Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10995 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-08-19
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Black & White, Colour, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 76 minutes

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Mono
Original Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Menu Screens
Chapter Selections
Dutch\French\Italian\Spanish

Synopsis
Woody Allen's comic pseudo-documentary about a fictional 1920s media sensation named Leonard Zelig (Allen), a human chameleon who develops the ability to takes on the characteristics of anyone he happens to be with at the time. A gentle jab at America's obsession with fame and celebrity, as well as a parody of the documentary form, ZELIG uses an updated version of the fake newsreel technique from CITIZEN KANE to depict its hero magically at the side of almost every major personality of the early 20th century, from Eugene O'Neill to Adolf Hitler. Enriched by "commentary" from a variety of contemporary intellectuals including Irving Howe, Susan Sontag, and Saul Bellow, the film traces Zelig's bizarre career as a tabloid hero and side-show freak who finds true compassion only in the arms of his psychiatrist, the renowned Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow).

Customer Reviews

Remember when Zelig was as popular as Lindbergh?
Before there was Forrest Gump shaking hands with John F. Kennedy there was Leonard Zelig interrupting a speech by Adolf Hitler. This 1983 faux-documentary from Woody Allen tells the tale of a strange little man who wanted so badly to fit in that he was able to change like a chameleon to blend in with his surroundings, whether that meant being a musician in a black band, a psychiatrist in a mental institution, or a member of the Nazi party. Mia Farrow co-stars as Dr. Eudora Fletcher, who not only treats Zelig with her radical psychiatric theories but eventually falls in love with the lovable loser, saving him from those who want to put him on display so people can watch Leonard turn Chinese, French or obese.

Cinematographer Gordon Willis deserves a lot of the credit for "Zelig," creatively aging his film to blend with the archive footage that has Leonard rubbing elbows with Fanny Brice, Charles Chaplin and Rudolf Hess. This "documentary" includes "contemporary" interviews with Dr. Fletcher (Ellen Garrison) and other figures in the life and times of Zelig as well as comments from critics such as Susan Sontag and Saul Bellow ("He touched people in a way that they perhaps did not want to be touched..."). I also must commend the unique narrative style provided by Patrick Horgan, who delivers the sly narration with the driest sense of humor ever recorded.

My favorite section of this film is when Zelig becomes the national craze of the moment, to be celebrated and exploited by dolls, games and puzzles, songs like "Leonard the Lizard," and even a Hollywood movie. "Zelig" is a much more subtle documentary parody than either "Take the Money and Run" or "Spinal Tap." Truth, fiction and absurdity are blended seamlessly in this film, which is that most rare creature, a "charming" Woody Allen movie that is a much more enjoyable experience than reading "Moby Dick."

Minor gem
Zelig is a minor gem of a film, and in its own small way a trend-setter. Woody Allen used what were at the time ground-breaking special effects to insert Allen's fictional character into archive footage so convincingly that you can't detect the joins. But there is so much more here to relish...

Comparatively short, Zelig uses spoof documentary format to tell the tale of a human chameleon, a man who changes to blend into whichever environment he happens to be (eg. black for an encounter with Jesse Owens.) As such, this is a fresh, lightweight and funny film with much to say about human group behaviour and our need to be loved and liked. Allen doesn't preach in the slightest, but his thoughtfully allegorical message blends into the tale at just the right level to be effective.

In fact, if you had to criticise Zelig it might be that another director might have made it altogether a darker yarn. But in Wood's sure hands this is a gentle film that will not tax your imagination but will delight at all levels.

One of Woody Allen's many classic films.
Zelig (1983) came on the back of the sub-Smiles of a Summer Night movie, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. It is the film (along with Carl Reiner's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid) that made key use of fusing the film's fictional characters with those from real documentary/film (though Citizen Kane had done this also). This is the key film that the risible Forrest Gump would borrow its style/techniques from.

Zelig ties in with Allen's previous themes from psychology, here the eponymous lead is a literal chameleon, blending in with those who surround him as he travels through recent history. Amusing that Allen borrowed the witness-interview form used in Warren Beatty's Reds (1981)- pity he was forced to repeat this in the recent Sweet & Lowdown (2000). Gordon Willis's photography is simply superb here- possibly his finest work.

Zelig is one of Allen's finest works- ranking up there with such greats as Sleeper, Love & Death, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Broadway Danny Rose, Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, Crimes & Misdeameanours, Husbands & Wives and Bullets Over Broadway. This film does need reissueing on VHS also!