlapping with his work on Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy), and a particularly important part. After the critical and commercial trashing he took for Stardust Memories, he felt he needed to move in a different direction--though not one that any person could be expecting. With the late-19th century, light-hearted Sex Comedy and the pseudo-documentary Zelig, Allen definitely accomplished this and established himself as an artist continually seeking out new ways of telling his tales and making his films.

Release Date: July 15, 1983

Domestic Total Gross: $11,798,616

Distributor: Warner Bros

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