Before FORREST GUMP told the story about its eponymous main character managing to find himself at the center of this country's main events we had this oddity of a mockumentary that only the uber-intellectual mind of Woody Allen could come up with. Appropriately narrated in that self-important newsreel voice-over that is the template of most documentaries, we are taken into the life of this 'human chameleon' called Leonard Zelig. Zelig has the ability to show up and blend into whomever he is around with at any given moment and pops up in the most interesting of places.
Soon he catches the interest of psychiatrist Dr. Eudora Fletcher who decides to undertake the task of 'curing' Zelig. She subjects him to a series of sessions to find out the meaning of his condition and thus further her own breakthroughs in psychology. At the same time we see comments from real-life celebrities as diverse as the day is long which pretend to explain his effect on events in general, his marriages, the man and the myth. Their presence lends an air of veracity and at times it's hard to believe one is watching an extremely clever mockumentary due to the footage utilized. Allen, in making ZELIG well before CGI, was able to painstakingly age film and process photos as to make it seem that Zelig in effect was "there" when things happened. Viewers at the same time will feel tempted to look for the dividing line between montage and real footage; one memorable scene is a rally led by Hitler (an actor playing Hitler, not the real man) which Zelig witnesses as a German Nazi. Dr. Eudora Fletcher follows him there and hilarity ensues as she points him out in the middle of Hitler's rousing dissertation. However, there is a greater irony as this event becomes a grossly fictionalized "film version". Allen is clearly toying with the viewer in saying that even when he is presenting "the facts" about this personage, events will be glamorized, and the line between fact and fiction will be blurred. Clever, indeed.
ZELIG falls short of being one of Woody Allen's great films for the reason it's a mockumentary; it barely has his presence and that of Mia Farrow as familiar faces and is a visual attack of archive footage and old jazz tunes. At the same time, one of his much shorter tales of self-existentialism in the threat of blending in, it does serve as something of an allegory that bears his indelible mark.
Soon he catches the interest of psychiatrist Dr. Eudora Fletcher who decides to undertake the task of 'curing' Zelig. She subjects him to a series of sessions to find out the meaning of his condition and thus further her own breakthroughs in psychology. At the same time we see comments from real-life celebrities as diverse as the day is long which pretend to explain his effect on events in general, his marriages, the man and the myth. Their presence lends an air of veracity and at times it's hard to believe one is watching an extremely clever mockumentary due to the footage utilized. Allen, in making ZELIG well before CGI, was able to painstakingly age film and process photos as to make it seem that Zelig in effect was "there" when things happened. Viewers at the same time will feel tempted to look for the dividing line between montage and real footage; one memorable scene is a rally led by Hitler (an actor playing Hitler, not the real man) which Zelig witnesses as a German Nazi. Dr. Eudora Fletcher follows him there and hilarity ensues as she points him out in the middle of Hitler's rousing dissertation. However, there is a greater irony as this event becomes a grossly fictionalized "film version". Allen is clearly toying with the viewer in saying that even when he is presenting "the facts" about this personage, events will be glamorized, and the line between fact and fiction will be blurred. Clever, indeed.
ZELIG falls short of being one of Woody Allen's great films for the reason it's a mockumentary; it barely has his presence and that of Mia Farrow as familiar faces and is a visual attack of archive footage and old jazz tunes. At the same time, one of his much shorter tales of self-existentialism in the threat of blending in, it does serve as something of an allegory that bears his indelible mark.